Hanover Park dad gets 5 days in jail for losing temper at game

A Hanover Park father who lost his temper at his daughter's softball game must spend five days in jail, undergo anger-management counseling and apologize, a judge ordered Tuesday.

But 47-year-old Michael L. Beck avoided a more lengthy incarceration after pleading guilty to misdemeanor battery and assault for his July 13 tirade at Sunset Park near Downers Grove.

Prosecutor Louisa Nuckolls said a DuPage County deputy sheriff was called to the park after Beck threatened physical harm to a youth softball umpire at his daughter's championship softball game.

As the deputy tried to arrest an uncooperative Beck, Nuckolls said the defendant twice spit saliva and sunflower seeds on the deputy, striking him in the face, arms and chest. The deputy was not seriously injured, but had to seek precautionary medical testing to ensure he was not exposed to a communicable disease.

Beck, of the 1600 block of Arlington Drive, faced up to seven years in prison for a felony. Prosecutors agreed, though, to reduce the charge in exchange for his guilty plea. He did not have a criminal past and both victims agreed to the plea deal.

DuPage Circuit Judge Peter Dockery ordered Beck to serve five days in jail, with the caveat he be set free for work, as well as 40 hours public service and two years' probation. Beck also must take anger-management classes and write an apology letter to the umpire and deputy.

He must turn himself in to the DuPage County jail on Monday.