Arlington Heights man arrested for 10th DUI
An Arlington Heights man already convicted nine times of driving under the influence was arrested again Wednesday after police spotted his car weaving between lanes a few blocks from his home around 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
The man, 58-year-old Patrick J. Kolman, has DUI convictions that date back to 1993. Although he has been in and out of jail, Kolman received one-year sentences for many of his drunken driving crimes. He has also been charged with bank robbery, for which he got a much longer sentence, and domestic abuse.
"The police are doing their job, they are picking this guy up; the breakdown is at the bench," said Charlene Chapman, executive director of the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists, based in Schaumburg. "Judges have to give out tougher sentences."
Typically, there are more than 5,000 drivers on Illinois roads with six or more DUI convictions, Chapman said.
Kolman's downward spiral began in the spring of 1992. He was arrested on a charge of drunken driving in Rolling Meadows with a blood-alcohol content more than three times the .08 percent legal limit.
"I am an alcoholic," Kolman told law enforcement officials then. "I can't drink at all."
Details about the length of some of Kolman's DUI sentences is sketchy. A 1995 DUI arrest resulted in a one-year jail sentence and placement in a drug and alcohol program. But in 1996, Kolman was charged with DUI on April 7, April 14, April 26 and May 1. He was sentenced to a total of one year in DuPage County jail.
Kolman likely served only half that time because of good behavior credits. He was stopped again in mid-1997 for driving after his license had been revoked. He was sentenced to two years and served time at the Dixon Correctional Center, according to corrections department records.
Kolman, of 124 S. Vail St., appeared in bond court for his most recent DUI arrest in Rolling Meadows on Wednesday. After he told the judge he was unable to post the $150,000 bond, he appeared to suffer from a medical problem and was rushed to Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, said Cmdr. Nick Pecora of the Arlington Heights Police Department.
He was treated and released, according to a hospital spokesman.
"His driver's license was revoked in 1992 and he's probably never had a valid license since then," Pecora said.
When he was pulled over on Wednesday at Arlington Heights and Central roads, Kolman had "bloodshot eyes and a strong odor of alcohol," according to the police report.
He then failed sobriety and a breathalyzer tests, the report states.
Kolman was charged with five counts of aggravated driving under the influence and aggravated driving while license revoked on Wednesday. His next court appearance will be July 29 in Rolling Meadows.
A former plumber, Kolman had a house and family in Arlington Heights before his drinking problem led to repeated DUIs and a divorce.
"I have thrown away keys. I have flattened tires. I have cut wires to try to keep him off roads," his ex-wife, Susan McKay, told the Daily Herald in 2000 for a series on repeat DUI offenders. "But I finally decided it was doing me no good."
McKay couldn't be reached on Wednesday.
The 2000 story told how Kolman tried to drive cross country to his parents' home in Maryland but was arrested in Ohio for driving drunk. His now-deceased father bailed him out, but McKay said he was arrested again on the way back the same week.
None of the support from family, friends or alcohol counseling seemed to help.
He found bars that closed at 2 a.m. and others that opened at 6 a.m., McKay said.
Kolman spent 30 days in an alcohol treatment program at the Hazelden Foundation in Minnesota in 1992, an alcohol evaluation showed. McKay said he arrived home from it drunk.
Kolman was once diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver, but continued to drink after treatment and against medical advice, McKay said. He appeared in his booking photo on Wednesday with an oxygen tank.