Rockdale women gets eight years for fatal DUI

June 28

JOLIET – Will County State’s Attorney James W. Glasgow announced that a Rockdale woman was sentenced to eight years in prison for drunken driving after she struck and killed a bicycle rider last year.

Cara G. Quiett, 32, pleaded guilty in April to aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol, a Class 2 felony that carries a penalty of three to 14 years in prison. Circuit Judge Daniel Rozak sentenced Quiett on Friday.

Quiett was driving on Midland Avenue in Rockdale on June 6, 2012 when she veered into James Farmer who was riding his bicycle home from work. Farmer was taken to the hospital, but he died from his injuries two weeks after the collision.

The defendant refused to perform field sobriety tests, and she initially resisted attempts by police and nurses to draw her blood by curling up into a ball on the floor at the hospital. Joliet Police and the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office secured a search warrant to draw her blood. Five hours after the collision, her blood-alcohol level was recorded at .148.

Quiett, who had a prior DUI conviction in 2006, took a vacation to Key West while Farmer was on life support at Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center in the last two weeks of his life, according to evidence presented at her sentencing hearing. She posted pictures from her Florida trip on Facebook.

State’s Attorney Glasgow credited Assistant State’s Attorney Chris Regis for securing a conviction and sentence that takes a dangerous drunken driver off our streets.