Mom who drove drunk with 2 kids sentenced
BY BILL BIRD wbird@stmedianetwork.com August 30, 2012 7:46PM
Updated: October 3, 2012 6:13AM
A Naperville woman who drove drunk earlier this summer with her young son and infant daughter in the back seat of her car has been ordered to perform community service work and undergo DUI education as part of her sentence.
Jacqueline N. Sparks was convicted in DuPage County Circuit Court of a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol with a blood alcohol level of .08 or more. Companion charges of driving under the influence of alcohol, endangering the health or life of a child, driving without insurance, disobeying a stop sign and failure to signal when changing lanes were dismissed, according to court records.
Sparks, 25, lives on the 1600 block of Country Lakes Drive, in the Country Lakes area of Naperville’s far northwest side. She pleaded guilty Aug. 15 to the DUI charge.
Judge James J. Konetski on Wednesday ordered Sparks to perform 200 hours of public service work and enroll in a Level 1 DUI education course, court records showed. Konetski also placed Sparks on 18 months of court supervision and ordered her to pay a total of $1,934 in fines and court costs, records indicated.
A Naperville police officer stopped Sparks about 11:45 p.m. June 30 near the intersection of Aurora and Ogden avenues on the city’s west side. The officer was on patrol when he saw Sparks’ Chevrolet Malibu “make a wide turn and drive out of its lane” near Aurora Avenue and Whispering Hills Drive, a short distance to the east, police Sgt. Gregg Bell said in early July.
“Once stopped, (Sparks) was noted to be under the influence of alcohol,” Bell said. The officer also discovered two children in the back seat.
The children proved to be a 5-year-old boy and a 3-month-old girl. Bell said they were released into the custody of one of the children’s biological fathers after he arrived on the scene.
Bell added police did not know where Sparks had been prior to her arrest.
