Man who injured 2 in Hampshire DUI in 2010 faces new DUI charge
A South Elgin man who escaped a prison term in a DUI crash that injured an elderly Hampshire couple two years ago has been charged again with DUI, according to court records.
Eric M. Barth, 23, of the 1300 block of Sandhurst Lane, was charged Christmas Day with driving on a revoked or suspended license and aggravated DUI, a felony that carries a prison term of up to three years, records show.
At sentencing last year, Judge David Akemann imposed a five-year prison term, but also recommended, over prosecutor objections, that prison officials consider Barth for boot camp, an alternative sentencing program for nonviolent offenders. That move was granted.
Barth is being held on $100,000 bail at the Kane County jail and is due in court on Jan. 4.
No details on Barth's latest arrest were immediately available from the Kane County Sheriff's Department on Tuesday. Barth is not charged with injuring anyone; his other ticket is for disobeying a stop sign.
In the earlier case, Barth was charged with felony DUI in the Dec. 29, 2010 head-on crash into a car at Plank and Brier Hill roads in Plato Township.
One of the victims, an elderly woman, sustained a torn diaphragm, a collapsed lung, broken collarbone and crushed hand that took away her ability to raise and train Belgian shepherds. The woman's husband also suffered a broken leg, two broken bones in his neck and a broken shoulder from the impact caused by Barth's pickup truck.
Barth, whom prosecutors said had a blood alcohol concentration of .27, more than three times the legal threshold of .08, served 311 days in jail before he was sentenced in November, 2011.
Nils Von Kuedell, an attorney who represented Barth in the 2010 case, did not return a phone message.
According to court records, Tuesday marked the third time Barth was arrested on felony charges in Kane County. In 2008, he was charged by the sheriff's office of felony criminal damage to government property, along with misdemeanors of reckless driving, disorderly conduct and consumption of alcohol by a minor.
The felony charges were reduced to a misdemeanor, records show.
He also pleaded guilty earlier this month to misdemeanor driving with a suspended license from a November 2012 arrest and was fined $500, records show.