PHOTO BY STEVE HINRICHS
Chelsey Farley inside her business, The Soul Shoppe, at 1052 E. Stanford Ave. It opened just a few days before she was seriously injured when the motorcycle she was riding on was hit by an SUV driven by Michael Egan, a Springfield Police Department sergeant who had retired earlier that day and was allegedly intoxicated at the time of the accident.
Chelsey Farley burst into tears while speaking with a reporter almost 10 months after a motorcycle she was riding on collided with a car driven by a recently retired Springfield police officer.
Farley, 32, cried as she explained why she was wearing a medical boot to stabilize the lower section of her left leg. She accidentally broke her leg June 26 when she stumbled inside the Springfield home she shares with her 12-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter.
She blamed her recent injury on former police sergeant Michael Egan because of the lasting impact the crash has had on her ability to be steady on her feet. “This is still him,” she said, looking down at her leg.
“I shouldn’t be walking through my house and falling and breaking my leg,” Farley said as she sat inside The Soul Shoppe, an arts, crafts and cannabis smoking supplies store that she and her cousin, Missy Hoover, operate at 1052 E. Stanford Ave. in Springfield.
Farley spoke with Illinois Times on June 27 and after a June 23 status hearing on Eagan’s criminal case in Sangamon County Circuit Court. She said she has attended several of the hearings. Outside the courtroom, she has yelled at Egan and his lawyers with profanity-laced language expressing her frustration with Egan and what she considers his lack of regret.
Egan, 51, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of aggravated DUI, DUI and making an improper left turn in connection with the incident. He retired from the Springfield Police Department the same day as the crash and hasn’t commented.
If convicted, the potential punishment for Egan, who has no prior convictions, could range from probation and no jail time to 12 years in prison. Egan has remained free while awaiting trial. One of his attorneys, Dan Fultz, declined comment.
Farley, whose supporters have demonstrated outside the Sangamon County courthouse to keep a spotlight on the case, said it’s uncomfortable for her to relive the trauma of the crash and its aftermath. She said she attends the hearings because she worries Egan won’t be held accountable. Accountability, for her, means that Egan sees time in jail or prison.
“He seems to have no remorse,” Farley said. “I don’t want anything but for that man to do the time for his crime. He broke the law. As any other citizen, he needs to be treated the same as us. He is not better than the rest of us.
“We’re all taught young in America – don’t drink and drive. So that goes for you, too, Springfield police.”
It’s not uncommon for people charged in criminal or civil cases to be advised by their lawyers not to speak or apologize to alleged victims until cases are resolved, according to Frank Lynch, a Springfield lawyer not involved in the Egan case.
That’s because certain statements made outside of court can be introduced in court as admissions of guilt or used in some way against people making the statements, Lynch said.
Police reports said Egan was driving a 2018 Toyota SUV eastbound on East Lake Shore Drive at 9:20 p.m. Sept. 5, 2024, when he failed to yield the right of way and made a left turn, without using a turn signal, in front of a southbound Kawasaki motorcycle near the entrance to the Anchor Boat Club.
The motorcycle, driven by Trevor Hopkins, with his then-girlfriend, Farley, riding as a passenger, then struck the passenger side of Egan’s car. Neither Hopkins nor Farley was wearing a helmet.
Farley lost consciousness and doesn’t remember the crash. She broke her pelvis in three places. She also broke her tailbone and both collarbones, and the trauma caused bleeding in her brain. Doctors placed metal pins and screws and a metal plate in her body to hold it together and promote healing.
She was intubated, put on a respirator and placed in a medically induced coma for about two weeks and was hospitalized for a month, first at HSHS St. John’s Hospital and then at Springfield Memorial Hospital.
“I’m very lucky that I’m not dead,” Farley said.
Hopkins, 32, a self-employed auto mechanic from Springfield, also was injured, but not as severely.
Egan, whose base pay as a police officer with 20 or more years of experience in 2024 was $125,508, wasn’t hurt. A blood test after the accident showed Egan’s blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit, according to recently retired Springfield police chief Kenneth Scarlette.
The physical effects of the crash will remain for the rest of her life, Farley said.
“I have nerve damage in parts of my body and permanent hardware that will have to be monitored for the rest of my life,” Farley said. “This accident affects my life daily, on many levels: emotionally, physically and publicly. I’m never going to forget it, and I’m going to make sure that Michael Egan does not forget it, either.”
Farley, who is covered by Medicaid, said she received a $100,000 out-of-court settlement from Egan based on a personal injury lawsuit she filed against him. The money will help pay medical bills. The financial strain to her family and her business – which opened a few days before the crash – has been eased by about $22,000 donated through GoFundMe.
Farley’s civil claim against The Stadium Bar & Grill, 2300 N. Peoria Road, where Egan allegedly consumed alcohol at a retirement party in the hours before the crash, remains pending. Hopkins’ civil lawsuit against Egan also remains pending.
Greg Gaz, the attorney representing the bar, and Andrew Toennies, who represents Hopkins, didn’t respond to messages left by Illinois Times. Alex Rabin, who represents Farley, wouldn’t comment.
Farley said she believes Egan received preferential treatment by police responding to the scene of the accident. Public concern about the way Egan was treated was part of a public protest outside City Hall on Sept. 9. Activists also were protesting the July 6, 2024, shooting of Sonya Massey by a Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy inside her rural Woodside Township home.
Four Springfield police officers who responded to the crash later were disciplined by the police department. The officer receiving the most severe penalty was ordered to serve a six-day, unpaid suspension.
Because of a lack of details released by SPD, it remains unclear whether the department believed Egan was given preferential treatment. Scarlette previously said Egan embarrassed the police force.
Farley, who is divorced from her children’s father, said her relationship with Hopkins ended because of stress related to the accident. She said Hopkins moved to Florida.
Born and raised in Springfield, Farley, who previously worked as a postal clerk, said friends and family members helped her and her cousin keep their shop running.
She said she is grateful for all of the financial and moral support she has received from the community in her recovery and her efforts to keep Egan’s case in the public eye.
“If there’s not attention to this case, I am worried that it will be able to be swept under the rug,” she said. “I am worried that they will let Michael Egan off with no time served … and probably smack someone else with his car.”