Accused hit-and-run driver Erin Hughes returned to her Wilmette home Wednesday afternoon after an anonymous donor posted her $50,000 bond.
A Cook County Sheriff’s squad car pulled into her driveway at just before noon and the girl sprinted into her mother Grace Roupp’s home through a side door. Her parents are divorced and she stays with her mother.
She did not take questions from reporters.
"I think she needed to get into her protective cocoon that her house provides," Hughes’ attorney Jack Levin said. “[She’s] so thankful to be home.”
It’s not clear that her home is a safe-haven, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Her mother was charged in August with delivery of marijuana. Roupp pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to 100 hours of community service, $400 in fees and one year of supervision, the Tribune reports.
Roupp was also given a parental responsibility citation in July 2009 for hosting a party where alcoholic beverages were served to minors, the Tribune reports.
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Hughes’ father, who does not live with her, also has a criminal history, according to the paper.
Robert Hughes, a doctor whose license is suspended, pleaded guilty in 2008 to felony possession of child pornography and misdemeanor distribution of a controlled substance – which he sold two underage girls – and possession of cannabis. He served five months in Cook County jail and registered as a sexual predator, the Tribune reports.
He was also required to submit to drug tests as part of his bail, but he failed the first one, records show.
Levin said he has no comment on the girl's parent's criminal history.
18-year-old Erin Hughes has been charged with failure to report an accident involving an injury, render aid and exercise due care in a crash in Winnetka that critically injured classmate Sarah Goone.
Goone’s family said Wednesday that she was recovering Wednesday.
Hughes was held in the Cermak Hospital on the jail grounds, but not in the general population.
Sheriff spokesman Steve Patterson said she no one asked for special treatment for the girl and that she was placed at the hospital for the sheriff’s own “protective” reasons. He said he was disappointed in Judge Orr’s decision to set such a high bond after learning that the girl admitted to smoking marijuana.
Hughes was not given any special treatment when leaving the jail, Patterson said.
"She will go through the release and electronic monitoring process like anyone else," he said.
The officer who escorted her home will outfit her telephone with to communicate with her ankle monitoring device.
Her next hearing will be Thursday. Levin said he anticipates Hughes will be placed in some sort of supervision, and he hopes she will be permitted to leave her house. Levin hopes to reduce the crime from a felony to a misdemeanor.
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