Sterling man serving 8 years for 2017 drunken driving death can again try to withdraw plea

Aug. 15—The state’s appellate court has vacated a Whiteside County judge’s 2024 ruling denying a Sterling man’s motion to withdraw the guilty plea he made three years ago in the 2017 drunken driving death of a Sterling woman.

Illinois’ appellate court, in a ruling filed June 13, said Douglas Strehlow can once again make a motion for the circuit court to consider whether he can withdraw his 2022 guilty plea to aggravated driving under the influence resulting in the death of Summer D. Harmon, 40. He also can ask the court once again to reconsider his 8-year sentence, which he deems excessive.

Strehlow, whose blood-alcohol concentration was almost three times the legal limit at the time, was traveling south on Route 40 in rural Sterling, just north of Fulfs Road, about 2:40 a.m. Aug. 19, 2017, when his pickup hit Harmon’s vehicle almost head on, according to court documents. Harmon, also of Sterling, died three days later. Strehlow pleaded guilty in November 2022 and was sentenced on Sept. 25, 2023, to eight years in prison.

He has appealed his case two times since then.

Strehlow’s first appeal was shot down because, according to court documents, his attorney, Louis Pignatelli, did not file a certificate pursuant to Illinois Supreme Court Rule 604(d) when seeking the appeal.

After the case was remanded, Pignatelli filed a motion to reconsider Strehlow’s sentence and a motion to withdraw his guilty plea. The hearing on those motions, which took place in September 2024, was overseen by Whiteside County Judge Trish Senneff, who also had been the sentencing judge in 2023.

At the 2024 hearing, Strehlow testified that he should be able to withdraw his plea because he was on several medications that could have affected his judgment as he made his decision to plead guilty. He also asked for his sentence to be reconsidered because he believes it to be excessive. He said at the 2024 hearing that he was surprised at the length of the sentence, as he thought he would get a shorter sentence based on discussions with Pignatelli after a 402 conference concerning the case in 2021.

When Strehlow, under questioning by Pignatelli, told Senneff during the 2024 hearing that he wasn’t sure how much the medications had affected him and they may have clouded his judgment at the time he pleaded guilty, Senneff would not accept that testimony.

“This is the very first time any of us are hearing this,” Senneff said of Strehlow’s claims. She also said Strehlow had not provided any expert…