Loophole closed in sentencing law

A St. Charles man was supposed to serve three years in prison after he violated his probation in the 2001 drunk driving death of a 37-year-old father of three.

Instead, a loophole in state law meant Richard Ruane got out of prison after just one month.

On Jan. 1, that loophole will close.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich recently signed into law a measure that the Kane County state's attorney's office helped draft with the widow of Aurora resident Tod Hopphan.

"I'm just really glad that something good came out of this. It's been really hard on my family. Hopefully, we can move on," Deb Hopphan said.

Ruane was 16 on June 30, 2001 when he ran a stop sign at Bolcum and Randall roads following a night of heavy drinking.

Hopphan, golf superintendent at Elgin Country Club, died when his pickup truck burst into flames. He was on his way to work.

In 2002, Ruane was sentenced to four years probation and one year of imprisonment to be served on weekends and summer vacation after pleading guilty to drunk driving.

The hope was that Ruane could be rehabilitated and teach others about his mistake. Instead, he used court-ordered talks at victim impact panels to pick up teenage girls, tested positive for alcohol while on a work-release program and ignored substance abuse evaluations and treatment for more than two years.

Ruane was re-sentenced in October 2004 to three years in prison. But the state's probation laws and credit earned for good behavior allowed him to get out Dec. 23, 2004.

Under the new law, defendants who serve periodic jail time will receive credit only for the time they were actually in jail.

"That's what I was hoping for," said Hopphan, who worked with Assistant State's Attorney Christine Downs to draft changes. "I was very upset."

Kane County State's Attorney John Barsanti said the law will ensure more time behind bars if probation is violated during periodic imprisonment, which is not a common sentence.

"The impact is to create a lot more incarceration," he said. "The importance cannot be underestimated with how much more the community will be protected."

In March, Ruane, now 22, was sentenced to three years in prison for obstructing justice. He had pleaded guilty to giving police a false name and showing a fraudulent identification card when caught drinking at St. Charles party in 2005.

Also effective Jan. 1 is a new law that allows fees collected from people charged with passing bad checks to be used for general prosecution.

Barsanti said his office has collected more than $100,000 over the past four years. He said it likely would be used for a capital purchase.