Clemency Hearing for Former Rockford Police Officer

BOONE COUNTY – Boone County State’s Attorney Michelle Courier has announced that Daniel Cruz, the off-duty Rockford Police Officer responsible for the DUI crash in May 2012 in Boone County, has filed a petition for Executive Clemency which is set to be heard before the Prisoner Review Board in Springfield on Oct. 7.

The petition for Executive Clemency seeks to have the Governor pardon Cruz or reduce his sentence.

Cruz was previously sentenced in May 2014 to eight years in the Department of Corrections.  His projected date of release is February 2021. Boone County State’s Attorney has objected to the petition and will argue against any relief.

“Throughout his petition for clemency, Cruz claimed to accept responsibility for what he had done, but he never identified in his petition anything he did was wrong,” Courier said. “The State believes Mr. Cruz will only learn how to be held accountable by serving the remainder of his sentence.”

On May 21, 2012, just after 9 p.m., Cruz was passing a SUV in a no-passing zone southbound on Beloit Road when he struck a pick-up truck and collided with the SUV near Townhall Road. One of the passengers of the SUV, Mary Daniels, was paralyzed from the neck down as a result of a spinal cord injury.

Following the crash, Cruz began walking away from the scene and was stopped by a firefighter approximately ¾ of a mile from the accident scene. Cruz refused all chemical testing.  A search warrant was then obtained for an involuntary blood draw. Lab results later revealed Cruz’s blood alcohol content to be .14 grams per deciliter.

Cruz was a thirteen-year veteran of the Rockford Police Department who was off duty at the time of the crash.