A suburban Chicago man has been sentenced in the hit-and-run death of a retired police officer

CHICAGO– A suburban Chicago man has been sentenced to more than four years in prison after pleading guilty in a 2022 crash that killed a retired Chicago police officer.

Ted Plevritis, of Palatine, Illinois, pleaded guilty Tuesday to failing to report the crash and was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison, WLS-TV reported. He was credited with spending nearly two years behind bars.

Plevritis was originally charged with several crimes, including failure to report an accident resulting in death and reckless homicide in a motor vehicle in the death of Rick Haljean, 57.

Haljean was crossing a road in Chicago’s Edison Park neighborhood in January 2022 when he was struck and killed by a vehicle driven by Plevritis, then 62, Chicago police said.

Plevritis did not stop to help Haljean, continued driving and fled the scene, according to a police accident report. A passerby provided CPR to Haljean, who was pronounced dead at a hospital.

The retired officer, a father of three, had served as a Chicago police officer for more than 30 years.

Plevritis surrendered to police about a month after Haljean’s death.