WOODSTOCK — A Wonder Lake man received permission to hug his mother before he was led away today to begin serving seven years in prison for his sixth drunken-driving conviction.
Kevin M. O’Reilly, 48, asked Judge Sharon Prather for leniency, arguing that prison time would jeopardize his adult son’s college education, his ability to pay back child support and his plans to get married.
“I have a lot to lose over this,” O’Reilly said. “I will lose everything.”
But Prather responded that he still had a serious alcohol problem despite judges giving him opportunities to deal with it after past cases.
In the most recent case, jurors deliberated for less than 30 minutes in September before convicting O’Reilly of driving drunk in June 2006.
O’Reilly had been driving in the wrong lane on East Wonder Lake Road, forcing a sheriff’s deputy to pull to the side of the road to avoid him, authorities said.
O’Reilly refused to submit to field sobriety tests but police found a water bottle that contained a liquid that smelled of alcohol in his car.
The majority of O’Reilly’s prior convictions happened in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but he received two years of probation and periodic in-patient treatment after being convicted of felony drunk-driving in Lake County.
Prosecutor Ryan Blackney asked Prather to sentence him to between 10 and 15 years in prison, arguing that his past sentences had been relatively light. O’Reilly faced between six and 30 years in prison; probation was not an option.
Defense attorney Patrick Walsh requested between six and eight years in prison, pointing to four friends and family members who attended court in O’Reilly’s support. He also pointed to the facts surrounding the 2006 incident.
“If we look at this, there’s very limited evidence of bad driving,” Walsh said. “There’s very limited evidence of impaired driving.”
Defense attorneys filed a notice of appeal after Prather announced the sentence, and an appellate public defender was appointed.
Read the original article from the Northwest Herald.
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