Illinois DUI Lawyer Blawg
John Cullerton is the Majority Leader of the Illinois State Senate. Because of how the Illinois General Assembly operates, this position provides Senator Cullerton with a great deal of authority over Illinois laws, including DUI laws.
Cullerton’s son, Garritt, was arrested for an Illinois DUI last year. The circumstances of Cullerton’s DUI arrest have been previously reported. Recently, Cullerton pled guilty to the DUI. He was sentenced to two years of non reporting probation (knows as conditional discharge), fined $1,250, required to obtain a drug and alcohol evaluation and perform 240 hours of community service, in place of 10 days of jail time.
The above appears to be a standard disposition for someone who has had more than one DUI arrest. The more interesting part of the case involves Cullerton’s overall driving record.
Cullerton has two previous DUI arrests. One of them was dismissed. In the other case, he was granted court supervision.
In a plea of court supervision, you plead guilty to the offense. However, the judge withholds entry of a conviction and later dismisses the case. So while you plead guilty, because you are not convicted, you avoid a driver’s license revocation.
If Cullerton had been convicted of his previous DUI, he would now be facing a 5-year revocation of his driver’s license. As it is, his driver’s license will be suspended for 1 year, although he may be eligible for an RDP from the Secretary of State, depending upon how long ago his previous DUI arrest occurred.
If one of the two previous DUI tickets had not been thrown out, Cullerton would have been charged with a felony and possibly received prison time from this third arrest. He could also have been facing a 10-year revocation of his driver’s license.
This goes back to a point this blog had made before. Do not ever, no matter how bad your case looks, “roll over” on a DUI, thinking it will never happen to you again. I can assure you that Cullerton did not expect to get two more DUI’S. But had he simply pled guilty to the first two charges, he would now probably be marching off to prison, or at least to jail.