
Three officers were injured after officials say a suspect initially refused to pull over for a traffic stop and then resisted arrest and had to be tased multiple times in Zion.
Kenny R. Crump, 24, of Round Lake, was charged with two counts of resisting arrest causing injury, obstructing identification, driving on a suspended license, operating an uninsured motor vehicle, operating a motor vehicle with suspended registration and improper turn signal.
Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Mary Vukovich said an officer with the Zion Police Department was on patrol near 27th Street and Enoch Avenue around 1 a.m. on January 16.
The officer saw a Toyota Corolla that failed to use its signal and had suspended registration.
The driver of the vehicle, Crump, did not stop the vehicle when the officer first attempted to conduct the traffic stop, Vukovich said.
Vukovich said Crump continued to drive to an alley where he parked the car and jumped into the passenger seat and his girlfriend jumped into the driver’s seat.
Crump refused to provide his license and insurance and officers told him he was being arrested for obstructing identification, Vukovich said.
Vukovich said officers told him to put his hands behind his back and he refused and was taken to the ground where he was tased several times.
Three officers suffered injuries while trying to take Crump into custody.
One officer suffered a cut to his left knee, another suffered a swollen knee and cuts to his fingers, and a third officer suffered injuries to his left hand.
“The defendant has already shown he will blatantly disregard any court order as he continued to drive when he was not even allowed to do so, and after being cited twice for that,” Vukovich said, adding that Crump tried to obstruct the criminal justice process by switching seats with his girlfriend.
Attorney Danielle Michaels, who is representing Crump, said her client is not a bad person but ran into a situation that required him to make “certain decisions that may have not benefitted him.”
Lake County Judge Michael Nerheim granted a petition to revoke Crump’s pre-trial release in his prior driving cases.
“Considering the fact in the instant case, it appears according to the state’s proffer… efforts that the defendant took to evade the police and resist the police causing injury,” Nerheim said, adding that this was the third time since October that Crump has been charged with driving on a suspended license.
Crump remains held in the Lake County Jail and is scheduled to appear in court again on February 27 for a preliminary hearing.