St. Charles teen pleads not guilty in deadly crash
A St. Charles North High School graduate pleaded not guilty Friday to driving drunk and killing a motorcyclist in July.
Erika N. Scoliere, 18, of St. Charles, faces up to 14 years in prison if convicted of reckless homicide and aggravated DUI.
Prosecutors argue Scoliere, now a student at the University of Dayton, had a blood-alcohol concentration of more than .08 when she turned in front of 40-year-old Frank Ferraro on July 13 at the intersection of Randall and Silver Glen roads.
Ferraro, a finance executive for a health-care software company, was headed north on Randall on his 2005 Kawasaki motorcycle when he struck the side of Scoliere's 2003 Ford Escape, which was turning east onto Silver Glen.
The South Elgin man died a short time later. Toxicology tests showed his system did not contain any drugs or alcohol.
That wasn't the case with Scoliere's tests, authorities argue. She was charged in early September with reckless homicide after tests came back positive from a lab. Officials did not specify what Scoliere's exact BAC was.
She also faces a traffic charge of failure to yield to avoid an accident.
For Ferraro's relatives, who attended an emotional coroner's inquest in August, Friday was the first time they saw Scoliere.
"I'm Frank's mother," said Arlene Calcagno as she glared backward over a court pew at the teen and her parents.
Scoliere, who wore a black blazer with a ponytail over her left ear, is free on $10,000 bond pending her trial. She has been ordered not to drink.
Judge Allen Anderson also waived a requirement that she personally appear at her next court date Nov. 15, but warned future waivers might not be forthcoming. The judge also granted her permission to travel to Pittsburgh to see relatives over the Thanksgiving holiday.
Ferraro's sister, Denise, was angry that tests showed Scoliere's BAC was still over the legal threshold of .08 even though she was not tested until three hours after the crash.
"It's still really frustrating," Ferraro said. "The tension is too high. Everything is too raw."