A mother was arrested after officials say she drove drunk with her two young children, one of whom was a toddler, and crashed into a tree, leaving all three of them injured near Wauconda.
Rachel Moctezuma, 31, of Wauconda, was charged with two counts of aggravated driving under the influence with a child passenger, two counts of aggravated driving under the influence with a child passenger resulting in a crash, driving under the influence of alcohol, two counts of child endangerment and transportation of alcohol by a driver.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office, Wauconda Fire District and Wauconda Police Department responded around 9:19 p.m. on April 2 to the 29200 block of North Virginia Lane in unincorporated Wauconda for a vehicle crash.
Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Elizabeth Cannon said deputies arrived to find a Honda CR-V approximately 30 feet off the roadway that had struck a tree, resulting in front-end damage to the car.
Paramedics were removing Moctezuma from the driver’s seat and her two children, a one-year-old and a four-year-old, were already in the ambulance when officers arrived.
Deputies saw child car seats in the Honda but they were not first at the scene and were unable to determine whether the children were buckled in the car seats at the time of the crash, Cannon said.
An open alcohol container of Four Loko was found in the passenger side area of the Honda.
Cannon said Moctezuma, who suffered a large laceration to her face, admitted to officers and deputies that she had been drinking alcohol and driving.
Moctezuma has a prior driving under the influence conviction in 2016 in Cook County.
The four-year-old child suffered abrasions to the right side of her face and the one-year-old suffered abrasions to the right side of her neck and upper right chest, Cannon said.
Moctezuma and both children received medical care from the Wauconda Fire District and were transported to Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington.
Deputies obtained a search warrant for Moctezuma’s blood and urine.
“This Defendant knowingly got behind the wheel of a vehicle and drove drunk with her four-year-old and one-year-old child as passengers,” Cannon said. “As a result, the Defendant as well as both of her children received injuries.”
“This Defendant is a risk of harm to the safety of herself, her children, and anyone else on the roadway, as evidenced by the facts in this case,” Cannon added.
The Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office filed a petition to detain Moctezuma pending trial and Lake County Judge Michael Nerheim granted the petition following a detention hearing.
The judge has since allowed for Moctezuma to be released from the Lake County Jail after her attorney sought her release and a subsequent motion hearing was held.
Nerheim placed Moctezuma on Level 4 pre-trial services monitoring and on a 24-hour curfew while ordering her to be placed on an alcohol monitoring device, undergo random drug and alcohol screenings, obtain a substance abuse evaluation and not to drive.
Moctezuma is scheduled to appear in court again on May 1 for a status of preliminary hearing.