Ottawa -- A LaSalle County judge doesn’t have to hold a new hearing into who’s allowed to collect urine samples for evidence, after all. Fifty-five year old Delores Henry of Peru pled guilty Thursday to aggravated driving under the influence.
Henry admits to being high on marijuana when she hit a construction zone flagger on the highway under the Interstate 39 bridge north of Oglesby in April 2008. The flagger spent a week in a Peoria hospital.
Henry could be sent to prison for up to 12 years. Judge H. Chris Ryan is to sentence her September 16th.
The judge threw out some of the evidence against Henry last year. A phlebotomist took a urine sample from Henry at Illinois Valley Community Hospital after she was arrested. Ryan found that a state regulation doesn't specifically authorize phlebotomists to do that for evidence in criminal cases.
The Third District Appellate Court told Ryan several months later to reconsider his ruling using a less strict interpretation of the regulation. That hearing would have happened Thursday afternoon.
E-Mail
Print
