Guilty verdict in car dragging case

A Kane County judge Monday convicted a 68-year-old former South Barrington man of using his car to drag a man about 40 feet last June after an altercation over a motorcycle.

Edwin M. Nyden, who now lives in Florida, was convicted by Judge Karen Simpson of felony aggravated battery with a deadly weapon after a one-day bench trial.

Nyden was accused of dragging a man through a parking lot when the man tried to get insurance information from Nyden after he backed up and knocked over a 2006 Harley-Davidson Road Glide motorcycle outside a Carpentersville bar.

The man’s arm got hooked in the driver’s side window opening as Nyden drove away.

The man eventually broke free and fell to the pavement; Nyden was arrested later that day.

The victim had minor injuries to his left arm, but that doesn’t lessen the severity of the offense, argued Assistant State’s Attorney Scott Schwertley.

“The defendant actively uses the car to strike (the victim),” he said. “It’s an inanimate object and a large inanimate object until the defendant puts it in motion.”

Nyden’s defense attorney, Scott Sheen, said Nyden was fearful of being attacked by a mob of bikers and acted out of self-defense after a man reached into Nyden’s 1999 Honda Accord and grabbed him around the neck.

“Why do you think (the victim) was caught in an awkward situation he was? That’s because he was inside the vehicle,” Sheen said. “My client was getting away because he was forced to.”

Simpson took about 45 minutes before returning with her decision, saying testimony from the victim and a bartender was more credible than Nyden’s.

She questioned why Nyden told police he was not drinking at the time of the altercation but an officer later could smell alcohol on his breath. Simpson also noted Nyden at first denied hitting the motorcycle.

“(Nyden) never told the police he had been grabbed, never told the police he’d been choked,” Simpson said.

Nyden is free on bond until a sentencing hearing on June 22.

He could face up to five years in prison, but probation also is an option.