Elgin man charged with 6th DUI after crash

An Elgin man faces mandatory prison time after being arrested on charges of his sixth DUI after an early morning crash Sunday.

Laurencio C. Pena Jr., 46. of the 700 block of Joan Court, faces felony charges of aggravated DUI/sixth offense or more, aggravated DUI on a suspended license and no insurance, Kane County court records show.

Pena was arrested after he crashed his 2002 Chevy Impala while eastbound on Route 20, east of Randall Road, according to an Elgin police report.

An officer responded to the emergency room at Presence St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin at about 4:05 a.m. Sunday, about an hour after Pena wrecked on Route 20, according to a police report. Pena refused chemical tests, and a doctor said Pena had been in the same ER earlier that morning.

While there, the doctor said, Pena made statements he wanted to harm himself and others, and said he used cocaine on a daily basis. Tests showed Pena had a blood-alcohol concentration of .113, the report said.

Pena tried to remove hospital restraints and needed to be sedated before he was charged with DUI, the report said.

An officer at the crash scene also wrote in a sworn statement Pena smelled of alcohol and told the officer he took a Valium before the crash, records show.

Pena has DUI arrests from November 2001 and July 2003 in Kane County, court records show. Information regarding Pena's other DUI arrests was not immediately available.

He also has felony arrests for possession of a controlled substance in March 2014 and forgery in May 2013, for which he was ordered to pay $3,500, serve 45 days in jail and complete two years of probation, records show.

Pena is next due in court Friday. If convicted of the most severe charge, he faces between six and 30 years in prison with no chance of probation.