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2 Charged With DUIs After Car Accident

A third person was charged with obstructing a police officer.

 

A New Lenox man and a Mokena man were each charged with driving under the influence early Saturday morning after their cars collided in New Lenox.

Police said Chase Gunderson, 23, of New Lenox, was speeding and blew through a stop sign going west on Woodlawn Road. His car collided with another vehicle driven by David Pollis, 48, of Mokena, who was headed north on Wisconsin Road.

A third man, Brian Wilhelm, 28, of New Lenox, arrived on the scene of the accident and was charged with obstructing a police officer. Wilhelm was not a passenger in either vehicle, and police said they don't know why he was at the accident.

"He was there when police arrived," Deputy Chief Bob Pawlisz said. "An officer was trying to locate and identify one of the drivers and (Wilhelm) started yelling and grabbed the officer."

According to police reports, Wilhelm "appeared to be intoxicated." Wilhelm lives on the 800 block of Wisconsin Road, but Pawlisz couldn't say whether he came out of his home to see the accident.

In addition to the DUI charge, Gunderson also was charged with speeding, ignoring a stop sign and not wearing a seat belt. Pollis was charged with DUI and Wilhelm was charged with obstructing a police officer. 

Related Topics: New Lenox Police Department

Joe Snuffey

12:55 pm on Tuesday, December 14, 2010

From my understanding, the guy who they didn't know why he was at the scene was bandaging up the injured people and trying to explain what happened to the officer. After that, the officer became verbally and physically abusive with the man and attacked him and tasered him. After that, they beat him while he was on the ground. Pretty sad to see the police attack a severely disabled veteran.

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Dennis Robaugh

8:25 pm on Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Patch is going to ask the cops about this and follow up. And we're going to try to talk to Brian Wilhelm, too. Thanks for the comment.

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Michael Sewall

11:48 am on Monday, January 3, 2011

Hey readers,

In case you didn't see our followup story with Brian Wilhelm, check it out here: http://patch.com/A-cT8y

NLCitizen

4:47 pm on Tuesday, December 14, 2010

From what I know about Brian, he is the guy who is always there when needed. Not a surprise that he was bandaging the wounded. I know him, and he received the Purple Heart for his injuries in the war, and he also received the Bronze Star Medal for keeping his guys alive after he got shot. It concerns me that the people that are supposed to help the community instead choose to bully a guy like this.

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N Yan

9:04 am on Monday, January 3, 2011

Personally, I feel that NL cops have some crazy and beyond acceptable power trips.... and I lived in the city of Chicago for 13 years! It needs to stop.

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Navy girl

9:47 pm on Monday, August 13, 2012

No, the "disabled" able-bodied Veteran was helping to cover for his drunk driving buddies. No hero here, just an obstructor of justice. In the video, it shows him charging towards the cop. Inserting himself somewhere he didn't belong. He was bandaging anyone, he was blocking the officer. He doesn't look disabled, has a prosthesis. Athletes competed in the Olympics with prosthetics very well, in case you don't know how well they function. He towered over the cop and was the agressor. He got tasered by the other cop and was handled appropriately, no excessive force, he was put down and cuffed. He saw an opportunity to cash in by suing. He already gets Benefits up the wazoo for being injured, guess he went for the golden egg and fabricated a sob story. Many of us Vets are disabled, but not all of us are dysfunctional troublemakers, preventing the police officers from making the scene safe. You pity the wrong side. New Lenox cops are awesome especially Mark Klausner, who is a Navy Veteran himself!! Go Navy.

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