Villa Park trustee involved in road rage incident

An admonishment from a passing car sparked a road rage incident between two Lombard siblings and a Villa Park trustee.

First-term trustee Jeff Blankensop was waiting to turn into Willowbrook High School in Villa Park at about 5 p.m. Thursday when a car driven by 20-year-old Heather Alexander of Lombard pulled up next to him, according to a Villa Park police report. Blankensop was smoking a cigar in his car when 18-year-old Joseph Alexander leaned out of his sister's car and shouted at Blankensop.

Blankensop told police he thought the man had shouted an obscenity at him. Joseph Alexander told police he yelled, "smoking kills."

Heather Alexander then turned onto Riordan Road and Blankensop followed.

"I felt violated, basically," Blankensop said by phone Friday morning. "I normally don't get involved in that sort of stuff. I felt they needed to be apprehended by police because something was going on, and their behavior was erratic."

But Heather Alexander told police it was Blankensop who acted erratically by chasing after them for three and a half blocks to their grandparents' house. She told police that Blankensop came close to hitting her car several times, including one time when he tried to pass her on the left.

Blankensop said he obeyed all traffic laws while following the siblings.

"She is the one who participated in reckless driving," he said. "I made one attempt to go around her on the left side and traffic was clear so I could do that. I have a very expensive car and there's no logical explanation why I would come close to messing with my car."

Blankensop called police from his cell phone while pursuing the car and informed them they had stopped at a house on the 400 block of Riordan Road.

The siblings told police that after they ran inside their grandparents' house Blankensop proceeded to yell at them from outside and "grabbed his crotch in an insulting manner."

Blankensop doesn't recall doing any such thing. "If I did, maybe it was a nervous reaction," he said.

Blankensop said he came under attack from the siblings' mother and grandmother as police arrived.

"It is wrong for parents to immediately assume their kids are always right," Blankensop said. "I'm sure it wasn't mentioned that they screamed a potential obscenity at that driver."

The police report stated that Joseph Alexander apologized for shouting at Blankensop and the village trustee apologized for following the siblings. Neither side wanted to file a formal complaint, according to the police report.

"I'd definitely call police again," Blankensop said. "I would think twice about following someone, but I follow people many times. If I see people who are driving drunk or appear to be driving drunk I call police. I think that's what citizens should do."