Did drag racing lead to deaths?

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
August 8, 2012

A fresh article posted about 90 minutes ago on the Northwest Herald online edition reports the arrest of Daniel Huber, 20, of rural Woodstock, in connection with the double-fatality crash on Davis Road on July 1. Huber is charged with aggravated street racing and failure to report a fatal traffic crash.

I had heard gossip about two weeks ago that racing was involved but, since the Sheriff's Department reports in the Coroner's reports didn't mention it, I didn't write about it.

Huber is identified as "Potatoe" in the article. In a July article here I noted that there were many telephone calls involving Potatoe on the cell phone data extracted from the phone of Alec Kaiser, who was driving the car that crashed. The car belonged to the family of Jacob Norys and was being used without permission of the owner. Kaiser and Norys were to be juniors at Woodstock High School this fall.

The gas station is identified for the first time in today's article as the Mobil station on the east side of Route 47, south of U.S. 14.

Read this paragraph carefully: "The video also shows a Woodstock police officer in an unmarked squad car pulling into the lot. He later told sheriff's deputies that he was responding to a reckless driving complaint, although none of the vehicles matched the description he had been given.

"The officer said he talked to one of the people in the Elantra, asking him whether he was old enough to smoke, before driving away at 1:54 a.m"

The Woodstock Police Department responded to my FOIA request last month that they had no information about any contact by one of their police officers with Kaiser and Norys. It appears now that the correct response should have been that such documentation might have been part of an ongoing investigation and, as such, was denied to me. Any involvement of a Woodstock Police officer with the Sheriff's Department as part of a fatal-crash investigation should be well documented!!!

The article says that Huber followed Kaiser west on Davis Road from Route 47. Davis Road is narrow and curving between Route 47 and Dean Street. West of Dean Street the roadway is mostly straight and hilly. The article doesn't state whether Huber passed Kaiser between Route 47 and Dean St. or west of Dean St. If he didn't, then he was behind Kaiser and Norys, when their vehicle left the roadway.

The Sheriff's Department report that was part of the Coroner's reports on Kaiser and Norys included information that someone reported the crash from west of the crash. As I recall, the reporting party said he was at Stieg and Davis Road, when he heard a crash. I don't recall the name of the person from those reports.

As I recall, Kaiser's cell phone showed a call to "Potatoe" beginning at 1:58AM. It seems very likely to me that Huber was talking with Kaiser at the time of the crash.

The Northwest Herald article says his bond is $100,000, but the Sheriff's Corrections website lists his bond as $10,000. Also, according to the Northwest Herald article, Huber's next court date is September 7 and, as of 5:35PM his status in jail records is "Confined". Jail records indicate he has a court date on Thursday morning, August 9, 8:00am, at "RTS". RTS is the Rights Court in the Jail; enter through the Corrections Building.

There is a surprising amount of investigatory information in the Northwest Herald article. I won't be surprised if Huber's defense attorney, whoever that is or will be, raises the issue of unfair publicity and prejudice to the defense by so much information hitting the public in the first press release pertaining to Huber's involvement. Much of the information was contained in the media release on the Sheriff's website.