Woodstock man gets jail time, probation for bruising 3-year-old child, DUI

A Woodstock man has admitted to bruising a 3-year-old child, and in a separate case, driving under the influence of alcohol.

Omar Diaz-Hernandez, 23, pleaded guilty March 17 to aggravated battery of a child younger than 13, a Class 3 felony, and domestic battery, a Class A misdemeanor, according to a judgment order filed in McHenry County court. He was sentenced to two years of probation.

While on pretrial release, he was charged with Class A misdemeanor DUI, to which he also pleaded guilty Monday. In this case, he was sentenced to two years of supervision with court monitoring. He will serve each sentence concurrently, according to judgment orders. He also was fined for a petty offense of failure to reduce speed.

On the day he was charged with DUI, he also violated an order of protection, records show. That alleged order of protection violation, which was later dismissed, occurred when he was arrested in December for the DUI, and he called the protected party, the child’s mother, twice.

He also told a Lake in the Hills police officer that the order of protection was no longer in effect, which wasn’t true, according to the petition revoking his pretrial release Dec. 10.

Prosecutors said that when he struck another vehicle, in which a mother was driving with her teenage child, his blood-alcohol concentration was 0.14. The petition said he showed impairment during a field sobriety test, was laughing after the crash and had open liquor in the car.

For the felony battery conviction, he also was sentenced to 120 days of jail. But that sentence was considered satisfied with time served, court records show.

Diaz-Hernandez was accused of striking the child on or about 11 p.m. Sept. 24 “multiple times with an unknown object, causing severe bruising [and] red marks to the stomach, mid-abdomen, sides and hips,” according to the criminal complaint.

During his initial appearance in October, Assistant State’s Attorney Julio Cantre said the baby’s mother left him alone with Diaz-Hernandez to go to work. When she returned, Cantre said, her son was in a crib, crying in a bedroom with the door closed, and he had vomited; Diaz-Hernandez was standing over him. The mother took her child into the bathroom and saw that he had bruises on his sternum, back and hips, Cantre said.

When the mother told Diaz-Hernandez she was calling police, he fled the apartment, Cantre said. When police arrived, they also saw the child’s bruises. The child was taken to Northwestern Medicine Huntley Hospital for his injuries, the prosecutor said.

During the hearing, Assistant Public Defender David Giesinger said the state and mother were “just jumping to conclusions.”