Hoffman Estates man owns hit-and-run car

A Hoffman Estates man who owns the Porsche police say was involved in a fatal hit-and-run in Florida has been jailed in Cook County on an unrelated case.

Ryan M. LeVin, 34, has not been charged or named a suspect in the Feb. 13 hit-and-run, Fort Lauderdale police Sgt. Frank Sousa said Tuesday.

LeVin's Schaumburg-based attorney, Michael Norris, said police in Florida want him to provide a DNA sample. But that will be difficult, considering he's in Cook County jail.

Monday, Cook County Circuit Court Judge William O'Brien ordered LeVin held without bond after learning he'd been kicked out of a Florida drug treatment program, a Cook County state's attorney's office spokesman said.

LeVin had been given 30 months probation for a July 2006 case in which he hit a police officer with his car and started a chase on the Kennedy Expressway that injured three others.

O'Brien had allowed LeVin to complete his drug treatment in Florida, where his parents live at least part of the year, Norris said.

LeVin's family founded the Schaumburg-based company Jewels by Park Lane.

In a written statement, the company expressed its deepest sympathies for the victims' families and said, "Ryan LeVin has not been involved in the management or operation of our company and is not currently employed by our company."

The investigation into the fatal hit-and-run crash involving LeVin's Porsche could take up to a year, police said.

The two Brits - Craig Lewis Elford, 39, and Kenneth Watkinson, 48 - were reportedly struck at 2:25 a.m. when one of two white sports cars traveling at a high rate of speed lost control and veered onto the sidewalk on which the men were walking.

Both vehicles fled the scene without stopping, and police later located an abandoned Porsche on an expressway ramp. Damage to the Porsche was consistent with what the vehicle involved in the hit-and-run would have sustained, police said.

LeVin is due back at the Skokie courthouse Thursday to determine if he's eligible for the Cook County jail's drug treatment program.

His attorney said LeVin has completed 56 hours in the Florida program. Norris said a drug counselor told LeVin to stop using Xanax, which he takes for anxiety attacks.

"Ryan's doctor up here was going to give him a note saying he shouldn't be off it," Norris said. "But he missed the time limit and they terminated him for it."

Fort Lauderdale attorney Keith B. Seltzer, who also represents LeVin, did not return phone calls seeking comment.