A 32-year-old man smashed through a Darien homeowner's front window, slashed him with broken glass, stole his cellphone, then led police on an 11-mile chase through construction zones and oncoming traffic before holing up in his own home for hours — and nobody in authority can explain why Michael Lahey was on the street to do any of it in the first place.
Lahey was ordered held Thursday by DuPage County Judge Joshua Dieden on two counts of home invasion, aggravated fleeing and eluding, and misdemeanor theft. The charges carry serious time. The question is what Lahey was doing free to commit them.
Neither the DuPage County State's Attorney's Office nor any outlet covering the case has disclosed Lahey's prior criminal history, if any. In a moment when repeat offenders are driving the crime conversation from Cook County outward, that silence is conspicuous. The public deserves to know whether this was a first offense or the latest in a string of lenient dispositions.
Here is what the Chicago Sun-Times reported, drawn from prosecutors' own statement: Around 2:20 p.m. Tuesday, a homeowner on the 1400 block of Sequoia Drive called police after hearing glass break. He found Lahey standing outside. Lahey hurled a chunk of broken glass at him, causing a "significant" laceration to his left upper arm and a puncture wound to his left torso. Lahey had already burst through the front window. He then threw a stool at the victim before speeding off in a Ford Bronco — with the homeowner's phone.
The victim ran out the back door and ended up in the hospital with arm and torso wounds plus stomach bruising.
Darien officers spotted Lahey fleeing. The pursuit reached 75 mph in a 35 mph zone. Lahey jumped a curb, plowed through a parking lot, blew through an active construction zone with workers present, and drove into oncoming traffic multiple times. Police terminated the chase after crossing into Will County over safety concerns.
Lahey then barricaded himself at his home on Maverick Trail in Homer Glen, triggering a shelter-in-place order. DuPage and Will County SWAT teams executed a search warrant around 7 p.m. and took him into custody. The shelter order lifted at 11 p.m.
DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlins issued the kind of statement that writes itself: "The type of aggressive, unpredictable and violent behavior that shattered an innocent man's sense of safety and security in his own home and sent him to the hospital with serious injuries... has no place in civilized society and will not be tolerated in DuPage County."
Strong words. But tolerance isn't measured by press releases — it's measured by what happens before the next victim gets slashed in his own living room. Lahey is due back in court Aug. 31. The record that led to that date remains hidden.
