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A former Will County Board member has pleaded guilty to driving under the influence in a crash that involved four vehicles in Plainfield.
On Oct. 14, Judge Brian Barrett sentenced Ragan Freitag Pattison, 41, of Homer Glen to a year of court supervision after she agreed to plead guilty to the misdemeanor DUI offense. Prosecutors dropped another charge of failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident.
According to Barrett’s court order, if Pattison successfully completes her court supervision, then the DUI charge against her will be dismissed “without an adjudication of guilt and shall not be termed a conviction.”
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Pattison was a Wilmington Republican who was first elected to the Will County Board in 2012 and was re-elected in 2016. She then became the board’s chief of staff in 2017 before she was replaced by former prosecutor Moira Dunn in 2018.
Pattison was arrested July 9 after officers and paramedics responded to a four-vehicle crash at the intersection of Route 30 and Renwick Road.
Plainfield police Cmdr. Anthony Novak said Pattison’s Jeep Grand Cherokee rear-ended a Kia Forte, causing a chain reaction of vehicles rear-ending the vehicle in front of them. A witness said the light was red when Pattison struck the Kia Forte, Novak said.
Everyone involved in the crash signed refusals for medical treatment, Novak said.
When officers arrived at the scene of the crash, Pattison told them the light at the intersection was green, according to police squad video obtained by the Herald-News in a Freedom of Information Act request.
“I’ll be honest, I’m a defense attorney, and I’m like a little perturbed,” Pattison said. “These people just stopped out of nowhere and like, literally, just like stopped out of nowhere and scared the heck out of me.”
Pattison was asked to stand in front of a squad vehicle by Plainfield Police Officer Cody Columbus.
Columbus said he wanted to talk to her but she said declined, saying, “We’re not going to do this.”
“Not going to do what?” Columbus asked.
“Oh no, no, no. The nystagmus test is not going to happen with your lights and with all those lights going on,” Pattison said, referring to an eye exam conducted by officers as part of a field sobriety test.
Columbus asked Pattison if she had anything to drink, since he saw her “stumbling a little bit” by her vehicle. Pattison repeatedly denied she had anything to drink but declined to take a field sobriety test or a preliminary breath test.
Pattison told him she stopped the accident, but Columbus said she caused it.
“Did I cause that accident?” Pattison asked.
“Yes, you did,” Columbus said.
Pattison asked, “Did I?” two more times, and both times Columbus told her she did.
Columbus arrested her when she continued to refuse to take a field sobriety test.
According to Columbus’ police report, when Pattison was at the Plainfield Police Department for booking, she told Plainfield Police Officer Cassie Weyenberg that she “had too much to drink tonight and she made a mistake.”
In another police report, Columbus said he learned from another officer that on the night of Pattison’s arrest, the officer’s family member had been dining with Pattison and a group of friends at La Dolce Vita, 16108 Illinois Route 59, in Plainfield.
The officer said his family member claimed Pattison had been drinking alcoholic beverages before leaving the restaurant and the group did not want her to drive home but she left without their knowledge, according to the police report.