Wonder Lake man sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to sexual abuse charges

David Kimble’s attorney called the negotiation a ‘plea of convenience,’ adding that the charges against his client were ‘preposterous’

A Wonder Lake man whose 2013 sexual abuse trial ended with a hung jury was sentenced to probation last week after pleading guilty to charges filed in that case and another, which prosecutors filed in 2018.

David Kimble, 53, pleaded guilty on Sept. 2 to two separate counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse – one from the 2013 case and one from 2018.

McHenry County Judge Michael Coppedge accepted the plea and sentenced Kimble to four years of probation and 180 days in the county jail. Kimble also must receive sex offender treatment as a condition of his sentence, court records show.

The 2013 case against Kimble went back and forth between Illinois’ higher courts before the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that Kimble could be tried again on multiple aggravated criminal sexual abuse charges.

By that time, McHenry County prosecutors already had filed charges in connection with separate allegations that were nearly a decade old. Kimble’s attorney Matthew Haiduk said on Wednesday that prosecutors couldn’t prove the charges and that he didn’t “trust the state to get it right.”

“This was a plea of convenience,” Haiduk said. “These charges are preposterous.”

Kimble’s trial on 2013 sex abuse charges left jurors at an impasse, prompting now-retired McHenry County Judge Sharon Prather to declare a mistrial. When Kimble’s lawyer moved to dismiss the charges, claiming his client didn’t consent to a mistrial, the Illinois Appellate court determined that a retrial would be a violation of Kimble’s rights.

The Illinois Supreme Court went on to rule in 2019, however, that Kimble could be retried in the 2013 case. Two justices – Anne Burke and Scott Neville – filed dissenting opinions, claiming that retrying Kimble on the same charges would constitute double jeopardy.

By the time the Supreme Court’s ruling came down, McHenry County prosecutors had opened a new case against Kimble, alleging that he made inappropriate contact with a child in 2011.

Kimble also was accused of failing to surrender his state firearm owner’s identification card while free on bond when the 2013 charges were pending against him.

Those charges were dismissed on Sept. 2 as part of Kimble’s plea deal.