Buckner changes DUI plea to guilty, gets year of conditional release

[March 31, 2022]  By Greg Bishop | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Nearly three years after being charged with DUI in Springfield, state Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, changed his plea to guilty. He’ll serve a conditional discharge, a form of probation, for a year. If the conditions are violated, he could serve up to a month in jail.

Buckner was found by Illinois Secretary of State Police on March 29, 2019, in downtown Springfield just blocks from the Illinois State Capitol behind the wheel of his vehicle, asleep at a traffic signal.

“He was passed out,” Secretary of State Police officer Donald Neice told Springfield Police Officer Dale Davis in body camera footage obtained through the state's Freedom of Information Act. “We went through four light cycles. I hit my air horn a couple of times. He didn’t move, so I went to make contact with him and he was passed out, slumped over.”

Buckner told responding officers then he had one drink.

“One. Just that one right there?” Davis responded, pointing to a clear plastic cup in a center cup holder in the vehicle.

“That was somebody else's,” Buckner said as he held it up in view of the police body camera.

Video still of police body camera footage showing state Rep. Kam Buckner, R-Chicago, holding up a plastic cup during a DUI stop in March 2019.
Springfield Police

Buckner pleaded not guilty in April 2019. In March 2020, COVID-19 led to pretrial hearings being rescheduled with the Sangamon County Circuit Court docket showing a bench trial turning into status hearings and ultimately a guilty plea being entered March 11, 2022.

The fine issued was $1,915. Buckner was given conditional discharge but could serve 30 days jail time if he violates those conditions.

Buckner declined to stop for comment when approached at the state capitol Wednesday.

The trajectory of Buckner’s case was starkly different from a separate lawmaker who was arrested and charged with a DUI just weeks later.

State Rep. Steven Reick, R-Woodstock, was arrested in Springfield on May 2, 2019, for a DUI. He pleaded guilty in August 2019 and got a year of supervision and more than $1,600 in fines.

"He’s accepted responsibility,” Reick’s attorney, Scott Sabin, said at the time. “It’s unfortunate, but it’s not the end of the world. Fortunately, no one was hurt. The laws apply to everybody.”

Greg Bishop reports on Illinois government and other issues for The Center Square. Bishop has years of award-winning broadcast experience and hosts the WMAY Morning Newsfeed out of Springfield.