5-year sentence in DUI crash that hurt pedestrian in Norridge
Tribune staff report
January 8, 2009

A Chicago man whose car hit and injured a pedestrian in Norridge was sentenced Wednesday to 5 years in prison after pleading guilty to drunken driving charges.

Mateo Ortiz, 38, tried to drive away after the Aug. 2 accident, but was stopped by a motorist who witnessed the crash, prosecutors said at a hearing in the Rolling Meadows branch of Cook County Circuit Court.

The motorist blocked Ortiz's car, then reached through a window and took the keys from the ignition, prosecutors said.

Ortiz, of the 3600 block of West Montrose Avenue, pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated driving under the influence. He was arrested after his car hit a 63-year-old man who was walking in the 7200 block of Forest Preserve Boulevard. The victim suffered a broken leg.

At the time, Ortiz was wanted on four other arrest warrants alleging DUI, said Assistant State's Atty. Mike Andre. The warrants were pending because Ortiz, an undocumented immigrant, was using aliases, prosecutors said.

"You're a menace to society," said Judge Thomas Fecarotta Jr. in response to Ortiz's plea for leniency.

A breath test indicated that Ortiz's blood-alcohol level at the time of the accident was 0.18, more than twice the legal limit in Illinois.

Fecarotta said Ortiz could be deported on his release from prison.

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