RBP
12-02-2016, 03:28 PM
Warning: graphic content. Leslie Thurow, of Mount Prospect, struck Illinois State Trooper Michael Cokins on Sept. 6, 2014. Cokins, who was conducting a traffic stop along I-294 near Elmhurst when he was hit, suffered 15 broken bones and had eight surgeries.
http://i.imgur.com/NV15WXo.mp4
Sixteen broken bones, eight surgeries and two years after a chronic drunken driver struck and nearly killed Illinois State Trooper Michael Cokins, he sat in a Cook County courtroom trying to distill the experience.
"As I get older, I will have to live with what you did to me for the rest of my life," Cokins told Leslie Thurow, 61, of Mount Prospect, at her sentencing. Minutes later, a judge imposed a prison term of 13 years.
"One thing I do not want to live with is knowing you got off easy, again," said Cokins, 30. "So I will bear the burden to make sure you never hurt another person again."
Two days before Thurow hit Cokins on Sept. 6, 2014, while he spoke with a motorist on the shoulder of Interstate 294 near Northlake, Judge Geary Kull had released her on probation and ordered her to stay off the road. At the time, Thurow had spent three months in jail and received treatment for her third drunken driving crash in nine months.
On Thursday, Kull presided over her sentencing. For nearly 10 minutes, he explained why he had released Thurow two years earlier.
"A small percentage" of people who receive treatment for their addictions return to court, Kull said, adding that professionals managing Thurow's treatment said "she was wonderful" and was helping others undergoing treatment.
A judge encounters thousands of decisions similar to the one Thurow presented in September 2014, Kull said, and he or she tries to balance consequences with prospects for rehabilitation.
"You have no way of really knowing who that person is," Kull added. "So, you take that risk. I regret it now."
Thurow, who pleaded guilty weeks ago to aggravated DUI and leaving the scene of an accident with injuries, wept through much of the hourlong hearing Thursday in Cook County's Maywood branch court. The prosecutor played dashcam video of Thurow striking Cokins while a courtroom overflowing with about 70 uniformed state troopers watched.
Guidelines requiring defendants to serve a specific percentage of their sentences likely will result in Thurow spending nine years in prison.
"I just want to say that I'm truly sorry," a crying Thurow said Thursday. "I know that doesn't justify what I've done."
She added that she suffers from addiction and received treatment, but "didn't do everything I should have done to help myself. I pray for you every day."
Cokins had been with the Illinois State Police for four months — and on solo patrol less than one month — when Thurow struck him at 2:45 p.m. on that Saturday in September.
After her Honda SUV hit the trooper, Thurow continued north on I-294, hitting a retaining wall. Two miles along the interstate, she struck an SUV with seven occupants, including a 3-year-old boy. The SUV flipped, but none of the injuries to those inside was critical.
Then Thurow's vehicle struck a median, spun 180 degrees and came to rest facing south. An exam later revealed she had a blood alcohol content more than twice the legal definition of intoxication. Cokins was in critical condition, and it was unclear whether he'd survive.
Raised in west suburban Riverside, Cokins said he had been attracted to law enforcement work, and its service to others, from childhood. He graduated from University of Illinois at Chicago, where he played club hockey and worked as a paralegal, among other jobs.
He took exams to enter the Chicago Police Department, Los Angeles Police Department and the Illinois State Police, where he entered the academy in November 2013.
"I was literally in love with what I was doing, and my chosen profession," Cokins said in court. "I was finally able to reap the reward from all the hard work I had put into myself for the previous 10 years ... and in one split second it was stolen from me."
Thurow "always had an addiction issue," her daughter, Tess Thomison, said Wednesday, the day before the hearing. Raised in Park Ridge and married four times, Thurow worked as an oral surgical assistant, manager of a Czech cultural center in Brookfield and police dispatcher in Stickney, Thomison said.
Her addiction to alcohol and drugs prevented her from holding jobs, Thomison said of her mother.
"I'm not going to sit here and say I feel sorry for her or that she's misunderstood," she added, "because that's not the truth. She did what she did, and now she's got to pay for it."
