McHenry County man gets seven years in prison for 6th DUI

A 49-year-old northern McHenry County man was sentenced Tuesday to seven years in prison on his sixth conviction for driving under the influence, the latest stemming from an incident in which authorities say he ran a sheriff's deputy off the road.

Kevin M. O'Reilly will serve at least half of that sentence, handed down by a judge who said the Wonder Lake man had blown too many second chances to avoid a stay in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

"You've been given a lot of opportunities by the courts (to get your life together) and you just haven't done it," McHenry County Judge Sharon Prather said.

A jury convicted O'Reilly in September of aggravated DUI in connection with a June 23, 2006, traffic stop near his hometown. Authorities said a McHenry County Sheriff's deputy pulled O'Reilly over about 2:07 a.m. that day after the defendant's pickup truck swerved into oncoming traffic on East Wonder Lake Road, forcing the deputy to drive off the road to avoid a crash.

O'Reilly, according to county prosecutors, later refused to take field sobriety or a Breathalyzer exam, but deputies found a water bottle that smelled of alcohol in the passenger compartment of his truck.

Court records indicate O'Reilly's DUI history dates back to the late 1980s and he has convictions in both McHenry and Lake counties. His most recent before the 2006 case was a 2001 conviction in Lake County, for which he was sentenced to two years probation.