URBANA — An Armstrong man who admitted driving away drunk from an accident that left a friend injured faces up to six months in the county jail.

Casey E. Knight, 20, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Champaign County Circuit Court to misdemeanor driving under the influence and leaving the scene of a personal injury accident, a felony.

The charges stemmed from a July 2 incident in which Knight and a couple of friends had left a bar in Penfield about 11 p.m., having been turned away from drinking there.

Assistant State's Attorney Chris Kanis said Knight sped off quickly on County Road 2700 E, causing Jesse Buckley, 20, of Gifford, who was in the bed of the pickup truck, to fall out. Buckley hit his head and was taken to Carle Hospital for treatment.

Kanis said police learned that Knight stopped briefly and let a passenger in the cab out, who went to check on Buckley, but then took off quickly. A short time later, he was involved in a crash in Vermilion County that left him injured, Kanis said. He was also charged with driving under the influence in Vermilion County but that case has not been resolved.

In the Champaign County case, Kanis said Knight's blood-alcohol level was 0.14 percent, well over the 0.08 percent for a driver to be presumed intoxicated in Illinois.

Judge John Kennedy, who accepted Knight's plea, set sentencing for March 15.

In an unrelated guilty plea accepted Tuesday by Kennedy:

— Juan Rodriguez, 43, who listed an address in the 1900 block of Winchester Drive, Champaign, was sentenced to probation for inappropriately touching a woman in her apartment while he was drunk.

Kanis said that on Sept. 23, at about 2 a.m., a man entered a 36-year-old woman's apartment in the 1100 block of East Colorado Avenue, climbed into her bed and touched her thigh.

The woman awoke and screamed and her 13-year-old son chased the man from the apartment. The woman and her son recognized the unwelcome man as Rodriguez, who was the maintenance man for their building. Kanis said Rodriguez was fired after his arrest.

A little more than an hour after he took off in a van, a sheriff's deputy stopped Rodriguez in Champaign near Greencroft Drive and Kirby Avenue. Rodriguez smelled of alcohol and was arrested.

Rodriguez pleaded guilty to misdemeanor driving under the influence and felony criminal sexual abuse for a sentence of two years of probation, a $750 fine, performance of 100 hours of public service, and registration as a sex offender.

Other charges of residential burglary and aggravated criminal sexual abuse were dismissed in return for Rodriguez's plea. Kanis said Rodriguez had no prior convictions.