Court orders new sentence in fatal Crystal Lake DUI

A state appeals court has thrown out the nine-year prison sentence handed down to a convicted drunken driver blamed in a 2005 crash that killed an Algonquin woman.

In a unanimous decision ordering a new sentence, the Second District Appellate Court ruled a McHenry County judge sentenced Beata Zarzecki under the wrong state statute and, as a result, did not give enough consideration to probation instead of prison.

Zarzecki, 47, of Carpentersville, returned to the McHenry County jail Monday, where she likely will remain without bond until re-sentencing. A second sentencing hearing could be scheduled Wednesday, when Zarzecki is expected to appear in court.

Zarzecki was sentenced to prison in January 2007, three months after pleading guilty to a charge of aggravated driving under the influence. The charge was filed after authorities said Zarzecki caused a July 2005 crash that took the life of Charlotte Rymark, 63, and seriously injured her husband.

Authorities said Zarzecki was driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.254 percent -- more than three times the legal limit -- when her car collided with the rear of Rymark's vehicle along Route 31 near Three Oaks Road in Crystal Lake.

At Zarzecki's sentencing, Judge Joseph Condon acted on a new state law that said someone convicted in a fatal DUI should go to prison unless there are "extraordinary circumstances" making probation necessary.

However, the appellate court ruled that Zarzecki should have been sentenced under the law in effect when the fatal crash occurred. That law, according to the court's 11-page decision, said probation was preferable unless circumstances called for a prison term instead.

The new law, the court ruled, makes probation virtually impossible in fatal DUIs.

Zarzecki attorney Michael McNerney said Condon could re-sentence Zarzecki to the same nine years in prison or even longer, but he hopes the appellate ruling persuades the judge to order probation instead.

"I believe all the standards for probation are in place with her," McNerney said.

County prosecutors say they will ask for the same nine-year prison term.

"We believe that when you apply the statute in the manner it existed when the offense was committed, the nine-year sentence still is appropriate," said Nichole Owens, criminal chief for the McHenry County state's attorney.