Elmhurst Fatal DUI Crash: Woman Had Drinking Problem, Cops Say

Elmhurst IL

01 September, 2021

11:28 AM

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ELMHURST, IL — The woman arrested in a fatal DUI crash last month in Elmhurst admitted to a drinking problem and said she could not see the pile of gravel that she crashed into, police said. Upon a Patch public records request, Elmhurst police on Wednesday released the full police report on the crash. It happened about 2 a.m. Aug 21 on Van Auken Street, just north of North End Avenue. Alibet Mendoza, 33, of Cicero, was arrested on a charge of aggravated DUI, among other offenses. Her fiancé, Andrew Lewis, also 33, died in the crash. According to the police report, Mendoza told officers she was driving from Villa Park to Cicero. She and Lewis had been working that night at separate events for Chic Chef Catering, police said. She told police her navigator took her to Van Auken Street. That is a residential neighborhood and would not seem to be a logical route from Villa Park to Cicero. Alibet Mendoza, 33, of Cicero, struck a gravel pile Aug. 21 on Van Auken Street in Elmhurst, just north of North End Avenue, police said. She was charged with aggravated DUI, among other charges. (David Giuliani/Patch) Mendoza also told officers that she did not know where she was and that she could not see the gravel pile, which she called a "ramp," the report said. She said she was not wearing the glasses she needed. The pile had orange barrels around it. Asked whether she had been drinking, Mendoza said she had a shot of whiskey about 10 p.m. while working, according to the report. She said she and Lewis had been attending a detoxification program at a Chicago hospital. Later the morning of the incident, she said she was shaky and that her stomach was bothering her, which she attributed to the fact that she hadn't had a drink in a while, police said. When her car crashed, she could not get out of her side, so she climbed over Lewis to get out, according to the report. When police arrived, they found Lewis unconscious. He was pronounced dead a couple of hours later. Tests showed that benzodiazepines, cocaine, marijuana and opiates were in Mendoza's system, police said. Her blood-alcohol level was .17, more than two times the legal limit, according to the report. In her field sobriety tests, Mendoza struggled to keep her balance, police said. She said she had bad balance because she had been reducing her alcohol consumption and taking Ativan for alcohol withdrawals, police said. She was still in the DuPage County Jail as of Wednesday afternoon. Her bond was set at $500,000. Besides aggravated DUI, Mendoza was charged with possession of a controlled substance, unlawful possession of marijuana by a driver, operating an uninsured vehicle and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident. The police report did not say where Lewis lived, but it stated his mother lives in Glynn County, Georgia, which is along the Atlantic Ocean.