A Sterling man has been sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty in two aggravated battery cases, one of which involved a police officer.

Austin M. Hey, 30, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a 2024 aggravated battery charge – a Class 2 felony because it involved a police officer – under a plea deal with Whiteside County prosecutors.

Six other charges were dismissed as part of the agreement. They include two felony counts of resisting a police officer, two misdemeanor charges of resisting a police officer and one charge each of leaving the scene and failure to reduce speed.

According to court documents, all seven charges stem from a July 24, 2024, incident in which Hey was accused of speeding on Illinois 40 in Rock Falls, crashing into a yield sign and a light pole, and then leaving the scene.

He was also accused of hitting a police officer on the chin, fleeing on foot, failing to obey officers’ commands and failing to put his arms behind his back, according to court documents.

Hey also pleaded guilty Tuesday to a charge of aggravated battery on a public way filed in a 2023 case. He was accused of beating a woman in June 2023 while they were at West Fifth Street and Avenue F in Sterling.

According to court records, he harmed the woman by punching her in the face multiple times as she was sitting in her vehicle while it was on the road. He also was sentenced to four years in prison in that case, was ordered to pay a total of $2,118 in fines and fees, and will serve one year of mandatory supervised release after he is released from prison.

Hey has had a string of battery convictions over the past decade, records show:

• In March 2014, he pleaded guilty in Whiteside County to misdemeanor domestic battery and was sentenced to 36 days in jail.
• In October 2016, Hey was sentenced in Whiteside County to two years in prison after pleading guilty to domestic battery/1-2 prior convictions. Charges of aggravated domestic battery/strangulation, domestic battery and unlawful restraint were dismissed.
• In December 2024, he pleaded guilty to aggravated battery in a public place in a Lee County case filed against him in October 2023. He was ordered to serve two days in the Lee County Jail and 30 months of probation.