JOLIET, IL — An off-duty city of Joliet Police Department officer charged with driving of under the influence of alcohol in connection with the Jan. 19 wreck along Interstate 55 that killed her passenger, Berwyn police officer Charles Schauer, will not have her driving privileges suspended while her court case is pending.

On Wednesday morning, Will County Associate Judge Ben Braun granted a pretrial motion stipulated between Erin Zilka's defense lawyer, Jeff Tomczak of The Tomczak Law Group, and special prosecutor William Elward. Elward did not object to the defense attorney's filing. Usually, people charged in Illinois with DUI receive a mandatory six-month suspension from the Secretary of State's Office if they test at 0.08 or greater or a one-year suspension if they refuse to submit to testing to determine if they are impaired by alcohol while driving.

According to Zilka's lawyer, a driver has the legal right to challenge the license suspension, and they're entitled to a hearing before a judge within 30 days of their request for the hearing. Tomczak said Zilka submitted to a blood draw at the emergency room of St. Joe's hospital following the Sunday morning fatal collision on Jan. 19, and Tomczak said Zilka tested below 0.08., the legal threshold to be considered drunk in Illinois.

Even though Zilka tested below the legal limit, the Illinois State Police still charged her with a DUI, Tomczak said. Zilka did not have to attend Wednesday morning's hearing in front of Braun. Afterward, Tomczak told reporters that Wednesday's ruling means that his client will not be required to obtain an ignition interlock device that normally gets installed on the vehicles of people charged with a DUI offense.

Moving forward, Tomczak said he hopes the special prosecutor will reconsider the case and choose to dismiss the DUI charge against Zilka because she tested below the legal limit at the hospital and because other eyewitnesses have come forward and told Tomczak that Zilka had no ability to avoid the I-55 collision that killed her passenger.

Tomczak said that Zilka remains on paid administrative leave from the Joliet Department in the aftermath of the crash. She has been employed with the city for the past six years. Before that, she was a Shorewood police officer for six years.

Patch has previously reported that Zilka's vehicle plowed into a southbound disabled box truck that was hit by another motorist several minutes earlier. The initial crash around 6 a.m. involving the box truck blocked two southbound lanes along the I-55 stretch between Plainfield and Joliet. A Plainfield man, 42-year-old Rodrigo Marin, has been charged with two counts of felony aggravated DUI, failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, improper lane use, leaving the scene of a property damage accident, failure to render aid, no valid driver's license and driving while license revoked.