Evidence in fatal Kane Co. crash destroyed, official says

The blood test prosecutors hoped would prove Erika Scoliere was drunk when she struck a motorcyclist in 2007 is not just missing - it was most likely destroyed, South Elgin police testified Tuesday.

Scoliere, 20, of St. Charles, is asking Judge Thomas Mueller to exclude results from tests run by a state police laboratory on blood taken from her after the July 2007 crash that killed Frank Ferraro, 40, of South Elgin. She is charged with aggravated driving under the influence and reckless homicide for the crash at Randall and Silver Glen roads.

Officer John Rothecker, one of several property room custodians, testified that normally, the lab does not send DUI blood samples back to the police, but does send back a carbon copy of a form included in the DUI evidence kit.

In June of 2008, the evidence problem came up when a prosecutor asked police if the results had arrived and the evidence returned. A postal receipt proved a clerk at village hall, which shares a building with the police, had signed for a package from the lab in March 2008.

Rothecker testified that sometime before June 2008, he and another officer were disposing of evidence from cases that had been adjudicated. He recalled coming across blood samples, and recognizing that at least one was for a DUI case he had been involved with in 2005. Since that case was over, he assumed the others were also. He said "it was probably me" who disposed of the blood in a biohazard container at the South Elgin Fire Department.

The defense was not able to independently test the blood due to the snafu.

The suppression hearing will continue at 11 a.m. June 25, as the defense has one more witness to question.

Meanwhile, the judge ordered Scoliere to start wearing an alcohol-monitoring anklet, because she violated terms of her bond agreement by drinking and hanging out with others who were drinking. South Elgin police found photographs of her doing so on the social networking Web site Facebook.

The anklet measures alcohol dispersed through perspiration and sends data electronically to court officials. If she does drink, her bond could be revoked.

Defense attorney Stephen Komie argued that there was no need for it, as Scoliere has shown up for all court appearances and has passed required drug tests.

Komie called the anklet a "scarlet A ... something that a woman wears on her ankle in 90-degree weather is a badge or incident of conviction."

Mueller said raising the bond amount wouldn't do much good. "Obviously this family has plenty of resources," he said. "She has now earned the privilege of wearing the SCRAM bracelet."

During the first year after her arrest, Scoliere failed to check in monthly with the court services office, as required. She said she misunderstood the instructions. She had to post more money and undergo more stringent testing, but was allowed to attend a private university in Ohio and to take vacations around the country with her family.