/Carol Stream

Driver in fatal crash gets jail

The motorist involved in a collision that killed a bicyclist last spring on his 53rd birthday will spend 30 days in DuPage County Jail as part of his sentence.

Davor Jovic, a 21-year-old Winfield resident with a checkered driving record, is expected to report to jail Jan. 22, following his conviction on a charge of driving with a suspended license.
 
Mike Rigdon was killed when a bicycle he was riding collided with a car driven by Davor Jovic.
Sun file
A DuPage County Circuit Court judge on Dec. 10 found Jovic guilty in the case that took the life of John "Mike" Rigdon, a Carol Stream resident and father of two. Jovic's car and Rigdon's bicycle apparently collided June 12 near the intersection of Armbrust Avenue and Pleasant Hill Road in an unincorporated area of Milton Township near Wheaton.

Jovic was also placed on a year of probation and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service work. He must also submit to random testing for alcohol and narcotics abuse.

Rigdon at the time was roughly 20 yards from the Illinois Prairie Path, which he used to travel to and from his job in Glen Ellyn. He was forced to pedal his bicycle south in Pleasant Hill Drive's northbound lane because of a lack of bike lanes or adequate sidewalks there.

Jovic has been ticketed at least eight times in less than four years by police in Carol Stream, Glendale Heights, Westmont, Wheaton and Winfield, as well as agents of Illinois State Police and the DuPage County sheriff's office, according to court records. Charges against him have included speeding, disobeying a traffic signal and underage possession or consumption of alcohol, court records showed.

Word of the jail sentence brought little solace to members of Rigdon's family, including his sister, Lori DeMarke of Texas.

"My mother, my sister and I have all talked about it, and it wouldn't have been celebratory for us, because it's not like having Mike back," DeMarke said earlier this week.

"There's no penance that he can pay," DeMarke said of Jovic. "There's really nothing he can do that can make things right for us."

DeMarke said family members have found some comfort in the recent actions of the Milton Township Highway Department. Construction crews late last month installed part of an extension that eventually should link a sidewalk on Jerome Avenue to the Prairie Path, near the place where the collision occurred.

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