2-time DUI offender sentenced to work release fails to report to jail

SYCAMORE – Prosecutors are seeking to revoke the probation of a South Elgin man twice convicted of drunken-driving offenses, including a 2010 crash that injured a Hampshire couple, for failing to report to jail.

Eric M. Barth, 26, of the 1300 block of Sandhurst Lane, South Elgin, was convicted of aggravated driving while license revoked earlier this year. In July, Judge Philip Montgomery sentenced Barth to 180 days of jail with work release, 24 months of probation and ordered him to undergo an alcohol treatment evaluation. Barth was also ordered to obtain a Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitoring device to ensure he did not drink.

Prosecutors filed a petition to revoke his probation Aug. 31. In the motion, Assistant State’s Attorney Carrie Thompson said Barth had failed to obtain an alcohol treatment evaluation, failed to provide the court with a copy of his work schedule so he could begin the work-release sentence, failed to report to probation as required and that he was not being monitored by an alcohol monitoring device as ordered by the court.

A warrant was issued for Barth’s arrest, according to court documents.

Barth had initially been charged with aggravated driving under the influence, aggravated driving with a suspended or revoked license, driving with a suspended or revoked license and driving on a suspended license after a 2015 traffic stop in Sycamore.

After a bench trial in March and April, Judge Philip Montgomery acquitted Barth of the drunken-driving charges after finding prosecutors failed to prove their case. However, Montgomery found Barth guilty of aggravated driving with a revoked license.

A Sycamore police officer arrested Barth on March 24, 2015, after he saw the truck he was in hit the fog line after a trip through the drive-thru at McDonald’s. The officer watched as Barth drove behind the closed Charter Fitness facility at 720 Foxpointe Drive. The officer found Barth, who appeared intoxicated, lying across the driver seat in an apparent attempt to hide, according to court documents. Barth refused to take field sobriety tests and, later at the police department, refused all chemical tests, according to court records.

At a sentencing hearing in July, the judge had told Barth to expect close scrutiny from prosecutors while on probation.

Thompson had asked the judge to sentence Barth to three years in prison. At the hearing, she reviewed his past convictions, including a five-year sentence for a 2010 DUI crash that injured an elderly Hampshire couple, according to media reports. Barth qualified for boot camp for nonviolent offenders in that case and avoided prison.

Barth later pleaded guilty to a 2012 driving under the influence charge and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison in that case, according to media reports.

Barth’s attorney, Brian Erwin, had argued that sentencing his client to prison wouldn’t help him or society. Erwin said Barth needed to address his alcohol problems in treatment, not behind bars.

Erwin couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.