Quiet friends keep Lakemoor driver out of prison

A Lakemoor man won't be facing prison time after pleading guilty Monday to a reduced drunken driving charge stemming from a 2006 crash that injured several of his friends.

And for that, he can thank those same friends.

With their eyewitnesses refusing to cooperate, McHenry County prosecutors lowered felony counts of DUI and leaving the scene of an accident to misdemeanors as part of a plea bargain with Anthony J. Supol.

Under the deal Supol, 27, will face a maximum of one year in the county jail and a $2,500 fine instead of the one to three years in a state prison he could have received if found guilty of the initial charges.

The charges stem from a one-car crash Oct. 28, 2006, in McHenry Township that left three of Supol's five passengers injured, including a 28-year-old Algonquin man who suffered a cracked vertebra and dislocated shoulder.

Supol ran away from the scene after the crash, the charges alleged. He was arrested at his home several hours later that day.

"Everyone who was in the vehicle was at least an acquaintance, if not a friend, of the defendant," Assistant McHenry County State's Attorney Ryan Blackney said. "The state has had no cooperation from any of the witnesses, most importantly (the Algonquin man) who does not want to testify and will not testify."

The man, Blackney said, went as far as to hire an attorney to try to block him from being forced to testify against his friend.

Supol's attorney, Henry Sugden, said his client still denies he was behind the wheel when the crash occurred, but took the misdemeanor conviction rather than risk a felony and prison sentence.

Supol is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 23.