Prison sentences doled out in four different DUI cases
URBANA — An Atwood woman who drove drunk the wrong way on an interstate highway in Champaign County more than a year ago has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Elisabeth Anderson , 34, pleaded guilty Thursday before Judge Tom Difanis to aggravated driving under the influence, admitting that her drunken driving caused a crash that injured Karen Smith, 43, of Paducah, Ken.
Assistant State's Attorney Andrea Bergstrom said about 2:20 a.m. on March 23, 2010, Anderson was driving south in the northbound lanes of I-57 near Tolono when her car collided with Smith's.
Bergstrom said Smith sustained a broken heel and a fractured tailbone in the crash but has recovered from the injuries.
Anderson's blood-alcohol concentration was 0.25 percent, Bergstrom said, about three times the limit for an Illinois motorist to be presumed intoxicated.
Bergstrom said Anderson had no prior convictions. She was given credit for 59 days already served in jail and was fined just over $700.
In other DUI cases resolved Thursday in Champaign County Circuit Court:
— Anthony Hunt, 51, of Chicago, was sentenced by Judge Richard Klaus to three years in prison and fined $1,000 for aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol.
In April he pleaded guilty, admitting that on Jan. 16, he drove his vehicle into a decorative rock in a yard in the 600 block of Pfeffer Road in Urbana then left. A sheriff's deputy located him later at his mother's home on Sunrise Drive about a block from the crash.
Bergstrom said Hunt had reportedly been cooking food on a stove and fell asleep. His mother awoke to the sound of a smoke detector and went outside. Deputies found Hunt and his damaged vehicle. He refused to submit to breath tests, she said.
Court records showed he had three prior drug-related convictions and another for criminal trespass to vehicle.
— Eric Ludvigsen, 38, of East St. Louis, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for aggravated DUI by Klaus. He had earlier pleaded guilty to driving in Rantoul on Nov. 21, 2010, at a time when he was under the influence of alcohol.
Bergstrom said he failed to stop at a stop sign at Congress Avenue and Garrard Street. He admitted to Rantoul police he had consumed at least four drinks earlier and had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.11 percent.
Court records show Ludvigsen had 17 prior traffic convictions and was wanted by St. Clair County authorities for two pending DUI cases.
He also pleaded guilty to driving under suspension, admitting he did so on I-57 on Jan. 3, while out on bond in the DUI. Klaus sentenced him to 300 days in jail on that but allowed him to serve it at the same time as his sentence for the aggravated DUI.
— Bruce Graves, 47, who listed an address in the 2000 block of Staley Road, Champaign, was sentenced to five years in prison for aggravated DUI. A jury convicted him in April.
Bergstrom said the charge stemmed from a May 2, 2009, incident in which Graves reportedly disobeyed a stop sign on Staley Road at Windsor in Champaign. He was pulled over in his own driveway, where he showed impairment and refused a breath test.
Bergstrom said Graves had two prior convictions for DUI and others for possession of a controlled substance and obstructing justice.
The first story says specifically the women (Answerson) had no priors, and as ConeyPayton mentions the ex-officer committed a felony charge for falsifying records to obtain a new drivers license. That felony was dropped entirely. Felonies may get lowered to a misdemeanor for you or I, but they do not get dropped entirely.
The first woman also caused serious bodily injury to another person. While Staples very well could have in her two seperate DUI's, she did not. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th people mentioned had some pretty extensive records, something that Staples does not have.
Staples disgraced many upstanding members of the local law enforcement community, not just once, but twice now with her alcoholism and poor decision making. That's not okay, however there is still something to be said for the 11 years of excellent policework, which she performed admirably. That includes many years of hard work as a detective, where her investigative work placed many terrible people right where they should be, in prison! While her continued behavior and alcoholism is unacceptable, she still did a lot of good for our community and for better or worse the DUIs don't change that.
As for Sloeber's statement that a felony wouldn't get dropped entirely for a layperson like them or I, that's not true. Read the crime reports on a regular basis either in the N-G or any other publication. You'll find that often times charges are dropped in exchange for plea deals which is exactly what happened in the latest Lisa Staples case. That said, I don't want you to think that I think that the sentence imposed on Staples was enough, because it most certainly wasn't.
Hello,
While the news story for Ms. Staples' most recent DUI indicates that the two teens in the vehicle she struck refused medical treatment at the time of the accident, I would have to wonder if they haven't had some physical effects since then, given the damage down to their vehicle (http://stoplisa.blogspot.com/).
I notice in the stories that Ms. Staples posted $100 cash and her driver's license as bond, while Ms. Anderson ended up being given credit for 59 days served - what was her bond?
While Ms. Staples may have had "many years of hard work as a detective, where her investigative work placed many terrible people right where they should be, in prison!", that does not give her a pass to commit the same acts for which she would have arrested people. In my opinion, she should have been held to a higher standard, at least for the first incident. She seriously abused the trust and integrity of her position as a police officer in driving drunk in her unmarked squad car, going the wrong way on an interstate highway, and any amount of good she might have done for the community certainly doesn't cancel out the harm she did to the trust of both the public community and the law enforcement community.
And while charges are often dropped in exchange for plea deals, I find it hard to believe that a felony charge would be dropped in return for a guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge. At least for most people. She certainly can't say that she didn't know that providing a false address on a driver's license application was against the law.
I think being guilty of a crime is not what matters anymore - what seems to be important is how good of an attorney you can afford, and what connections you have to the legal system.
"Right is right, even if no one does it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone does it."
Let's not forget the misdemeanor charge which they dropped a felony for in return for a guilty plea was a DUI charge of which the state's attorney had a plethora of evidence. They had a high BAC, they had officers tesitmony and video, prison guards testimony and video, not to mention an accident in which she crumbled the backside of an SUV which was driving at highway speeds. This isn't like she was pulled over for lack of a turn signal and blew a .08. This women was highly intoxicated, and all evidence supported this. No plea deal needed to be offered!!!
The SA office in Champaign County is either incompetent, lazy, or downright courrupt. Pick one.
It would seem an Illinois Citizen Watch Group should seek suspension/firing both the state attorney and judge in this Double Standards by the Courthouse Jesters failing to protect Illinois citizens and tax dollars when this now "NEVER HAPPENED" criminal injures another person in a DUI and they sue Illinois on behalf of this state attorney and judge for failing to protect the public and causing their harm. God help the Courthouse Jesters if its a committed to their cause vigil ante lol.
In all of these cases but one no one was even injured in the incidents but one person. Im sorry but Illinois prisons face the same overcrowded conditions as California and I think its waste of money throwing DUIs and low level drug offenders in prison. In the matter of alcohol and drug offenses they should give these people treatment for their addictions instead of throwing them in prison. In the extreme case where a DUI offender kills other people is only time prison sentence should even be considered. Prisons should be reserved for people who commit violent crimes not low level offenses that seem to fill our prisons. DUI offenders and low level non violent drug offenders should be put on home confinement with a bracelet to serve out their offenses.This not only saves the taxpayer money from housing and caring these offenders but also keeps DUI offenders from driving since they would be monitored.
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