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Crime & Safety

Multiple Charges After 99th Street Crash

Driver charged with driving under the influence was underage and claimed she had been served at Chicago Ridge bar, cops say.

An Oak Lawn woman was cited on multiple charges after the car she was driving plowed into a parked truck, reports said.

Carlena Williams, 19, whose last known address is the 4800 block of West 91st Street, was charged with underage drinking, DUI, obstructing ID and failure to reduce speed.

A passenger in another car, Jessica Gonzalez, 20, of Burbank, was also charged with underage drinking.

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Both women allegedly told police they had been drinking at Jack Desmonds Irish Pub in Chicago Ridge.

Around 3 a.m. July 7, Oak Lawn Police responded to a hit and run accident in the 5400 block of West 99th Street. When officers arrived, they observed heavy side damage on the truck and a woman, identified as Williams, walking away from the scene on 99th Street, reports said.

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Williams was bleeding from her right ear and right wrist, reports said. She appeared excited and repeatedly stuttered, “I’m not driving, I’m walking,” police said.

Officers requested the Oak Lawn Fire Department to check on the woman’s injuries. Police asked Williams where she was coming from and she stated Desmonds, according to the police report.

Police said Williams admitted a second time to driving from Desmonds in Chicago Ridge to 99th Street in Oak Lawn..

According to police, Williams’ breath smelled of alcohol and she had glassy eyes. She allegedly told police that her boyfriend drove a different car and she was trying to find him.

Reports said that Williams repeatedly changed her story and began denying driving from Desmonds. Williams told police she was 19; then changed her age to 21 after officers probed her about drinking at the tavern, police said.

According to the report, a neighbor was in her driveway in the 9800 block of South 55th Avenue when she heard a loud crash. She quickly walked toward the crash and saw a woman she identified as Williams, driving the car a short distance from the accident before emerging from the driver’s seat.

Police took the neighbor over to the ambulance where Williams was being treated, and positively identified her as the driver of the Mazda, police said.

The officer and Williams walked to the sidewalk, where police said she willingly submitted to field sobriety tests. Officers said that Williams’ performance indicated she was impaired. She refused to take a breath test, police said.

A second witness who said she was driving behind Williams in the Mazda, told police she saw Williams sideswipe the truck, reports said. Williams also kept pressing the gas pedal in an attempt to free her car from the truck, the witness alleged.

After a few minutes, Williams was able to break free from the truck and parked the Mazda down the street away from the accident, police said. She allegedly jumped out of the car, leaving the keys in the ignition.

Police spoke to a passenger in the second witness’s car, identified as Gonzalez, who confirmed that Williams was driving the car. Detecting an odor of alcohol on the passenger’s breath, Gonzalez allegedly admitted that she was 20 years old and had been drinking.

Gonzalez also informed cops that Williams had given them a fake name, reports said. She was taken into custody for underage drinking and brought to the Oak Lawn police station.

The owner of the Mazda arrived with her daughter who related the following: the daughter said she went to a party in Burbank with Williams and Gonzalez. They left the party and went to Desmonds.

While at the bar, the daughter put her car keys in Gonzalez’s purse. She departed Desmonds with another friend, leaving her Mazda in the parking lot.

Gonzalez confirmed her friend’s account of the evening, adding that she saw Williams allegedly drinking shots at Desmonds.

Williams wanted to go see her boyfriend, so she took her friend’s keys out of Gonzalez’s purse and drove the Mazda to Oak Lawn to look for her boyfriend, Gonzalez told police.

While in jail, Williams copped to buying “a ton of weed at 23rd and Troy” and smoking an eighth of marijuana in two hours, police said. She further stated that she smoked four times a day and stayed with her brother in Robbins, reports said.

“I love smoking f------ weed. I’m going to leave this stupid ass police department and smoke a blunt. Write that down. Are you writing that down,” Williams allegedly told police

While in lockup, police said that Williams refused to give a urine sample. She was charged and released on bond.

Williams had a court hearing scheduled for July 25.

In response to the allegation, Jack Desmonds' owner, Oak Lawn Dist. 1 Trustee Tim Desmond, said police have not contacted him about the incident. He added that the pub has not been cited for any liquor-related violations since it opened in 2000.

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