Did Joliet Attorney Flee From Fender Bender?

JOLIET, IL — A Joliet attorney was accused of fleeing the scene of a fender bender Monday afternoon.

“She knew the law and she was a lawyer and didn't need to give me her insurance info or name,” Dawn Brunker said in a Facebook message.

Brunker, 41, snapped a photo of the other driver before she drove off. The photo appears to show Joliet attorney Elizabeth Johnson. When Brunker was shown a photo of Johnson from a July 2011 press release sent out by the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office, she said she believed Johnson was the other driver.

Johnson left the state's attorney's office in September 2011.

The driver of a Ford F-450 rear-ended a Chrysler Town & Country that was stopped at a stop sign, police said. The driver of the F-450 took off without providing the other driver — Brunker — any information, according to the cops, but Brunker took photos of her, her vehicle and license plate.

The license plate comes back to a landscaping company in Elk Grove Village, police said.

Johnson, 33, was the poster child for the state’s attorney’s special drug court when she was hired as a prosecutor after completing the program.

“Life was spinning out of control. And she knew a felony conviction would prevent her from attending law school and becoming a lawyer. It had been her dream career since she was a girl and she would dress up with an old briefcase while pretending to be in court,” the state’s attorney’s office said in a 2011 press release.

“In the ultimate validation for the program, State’s Attorney (James) Glasgow, the same prosecutor whose office filed the felony charge against her when she was a teenager, recently welcomed her back to his office, this time as a new assistant state’s attorney in his misdemeanor division,” the press release said.

Johnson left the state’s attorney’s office and went into private practice. She ran for Grundy County State’s Attorney but was defeated in the March primary.

Johnson is the attorney for 34-year-old Michael Haldorson, who faces federal drug and weapon charges. Haldorson was caught with cocaine, ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms and pipe bombs while on his way to a drug deal, a federal agent said, and he had a pistol stashed in a storage locker.

Johnson failed to return calls for comment.