Warrant issued for Rockford man on Ogle County charges

OREGON – An arrest warrant was issued March 27 for a Rockford man after he failed to appear in court on a felony charge of being an armed habitual criminal and misdemeanor charges of driving while under the influence of alcohol and aggravated assault.

Jesse Alar, 36, was supposed to appear in court for a 9 a.m. detention hearing, but failed to appear, prompting Judge John Redington to issue the arrest warrant.

The Ogle County State’s Attorney office filed the charges against Alar on March 26, with the Class X felony charge of “armed habitual criminal” being the most serious. In that charge, Alar is accused of knowingly possessing a Taurus 9mm handgun after being convicted of the Class X felony of unlawful use of a weapon as a felon in a Winnebago County in 2017 under the Illinois Controlled Substances Act.

In Illinois, a Class X felony is a high-level criminal offense that calls for mandatory sentencing of 6 to 30 years, if the defendant is found guilty. These crimes are severe and cover a wide range of offenses, including armed robbery, predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, and first-degree murder.

Alar is also facing misdemeanor charges of DUI and aggravated assault. The assault charge accuses Alar of pointing a firearm at a man and placing that man in “reasonable apprehension of receiving a battery.”

Charging documents say that the offenses occurred on or about March 8.