Peter Radulovic, 46, was charged in 2009 with two felony counts of official misconduct and one count of felony theft. His jury trial, scheduled to start last week in Will County, has been pushed back to April.
It is a dramatic turnabout for the man who won the Law Enforcement Medal of Honor during a ceremony at the governor's mansion in 2007. Radulovic for a time also ran former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's security detail, the trooper's attorney said, and is a former Peotone village trustee.
A year after winning the medal, Radulovic was alleged to have used his state credit card to buy more than $300 in gasoline for his personal vehicle, apparently from several gas stations in Peotone, according to court records.
The District Chicago trooper has been suspended without pay and could lose his job depending on the outcome of an investigation that is before the state police merit board, said Master Sgt. Isaiah Vega.
Radulovic's attorney, Patrick Campanelli, said there is no video evidence that the trooper used the cards to do anything but fill the tank of his squad car. He said the case is based on internal affairs estimates that Radulovic's mileage and gas purchases were too high.
"It's frivolous charges," he said. "This case is unprovable. You could probably look at any state trooper and do the math of what a state trooper uses in gas and mileage and indict them for theft."
Campanelli said he believes the case was brought for political reasons, blaming it on sour feelings over Radulovic's job as Blagojevich's head of security, and said its timing — when his client is a year away from vesting in his pension — is also suspect.
And he said it made no sense that former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge will keep his pension after lying about torturing suspects but Radulovic could lose his benefits over gas-card charges that "could've been settled in-house."
"After Blagojevich lost his position as governor, I think a lot of these state troopers looked at (Radulovic) as a person who moved up the ranks quicker than he should've," said Campanelli, adding that the promotion came after his client's heroics. "This is obviously just a ploy by state police to take (Radulovic) off the pension rolls."
A spokesman for the Will County state's attorney's office declined to comment on the pending case.
On May 7, 2006, three Wentworth Tactical District officers were chasing a suspect after a 19-year-old was shot in the leg. Their red unmarked Ford Taurus spun out while leaving the northbound Dan Ryan Expressway onto Pershing Road.
The car sideswiped a light pole, and the front end became engulfed in flames. An Illinois Department of Transportation worker told the Tribune at the time that it looked as if a building were ablaze.
Radulovic, responding to a call for assistance in the case, came across the vehicle first. He saw the passenger was waving a handgun and heard two shots being fired, according to an account released by Illinois State Police.
After determining that all the occupants were plainclothes officers, he tried to put out the flames and open the car doors, but they wouldn't budge, and the driver was trapped under the dashboard, according to the police account.
Radulovic and another trooper, Sgt. Devin Stokes, who arrived soon after, were able to pull one of the officers out of the car after breaking the rear passenger-side window.
"There was a lot of smoke and fire," Radulovic told the Tribune in 2006. "The scene was really hectic because, obviously, they were in a lot of peril. So we tried to keep them calm."
Stokes, who also won a medal for his actions, declined to comment when reached Friday.
The front-seat passenger was able to free himself, but the driver remained pinned inside the car until firefighters arrived, cut the roof off and freed him.
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