Mokena DUI Driver Was 2 Times Over Limit When He Hit Several Trees, Trapped Passenger In Car: Court Docs

MOKENA, IL — A New Lenox man faces aggravated DUI charges after police said he crashed into several trees, leaving his passenger trapped inside the car, according to Will County court records.

Police were called at 11 p.m. Dec. 4 to a single-vehicle crash at Schoolhouse and Francis roads. According to police reports and court documents, a Honda Accord was traveling north when it left the road, avoiding several telephone poles before hitting a tree. The driver then continued on, according to Mokena police and court records, crashing into several more trees in the front yard of a house.

Joshua Clendenning, 30, of the 600 block of Juli Drive in New Lenox, suffered a head laceration and reportedly got out of the car, prosecutors said.

His female passenger was entrapped and had to be extricated from the car, court records show. She was taken to Silver Cross Hospital, where she was put on a ventilator. She is expected to make a full recovery, according to Mokena police and prosecutors.

Clendenning—whose BAC measured a .187—told officers he had lost control of the car, court documents allege. Police said he was also found with 10 alprazolam pills in his pocket.

Clendenning was charged with aggravated DUI/bodily harm and possession of a controlled substance. He was also cited for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, and driving without insurance.

Judge Bennet Braun on Saturday denied pretrial release, citing the dangerous condition of the SAFE-T Act. Under the act (specifically, the Pretrial Fairness Act component), a person is denied pretrial release because they're "dangerous" when a judge determines, by clear and convincing evidence, that the individual poses a "real and present threat to the safety of any person or the community" and that no amount of conditions can reasonably mitigate that threat.

Clendenning's next court date is set for Dec. 22.

Patch Editor John Ferak contributed to this report.