Man convicted of 11th DUI, 25th driving on suspended license

A man who recently earned his 11th conviction for drunk driving was sentenced to 10 years in state prison Thursday by a Kane County Judge, authorities said.

Since 1992, Michael J. Picon, formerly of West Chicago, has been convicted of driving on a suspended license 25 times, in addition to his 11 DUI convictions, the Kane County State's Attorney's office said in a release.

In January, Picon, now of the Quad Cities, plead guilty to a felony DUI charge stemming from his latest DUI arrest in April of last year, authorities said.

About 10 p.m. April 16th, a Kane County Forest Preserve officer saw Picon pull his full-sized Dodge pickup off a road near west suburban Sugar Grove. When the officer stopped to make sure Picon was not in distress, he smelled the strong odor of alcohol wafting off his breath, prosecutors said.

Noting signs of intoxication, as well as spilled beer on the truck floor and an opened 12-pack of beer cans in the cab, police asked Picon to perform field-sobriety tests, which he failed, prosecutors said.

Picon told police he had been drinking at a friend's house, but refused to submit to blood-alcohol testing, the release states.

Picon's sentence will be reduced by 264 days for time already served awaiting trial and sentencing, according to the release.

Picon's various drunk driving convictions come from arrests made in Kane, DuPage and Rock Island Counties, the release states.