The Naperville Sun: ‘Road rage’ driver ineligible for MICAP
January 12, 2010
By BILL BIRD wbird@scn1.com
A Naperville woman accused of deliberately running down a 17-year-old bicyclist with her car last summer in the city’s downtown has been deemed ineligible for a treatment program for the mentally ill.
Mary A. Rehm, 67, applied in November for enrollment in DuPage County’s Mental Illness Court Alternative Program. She did so after being charged with four felony counts of aggravated battery after the July 27 crash in which a Lisle youth narrowly escaped injury and his $3,000 sport bike was ruined.
A DuPage County Web site indicated MICAP is a pretrial, court-supervised program for accused criminals who have mental illnesses. Participants are freed on bond and placed under court supervision for up to three years.
The program, established in 2004, is designed for those “committed to accepting medication and other mental health services as an alternative to punishment” meted by the courts, according to the Web site. Those who successfully complete the program “will have charges reduced or dismissed at the end of the MICAP period,” the site indicated.
Rehm’s MICAP application on Friday was “rejected by the court,” according to records on file in DuPage County Circuit Court in Wheaton. Her case has been continued to Jan. 19 before Judge Kathryn E. Creswell.
The crash occurred near the intersection of Jefferson Avenue and Washington Street. Bicyclist Jereme Peterson told police he and a fellow cyclist were riding north on Washington Street and trying to turn west onto Jefferson Avenue when Rehm rammed his Sputnik BMX bike from behind.
Peterson told The Naperville Sun that afternoon Rehm first honked her horn at him and then “intentionally floored” her accelerator pedal. “I jumped off the bike and she hit it,” Peterson said at the time.
Rehm, meanwhile, continued driving north on Washington Street, “dragging Jereme’s bicycle along the way,” police said last summer. Information from witnesses led police to Rehm’s home at 519 E. Bauer Road, in the Maple Terrace neighborhood, where they found her car and what remained of the bicycle.
Rehm remains free on $10,000 bail.
