An Illinois State Police trooper who authorities said was intoxicated when he responded to a crash on Interstate 88 last year pleaded guilty Monday to driving under the influence, according to Kane County prosecutors.
Trooper Paul Zurn, 34, agreed to a sentence of one year of court supervision in exchange for a guilty plea to misdemeanor DUI, according to a news release from the Kane County state’s attorney’s office. Judge Robert Morrow accepted the plea.
According to prosecutors, Zurn responded to a minor traffic crash on Aug. 22, 2015, on I-88 near Farnsworth Avenue in Aurora. At the scene, Zurn “was observed by other troopers to be unsteady on his feet, and a bottle containing alcoholic liquor was found in his squad car,” according to the news release.
Zurn refused to submit to a portable breath test and standardized field sobriety tests and also refused to submit to a Breathalyzer test, according to the release. As a result, his driver’s license was suspended for one year by the Illinois Secretary of State.