Thomison said the two years since Thurow's been in jail "is really the only time I've had a relationship with my mom, because jail is keeping her sober." They talk on the phone about once a week, Thomison said. She's convinced Thurow would resume abusing alcohol if she were released now.
But Thomison added that she hopes her mother "can be the person she says she can be" when she is released from prison.
"I feel sorry for that officer," Thomison said. "I really do. I'm embarrassed to show up in court."
Cokins was the fourth Illinois state trooper severely injured or killed in traffic crashes on interstates within two years. In November 2012, a semi struck and killed trooper Kyle Deatherage during a traffic stop along I-55 near Litchfield. That was followed in March 2013 by the death of Trooper James Sauter when a semitrailer rammed the back of Sauter's cruiser on the shoulder of I-294 near Northbrook.
In January 2014, Trooper Douglas Balder was burned extensively and suffered other serious injuries when a trucker struck his cruiser and a tollway emergency vehicle on I-88 near Aurora. Killed in the crash was tollway worker Vincent Petrella, 39, of Wheeling.
Eleven officers across the U.S. were struck and killed outside their vehicles last year, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund reported. That number was one above the total in 2014, the organization reported.
In the 14 months after being struck, Cokins underwent surgeries and excruciating physical therapy. He used a wheelchair for three months, then crutches for five more months.
The estimated 55 screws and nine metal plates throughout his body to help mend his bones remain there. After several setbacks, Cokins returned to work in December 2015, assigned to the less-strenuous investigations division.
He resumed patrolling June 1 and said his first stop was milepost 32.5 on I-294, the spot where he was nearly killed.
"I had a little conversation, thanked whoever it is who got me here," Cokins said. "I made peace with it and went about my business."
He passes that spot every day as part of the job. Each time, Cokins said, he has a conversation with his parents — both of whom are deceased. He thanks them and asks them to watch over him.
Cokins cannot play hockey or softball yet but said he has learned to live with the body he has been given. He said he is eternally grateful to the strangers who immediately stopped to aid him after he was struck, and feels fortunate to be able to return to work he loves.
He stays focused on the job, he said, to honor those in his profession who were not so fortunate.
http://i.imgur.com/NV15WXo.mp4
Sixteen broken bones, eight surgeries and two years after a chronic drunken driver struck and nearly killed Illinois State Trooper Michael Cokins, he sat in a Cook County courtroom trying to distill the experience.
"As I get older, I will have to live with what you did to me for the rest of my life," Cokins told Leslie Thurow, 61, of Mount Prospect, at her sentencing. Minutes later, a judge imposed a prison term of 13 years.
"One thing I do not want to live with is knowing you got off easy, again," said Cokins, 30. "So I will bear the burden to make sure you never hurt another person again."
Two days before Thurow hit Cokins on Sept. 6, 2014, while he spoke with a motorist on the shoulder of Interstate 294 near Northlake, Judge Geary Kull had released her on probation and ordered her to stay off the road. At the time, Thurow had spent three months in jail and received treatment for her third drunken driving crash in nine months.
On Thursday, Kull presided over her sentencing. For nearly 10 minutes, he explained why he had released Thurow two years earlier.
"A small percentage" of people who receive treatment for their addictions return to court, Kull said, adding that professionals managing Thurow's treatment said "she was wonderful" and was helping others undergoing treatment.
A judge encounters thousands of decisions similar to the one Thurow presented in September 2014, Kull said, and he or she tries to balance consequences with prospects for rehabilitation.
"You have no way of really knowing who that person is," Kull added. "So, you take that risk. I regret it now."
Thurow, who pleaded guilty weeks ago to aggravated DUI and leaving the scene of an accident with injuries, wept through much of the hourlong hearing Thursday in Cook County's Maywood branch court. The prosecutor played dashcam video of Thurow striking Cokins while a courtroom overflowing with about 70 uniformed state troopers watched.
Guidelines requiring defendants to serve a specific percentage of their sentences likely will result in Thurow spending nine years in prison.
