Woman gets 9 years - again - in fatal DUI crash
A new sentencing hearing Tuesday ended with the same nine-year prison term today for a 47-year-old Carpentersville woman whose drunken driving caused a 2005 crash that claimed the life of an Algonquin woman.
As he did 18 months ago, McHenry County Judge Joseph Condon ruled that sending Beata Zarzecki to prison would deter others from committing the same crime and anything less would minimize the severity of her crime.
"Probation or conditional discharge would deprecate the seriousness of the offense and would be inconsistent with the ends of justice," Condon said. "I reach that conclusion without difficulty."
The sentence is identical to one Condon issued in January 2007 after Zarzecki pleaded guilty to aggravated DUI in connection with the July 26, 2005, crash that killed Charlotte Rymark, 63, and seriously injured her husband, Bob Rymark.
A state appeals court overturned the sentence earlier this year, ruling that Condon sentenced Zarzecki under the wrong state statute and did not give enough consideration to probation instead of prison.
Authorities said Zarzecki was driving with a blood-alcohol level more than three times the legal limit, and with open alcohol in her car, when the vehicle slammed into the rear of the Rymarks' vehicle along Route 31 near Three Oaks Road in Crystal Lake.
Police estimated that Zarzecki was traveling about 80 mph and showed no signs of braking before the collision.
Health problems, some related to the crash and its aftermath, prevented Bob Rymark from attending Tuesday's court hearing. But in a statement read by a family friend he asked for another long prison term.
"Our family feels the court had it right the first time," he wrote. "Applying probation in this case discounts the fine police work and discredits the memory of my wife."
Rymark also questioned whether Zarzecki was remorseful for her actions, a statement later keyed upon by Condon, who noted that she steadfastly has refused substance abuse treatment since her arrest in 2005.
"The defendant declines to take responsibility for the decisions that brought her to where she is today," he said.
Zarzecki did not speak on her own behalf during Tuesday's proceedings, but instead submitted a letter to the court describing the toll her prison sentence has taken on her and her family. She again blamed her actions on mental health issues she was trying to cope with by drinking heavily the day of the crash.
"I did not act with malice to harm anybody," she wrote. "It is my mind malady I am blaming."
The Rymarks' daughter, Mary O'Brien, said afterward she was happy Condon stuck by his original nine-year sentence.
"Everybody has a bad day," she said in a statement to the court. "It is not OK to do whatever it takes to make yourself feel better at the cost of others, especially when a person loses their life."