Facebook Photo Results In Revoked DUI Bail

Our DUI Lawyers found an interesting story this week about a women who was deemed to have violated her bail on a aggravated drunk driving charge. The twist? She was apparently busted by a photo posted on Facebook showing her drinking.

Full story follows below:

Facebook Pictures Result in Alcohol Monitor for College Student

Monitor Comes After Woman Violated Her Bail

(WGN-AM)- Having your picture posted on Facebook while partying with friends may not seem like a big deal to most college students. But for a Campton Hills woman charged in a DUI-related fatal accident, such pictures had serious consequences.

A Kane County judge ordered Erika Scoliere, 20, to be outfitted Thursday with an alcohol-monitoring ankle bracelet after police found photos of her consuming alcohol on the online social networking site.

The woman, who is awaiting trial, was charged with reckless homicide and aggravated DUI following a July 2007 collision in South Elgin that killed a motorcyclist.

As a condition of her bail, Scoliere had been ordered not to consume alcohol or be around people who are drinking, but South Elgin police found Facebook photos of Scoliere, who attends college in Ohio, drinking with friends.

“It appears the defendant is having a grand old time drinking tequila,” Judge Thomas Mueller said during Wednesday’s court hearing as he leafed through copies of the pictures.

“‘Erika passed out in my bed. Ha Ha,’” the judge said, quoting one of the captions.

Assistant State’s Atty. Steve Sims argued for the ankle monitor, noting that Scoliere had previously violated her bail.

In a 2008 hearing, it was revealed that she never contacted the county court services department for any of the weekly phone check-ins while away at school. Scoliere’s attorney had characterized the situation as a misunderstanding.

Her attorney, Stephen Komie, argued that the anklet would be open up Scoliere to public scorn.

“It imposes the red ‘A’ that (author Nathaniel) Hawthorne talked about in ‘The Scarlet Letter,’” Komie said.

But the judge, noting the previous violation, said, “she has now earned the privilege of wearing the SCRAM bracelet.”

After the hearing, Scoliere, accompanied by her parents, left the courtroom in tears.

SCRAM stands for Secure Continuous Alcohol Monitor. The device can detect alcohol via perspiration and will alert authorities. Scoliere will be charged $15 a day to wear the device, which has been in use in Kane County since 2007.

Mueller ordered Scoliere to be hooked up by the end of business Thursday. A spokesman for the state’s attorney’s office said she had made an appointment for Thursday afternoon to be outfitted, a process that takes about an hour.

The Law Offices of James E. Fabbrini have years of experience protecting people charged with DUI. From first time offenders to felony DUI, our Chicago DUI lawyershave successfully fought DUI charges in Chicago and the surrounding areas.

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