A drunken mistake leads to 6 months in jail

A Lakemoor man who stumbled into the wrong house -- the really wrong house -- during a drunken stupor in 2005 was sentenced this week to six months in the McHenry County jail after pleading guilty to a felony trespassing charge.

Reed J. Scott, 24, was nearing the end of a night of drinking Sept. 25, 2005, when, believing he was walking into a friend's house, found himself instead breaking and entering into the home of McHenry police Sgt. John Jones.

Jones was on duty at the time and the first officer on the scene in response to his wife's 911 call. Once inside his house, Jones and Scott got into an altercation that left the sergeant with an injured back and the intruder with a badly bruised eye.

It also left Scott in jail facing home invasion, residential burglary, aggravated battery, criminal trespassing and resisting arrest charges that could have sent him to prison for as long as 30 years.

Instead, he will spend 30 months on probation -- the first six of them in jail -- as part of a plea deal reached with McHenry County prosecutors.

Assistant McHenry County State's Attorney Mary Baccam said she agreed to drop the more serious charges because of Scott's clean record and out of respect for the Joneses' wishes.

"The victims were quite compassionate in this case, perhaps more compassionate than (Scott) deserved for what he did," Assistant McHenry County State's Attorney Mary Baccam said. "They weren't out to get this kid on a 30-year prison sentence."

Scott's attorney, Matthew Haiduk, described the incident as a drunken mistake and said his client "feels horribly" for the Jones family.

"If there was something he could do to take that night back, he would do it," Haiduk said. "He certainly did not set out that night to harm anybody."