He was sentenced to 5 years in prison. Why did he spend just 14 days behind bars?
Jonathan Franco was sentenced this month to five years in prison after pleading guilty to reckless homicide in connection with a 2019 crash that killed a 35-year-old father from Carol Stream.
But the 24-year-old Streamwood man then spent just 14 days behind bars before going free.
What’s behind the apparent discrepancy between sentence and reality? Chalk it up to a January 2021 change in state law that allows time spent on electronic monitoring to be deducted from prison or jail sentences.
It’s long been routine for defendants to get time knocked off a sentence for any days they spend locked up in a county jail while awaiting trial or a change of plea.
But now the Illinois Department of Corrections is awarding the same credit — often at a rate of two days for one served — for time spent out of custody, but under some other restriction, such as home detention or electronic monitoring.
In Franco’s case, he spent slightly more than 2½ years wearing a GPS monitor before his sentencing. So, by the time he was sentenced this month, most of his five-year term already was considered served.
Franco initially was charged with aggravated driving under the influence of drugs, reckless homicide and aggravated reckless driving stemming from the Jan. 12, 2019 crash that killed Carol Stream resident Jason Moore and severely injured his 12-year-old son.
Authorities at the time said Franco was under the influence of cannabis while driving north on County Farm Road near Lawrence Avenue in Hanover Park when his vehicle crossed into the southbound lanes and hit Moore’s car.
Franco admitted guilt to reckless homicide April 30, and was sentenced June 7, according to DuPage County court records. He got out of jail June 21.
DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin declined to comment on Franco’s case.
Czernek-linked contractor loses appeal
A suburban contractor found guilty of paying former Bloomingdale Township Highway Commissioner Robert Czernek more than $280,000 in kickbacks shouldn’t get a new trial over “harmless” prosecutorial errors during his trial, a federal appeals court has ruled.
Mario Giannini, 61, of Bloomingdale, is serving a five-year prison sentence for his conviction on 14 counts of wire fraud stemming from a scheme prosecutors say he and Czernek ran between 2012 and 2020.
According to prosecutors, Giannini submitted inflated or fake invoices to the township from Bulldog Earth Movers Inc., a Bloomingdale-based excavation company owned by his girlfriend. Czernek would authorize payment of the bills, and he and Giannini would share in the excess cash, prosecutors said.
Czernek, 72, pleaded guilty in 2022 to one count of wire fraud and testified against Giannini. He later was sentenced to 3⅟₂ years in prison and forfeited several items purchased with his ill-gotten gains, including a 2014 Lexus RX350, a 1966 Buick Wildcat and a 1981 Chevrolet Corvette.
Giannini’s appeal rested on two purported errors that occurred during his 2022 trial: prosecutors’ late disclosure of an FBI agent’s notes from his interview with Czernek, and prosecutors citing alleged criminal acts by Giannini’s girlfriend, Debra Fazio, during closing arguments — and after she had been acquitted.
The appellate court said neither changed the trial’s outcome.
“Even if it was error to allow the comments, it was harmless because, had the prosecutors not referenced Fazio, Giannini would not have been acquitted in light of the overwhelming evidence against him, as well as the weakness of his defense,” Judge Thomas L. Kirsch II wrote in the unanimous ruling.
Federal prison records show Giannini is serving his sentence at a minimum-security prison camp in Duluth, Minnesota. He’s eligible for release in April 2027. Czernek is at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, with a projected release date of April 2026.
German import
The newest addition to the Arlington Heights Police Department is an import.
Police dog Atlas formally joined the force last week with a swearing-in ceremony led by Mayor Tom Hayes. He’ll be partnered with officer Jeffrey Heffernan, a six-year veteran and winner of the department’s L.W. Calderwood Officer of the Year Award in 2021.
The 2⅟₂-year-old German shepherd was, fittingly, born in Germany and arrived in the U.S. earlier this year.
He and Heffernan graduated June 7 from a rigorous eight-week training program, covering obedience, agility, tracking, searches, handler protection, criminal apprehension and drug detection. It all culminated with Atlas’ state certification.
The department’s police dog program is financed largely from law enforcement asset forfeitures, most often associated with illegal narcotic activity, officials said.
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