Dupage Policy Journal

A 19-year-old Chicago man accused of stealing an SUV and leading a police chase through Glen Ellyn last summer was finally taken into custody Thursday following a joint effort by area police agencies.

"We worked with a couple of other agencies, we worked with Wheaton as well," Glen Ellyn Deputy Police Chief Kurt Vavra told DuPage Policy Journal. "There's some collaboration along the way, I don't have all the details. I didn't personally work the case."

Vavra, who was named Glen Ellyn Police Officer of the Year in February, said the agencies "were working on it for quite some time."

"It was not an easy case."

Circuit Judge Brian F. Telander ordered the teenager, Kenneth Diamond, held on $500,000 bail, according to a statement posted to the DuPage County State's Attorney's Office's Facebook page. Diamond, of the 10500 block of South Yates, faces felony charges of aggravated possession of a stolen motor vehicle, theft, aggravated fleeing or eluding a peace officer and burglary to a motor vehicle, according to the statement.

"We finally caught up to him," Vavra said. "We're going to put a case together and secure the charges."

Charges against Diamond stem from an incident in the early morning hours of June 30 in which a 2016 Lincoln MKX SUV was reported stolen from a Glen Ellyn driveway. The stolen SUV was spotted less than an hour later in Wheaton.

"A short time later, officers with the Wheaton Police Department allegedly observed the stolen Lincoln driving in Wheaton, closely following a dark-colored sedan," the statement said.

Wheaton officers tried to pulled over the two vehicles to initiate a traffic stop but both "fled at a high rate of speed," the statement said.

"Stop sticks were employed in Wheaton and punctured the tires of the Lincoln," the statement continued. "It is alleged that at this time both the Lincoln and the dark-colored sedan came to a stop and that two individuals exited the Lincoln and entered the dark-colored sedan."

The driver and occupants of the sedan then fled the scene and police officers gave chase but could not make them stop.

"An investigation into the alleged vehicle theft led authorities to Diamond as the suspected driver of the Lincoln," the statement said.

Bond set in Diamond’s case is not excessive, DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin said in the statement.

"While we currently find ourselves in the midst of an epidemic of car thefts, the bond set [Thursday] and the cooperative efforts displayed by the law enforcement agencies involved should send the message that in DuPage County we take these types of crimes very seriously," Berlin said.