A driver was arrested after prosecutors say he led police on a brief high-speed chase before totaling a vehicle in a crash in Fox Lake and then fleeing on foot.
A Fox Lake police officer was on patrol around 11 p.m. on April 16 approaching the intersection of Route 59 and Devlin Road, according to Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Emily Shanley-Roberts.
The officer saw a car go through the red light and the officer activated his emergency lights to conduct a traffic stop.
Shanley-Roberts said the officer reached speeds of 80 mph while pursuing the vehicle but the suspect vehicle continued to pull away, driving far in excess of the 45 mph speed limit.
The officer eventually terminated the pursuit and followed the path of where he saw the vehicle fleeing.
He located the vehicle crashed in a residential neighborhood.
Shanley-Roberts said the vehicle was totaled and the officer found the driver’s license and other items belonging to Joshua A. Polk, 34, of Fox Lake, inside the car.
The car was less than half a mile from Polk’s home and officers went to the residence.
They made contact with Polk’s mother, who said her son had just run inside screaming, Shanley-Roberts said.
Officers located Polk and arrested him due to his multiple outstanding warrants from Cook County.
Polk told officers he was not in the car and that he was at a friend’s house. He said someone else had his car and he caught a ride home.
Shanley-Roberts said Polk did not provide further details about where he had been or who gave him a ride. He also had a white powdery substance in his right nostril.
Witnesses saw a subject running through yards wearing clothes that matched the description of Polk’s clothes.
The distance between the crash scene at Willow Road and Frontage Road and Polk’s home is less than half a mile.
Polk was charged with aggravated fleeing to elude, aggravated fleeing causing property damage, reckless driving, leaving the scene of a crash and driving while license revoked.
The Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office filed a petition to detain Polk pending trial but then withdrew the petition and sought for Polk’s release.
Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Dino Katris said his office was not prepared to go forward with arguing for Polk’s detainment due to the circumstances in the case.
The charges against Polk are non-detainable under the Illinois SAFE-T Act but Katris said prosecutors had planned to argue the charges were detainable under a “catch-all” provision of the cashless bail law.
Lake County Judge Michael Nerheim told Polk he was “incredibly lucky” that prosecutors had withdrawn their petition to detain him.
The judge placed Polk on pre-trial services monitoring and a curfew, along with other pre-trial conditions, including no driving.
Polk is scheduled to appear in court again on May 12 for a status of preliminary hearing.