WLKM Radio 95.9 FM
WOOD-TV is reporting that St. Joseph County Sheriff Mark Lillywhite crawled over the center console into the passenger’s seat and then denied being the driver of his SUV after a suspected drunken-driving crash last month, Michigan State Police reports say.
The crash happened shortly before 2:30 a.m. Feb. 26 on U.S. 131, south of Schoolcraft.
Authorities said a vehicle driven by the 47-year-old Lillywhite rear-ended another car, shoving both vehicles off the road and causing the other car to roll. No one was seriously hurt.
Lillywhite, a Flowerfield Township resident, was sitting in the passenger’s seat of his SUV when troopers arrived. One trooper wrote in his report that Lillywhite denied being the driver but wouldn’t say who might have been driving, according to WOOD-TV.
A firefighter who was first on the scene told a trooper that Lillywhite was in the driver’s seat when he arrived, according to News 8, adding that Lillywhite also refused to give any information pertaining to the crash.
Data pulled from Lillywhite’s SUV shows its speed ranged between 96 and 99 mph in the five seconds before the crash and that he did not apply brakes before the collision, the station reported.
Why is he still sheriff? I know the only way to forcibly remove him is a recall but the county commission should exert enough force to get him to resign. This has been nearly a month with not so much as a peep from those in power. Is this acceptable conduct? If it is, then get ready for anyone pulled over for DUI in St. Joe County to use the “Lillywhite Defense”.