Unusual plea offer for cop in DUI case
Crash victim wants him to work with brain- injury patients
Courtney Cusentino’s life changed forever one night in the summer of 2015, when an alleged drunk driver plowed into her as she walked from a bus stop to her home on the Northwest Side.
In the years since, she’s lived through an induced coma and spent hundreds of hours in physical therapy, trying to recover from paralysis caused by traumatic brain injuries.
She’s not expecting a huge insurance settlement, and she doesn’t want the alleged driver — an off- duty Chicago cop named Erin Mowry — to go to jail.
She just wants Mowry to understand the daily struggle that, for her, began when Mowry’s Mercedes sent her airborne.
On Thursday, Cook County prosecutors presented an unusual plea deal to Judge Timothy Joyce: Mowry would plead guilty to DUI charges and accept a sentence of 480 hours of community service, preferably working with people who have suffered brain injuries.
“I used to work as a paramedic in the jail,” said Cusentino’s mother, Kathy Kean, after Joyce said he would accept the broad strokes of the deal.
“When people go to jail, they look and see four walls, and then they’re done.”
During hours spent in hospital rooms and waiting for doctor’s appointments, Kean said she often wondered what Mowry was do- ing with his time and if and how his life had changed.
Pragmatism as well as compassion took hold. The family gave up hope of collecting a big payday from a cop whose job prospects have dimmed thanks to the DUI charges he’s facing. But jail time seemed like it wouldn’t offer the lesson she hoped Mowry might learn.
“If [ Mowry] ever thinks about her, I want him to do something for her,” Kean said. “She deserves it.”
Joyce said he would tack on a six- month sentence to the deal, though Mowry would not have to spend any actual time behind bars because of credit he’d receive for 10 months he spent on electronic monitoring. Mowry could have spent up to 12 years in prison, the judge said.
“If Ms. Cusentino and her mother had . . . wanted Mr. Mowry to serve a significant amount of time in prison, the court would not be surprised,” Joyce said. “The fact that they don’t speaks volumes about them.”
Prosecutors also noted that Mowry, who has been assigned to administrative duties with the CPD since he was charged, would lose his job once the conviction was entered and asked Joyce to note that Mowry was a veteran who had led a “blameless life” until the night of the crash.
Mowry may accept the plea deal when he returns to court in December.
His attorney, William Fahy, declined to comment.
Prosecutors said Mowry admitted to drinking before the crash, and his blood- alcohol level registered .092 — above the legal limit of .08 — when tested several hours later.