"I just want to say that I'm truly sorry," a crying Thurow said Thursday. "I know that doesn't justify what I've done."
She added that she suffers from addiction and received treatment, but "didn't do everything I should have done to help myself. I pray for you every day."
Cokins had been with the Illinois State Police for four months — and on solo patrol less than one month — when Thurow struck him at 2:45 p.m. on that Saturday in September.
After her Honda SUV hit the trooper, Thurow continued north on I-294, hitting a retaining wall. Two miles along the interstate, she struck an SUV with seven occupants, including a 3-year-old boy. The SUV flipped, but none of the injuries to those inside was critical.
Then Thurow's vehicle struck a median, spun 180 degrees and came to rest facing south. An exam later revealed she had a blood alcohol content more than twice the legal definition of intoxication. Cokins was in critical condition, and it was unclear whether he'd survive.
Raised in west suburban Riverside, Cokins said he had been attracted to law enforcement work, and its service to others, from childhood. He graduated from University of Illinois at Chicago, where he played club hockey and worked as a paralegal, among other jobs.
He took exams to enter the Chicago Police Department, Los Angeles Police Department and the Illinois State Police, where he entered the academy in November 2013.
"I was literally in love with what I was doing, and my chosen profession," Cokins said in court. "I was finally able to reap the reward from all the hard work I had put into myself for the previous 10 years ... and in one split second it was stolen from me."
Thurow "always had an addiction issue," her daughter, Tess Thomison, said Wednesday, the day before the hearing. Raised in Park Ridge and married four times, Thurow worked as an oral surgical assistant, manager of a Czech cultural center in Brookfield and police dispatcher in Stickney, Thomison said.
Her addiction to alcohol and drugs prevented her from holding jobs, Thomison said of her mother.
"I'm not going to sit here and say I feel sorry for her or that she's misunderstood," she added, "because that's not the truth. She did what she did, and now she's got to pay for it."
Thomison said the two years since Thurow's been in jail "is really the only time I've had a relationship with my mom, because jail is keeping her sober." They talk on the phone about once a week, Thomison said. She's convinced Thurow would resume abusing alcohol if she were released now.
But Thomison added that she hopes her mother "can be the person she says she can be" when she is released from prison.
"I feel sorry for that officer," Thomison said. "I really do. I'm embarrassed to show up in court."
Cokins was the fourth Illinois state trooper severely injured or killed in traffic crashes on interstates within two years. In November 2012, a semi struck and killed trooper Kyle Deatherage during a traffic stop along I-55 near Litchfield. That was followed in March 2013 by the death of Trooper James Sauter when a semitrailer rammed the back of Sauter's cruiser on the shoulder of I-294 near Northbrook.
In January 2014, Trooper Douglas Balder was burned extensively and suffered other serious injuries when a trucker struck his cruiser and a tollway emergency vehicle on I-88 near Aurora. Killed in the crash was tollway worker Vincent Petrella, 39, of Wheeling.
Eleven officers across the U.S. were struck and killed outside their vehicles last year, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund reported. That number was one above the total in 2014, the organization reported.
In the 14 months after being struck, Cokins underwent surgeries and excruciating physical therapy. He used a wheelchair for three months, then crutches for five more months.
The estimated 55 screws and nine metal plates throughout his body to help mend his bones remain there. After several setbacks, Cokins returned to work in December 2015, assigned to the less-strenuous investigations division.
He resumed patrolling June 1 and said his first stop was milepost 32.5 on I-294, the spot where he was nearly killed.
"I had a little conversation, thanked whoever it is who got me here," Cokins said. "I made peace with it and went about my business."
He passes that spot every day as part of the job. Each time, Cokins said, he has a conversation with his parents — both of whom are deceased. He thanks them and asks them to watch over him.
Cokins cannot play hockey or softball yet but said he has learned to live with the body he has been given. He said he is eternally grateful to the strangers who immediately stopped to aid him after he was struck, and feels fortunate to be able to return to work he loves.
He stays focused on the job, he said, to honor those in his profession who were not so fortunate.