Former Rock Falls bar owner charged with burglary

STERLING – A former Rock Falls tavern owner was arrested early Wednesday after a foot chase and charged with burglary, Sterling police said in a news release.

Police responding to a burglar alarm about 4:30 a.m. at Vegas Slots & Lounge, 2313 E. Lincolnway, chased Brent J. Sisson, 46, of Rock Falls, who was fleeing the scene, according to the release.

After his arrest, police found evidence of another break-in at Corporate Services next door, Detective Maggie Ellmaker said.

Sisson is tentatively charged with two counts of felony burglary, three felony counts of aggravated battery of an officer, and felony possession of burglary tools, as well as two counts of resisting arrest and one of obstructing his ID, which are misdemeanors.

Formal charges had not yet been filed in Whiteside County Court as of 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Burglary and battery of an officer are punishable by three to seven years in prison; possession of burglary tools by one to three years.

Sisson has a 1997 felony conviction in Whiteside County for obstruction, for which he was sentenced to 2½ years’ probation.

He is in Whiteside County jail pending a detention hearing.

Sisson was the co-owner of the defunct The Dead Tree Tavern, 102 W. Second St. in Rock Falls, which was inside the Touch of Thai 2 restaurant.

The bar opened in summer 2014 and has been closed since at least March 2019, when the liquor license expired, state records show.

Sisson also is a defendant in two pending civil suits, filed in 2017, in which the owner of the building, Trirong Kuhntangta, accuses him of gutting the second floor without his permission, causing damages in excess of $50,000, and of owing him more than $60,000 for a bank loan Kuhntangta repaid for him and his business partner, his brother and co-defendant in the second suit, Brian D. Sisson of Rock Falls.

A case management conference is set for Jan. 8 in both.