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Barfly Sentenced To Jail For Battering Naperville Cops

WHEATON, Ill. (STMW) -- A man whose history of reckless and violent behavior spans 25 years has been convicted of hitting and kicking two Naperville police officers last summer as they were ejecting him from a nightclub in the city's downtown.

John W. Vonlehe was found guilty in DuPage County Circuit Court of a reduced charge of battery in the Aug. 26 incident at BlackFinn American Saloon. Companion charges of aggravated battery, resisting or obstructing a police officer and criminal trespass to land were dismissed, according to court records.

Judge Blanche Hill Fawell on Dec. 20 sentenced Vonlehe to 88 days in DuPage County Jail, records showed. Vonlehe spent 44 days in the jail following his arrest, and with day-for-day credit for good behavior, has already served his term and been released, records indicated.

Fawell also ordered Vonlehe to serve 30 days in the Sheriff's Work Alternative Program, or SWAP. She also placed him on 18 months of probation, according to records.

Vonlehe, 49, lives on the 0-99 block of East Benton Avenue. He was arrested after refusing to leave BlackFinn American Saloon, 16 W. Jefferson Ave.

A police spokesman in August said officers were sent that evening to the bar to investigate a report of a drunken patron. The man, later identified as Vonlehe, ignored repeated orders that he leave the premises, the spokesman said.

Vonlehe tried to grab one of the officers and ended up slapping the officer's hand, the spokesman said. Another officer was kicked repeatedly by Vonlehe but not seriously hurt, the spokesman said.

DuPage County court records revealed Vonlehe since 1987 has been convicted four other times of battery. He has also been found guilty twice of drunken driving, twice of resisting or obstructing police and once of telephone harassment, records showed.

The battery cases occurred between April 1987 and April 2009 in Roselle, Lombard and Naperville, according to records. Vonlehe was fined and placed on supervision in the first three matters and sentenced to jail in the 2009 crime, records indicated.

The drunken driving arrests occurred in August 1992 in Lisle and March 1993 in Oakbrook Terrace, records showed. Vonlehe was fined after being convicted in both cases and ordered to serve in SWAP following the Oakbrook Terrace conviction.

He was ordered to serve in SWAP again after being found guilty of resisting Naperville police in August 1996, and served a stint in jail after resisitng Naperville police in April 2009, according to records. He was fined in the telephone harassment case, which occurred in March 1998 in Naperville.

(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2012. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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