Geneva man charged in fatal DUI crash in Aurora

A Geneva man has been accused of killing a man in a drunken driving crash Monday night in Aurora where the victim was pinned between vehicles, cutting off his legs.

Nicholas J. Roepke, 29, of the 0N200 block of Dooley Drive, is charged with aggravated DUI causing death and aggravated DUI causing great bodily harm, both felony charges.

He also faces two misdemeanor DUI charges.

The crash happened around 7:40 p.m. at Bilter and Eola roads on the northeast side of Aurora.

The victim, 73-year-old Willie Mosley of Maywood, and another man were in a pickup truck driving north on Eola. The truck had a refrigerator and a stove in its bed when the refrigerator fell out, DuPage County Assistant State's Attorney Denis Cahill said at a bond hearing Thursday morning.

Mosley and the other man got out to pick up the refrigerator. A passerby also stopped to help them.

Roepke struck Mosley and the passerby. Mosley was pronounced dead at Aurora Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove. Cahill said the passerby sustained severe circulation problems in one of his legs and was flown to Rush University Medical Center in Chicago for treatment.

Cahill said Roepke had been drinking vodka while at work as operations director at a graphics firm in Aurora, and police found an empty vodka bottle in a trash bin at his office. His blood-alcohol level was .214 when tested with a portable breath tester shortly after the crash, Cahill said. In Illinois, the legal threshold for intoxication is .08.

Roepke was convicted of DUI in 2015 in Winona, Minnesota.

Cahill requested bail be set at $2 million, but Judge Michael Reidy agreed with Roepke's attorney, Kevin Halverson, and set it at $500,000. Roepke will need to post $50,000 to be freed pretrial.

He will also have to wear an alcohol-measuring monitor, and Reidy ordered him not to drive.

If convicted of the most serious charge, Roepke could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.