Driver who told cops he’d been drinking sentenced in DUI case
BY BILL BIRD wbird@stmedianetwork.com December 6, 2012 9:18PM
Updated: December 12, 2012 10:59AM
A motorist who admitted to Naperville police that he tried to get away from them because he had been drinking has been convicted of driving drunk in the city’s downtown.
Maksim A. Pakhutko has been arrested or ticketed 10 times in 10 years on traffic-related charges, according to records on file in DuPage County Circuit Court in Wheaton. His most recent arrest occurred last spring near Van Buren Avenue and Main Street in Naperville.
Pakhutko, 27, pleaded guilty May 29 to charges of driving under the influence of alcohol and disobeying a police officer, court records showed. A second DUI count and charges of leaving the scene of an accident involving damage to an attended vehicle and improper backing of a vehicle on a roadway were dismissed.
Judge James J. Konetski on Nov. 27 convicted Pakhutko, placing him on a year of supervision and ordering him to undergo substance abuse counseling, records indicated. Konetski also assessed a total of $2,500 in fines and court costs, according to records.
A Naperville police officer was on foot patrol about 1:55 a.m. April 28 near Jefferson Avenue and Washington Street when he noted Pakhutko sitting at the wheel of a parked, black, 2004 Audi A4. A police spokesman in April said the officer watched as Pakhutko backed the car into a parked, red sedan.
The officer used a flashlight to get Pakhutko’s attention and ordered him to stop, the spokesman said. Pakhutko instead drove west onto Jefferson Avenue and then north on Main Street, the spokesman said.
A police emergency radio bulletin that included a description of Pakhutko’s car was then broadcast. Another officer quickly curbed the car at Van Buren Avenue.
That officer asked Pakhutko why he had driven away from the crash scene. The spokesman said Pakhutko replied “he was afraid to stop because he had been drinking.”
Pakhutko’s record includes traffic violations in Bartlett, Carol Stream and West Chicago, among other DuPage County cities and villages.
