A 33-year-old Marengo man was sentenced to 5 years in prison this week after pleading guilty to possessing nearly an ounce of cocaine he was carrying when he fled a McHenry County traffic stop in December 2024. Matthew K. Hoff will have to serve half of that sentence before release, followed by 12 months of mandatory supervised release, and he received credit for 243 days already spent in county jail.
Hoff was a passenger in a vehicle stopped on December 16, 2024, when he ran from the scene, according to Shaw Local. Police found more than 21 grams of chalky white powder on him that tested positive for cocaine, and he was ultimately charged with a Class 1 felony for possessing 15 to 100 grams of the drug. He pleaded guilty to that count. Under Illinois law, possessing 15 to 100 grams of cocaine under 720 ILCS 570/402 is a Class 1 felony carrying a statutory prison range of 4 to 15 years and fines of up to $200,000, according to Westlaw.
Prosecutors Dropped a Far Harsher Charge
Hoff also faced a more serious Class X charge of manufacturing and delivering 15 to 100 grams of cocaine and was accused of resisting arrest. A Class X felony carries a non-probationary prison sentence of 6 to 30 years. That six-year minimum is one year longer than the 5-year sentence Hoff received.
At Hoff's initial detention hearing in December 2024, Assistant McHenry County State's Attorney Anthony Marin argued that Hoff possessed a large amount of a controlled substance with no indication it was for personal use, and said numerous tips indicated Hoff was engaged in drug sales in McHenry County. A witness had told police Hoff made a drug drop at an apartment complex before the traffic stop, prosecutors said at the time. Marin also argued that home detention would be ineffective, stating that the addicts Hoff created will seek him out, according to the original Shaw Local account of that hearing.
Defense Pushed Back, Judge Sided With Prosecutors
Assistant Public Defender David Giesinger countered at that same hearing that police had no evidence or allegations that Hoff sold drugs from his residence.
Illinois law bars anyone serving felony probation or conditional discharge from receiving probation again if convicted of a new Class 1 felony, according to the Illinois Unified Code of Corrections.
A Pattern of Run-Ins With Law Enforcement
Hoff's record of friction with law enforcement and correctional staff in McHenry County stretches back years. A McHenry County grand jury indicted him in December 2017, when he was 24, on charges of aggravated battery and resisting a correctional institution employee, according to a Shaw Local report from that year. In January 2023, the McHenry County Sheriff's Office cited Hoff, then 29, for resisting or obstructing a peace officer or correctional institution employee, as documented in an Issuu-hosted bulletin.
Hoff also had an open drug case in neighboring Lake County, where he had received conditional discharge. That case was originally filed as a Class 4 felony controlled substance possession charge, the kind of charge Illinois reserves for small-quantity drug possession under 15 grams. Lake County terminated Hoff's conditional discharge in 2025, though the final resolution of that separate case has not been reported.
Sentencing Mechanics and Treatment Recommendation
Under Illinois truth-in-sentencing provisions, people convicted of Class 1 felony drug possession serve 50% of their determinate prison term rather than the 85% or 100% required for violent offenses, according to 312 Defense. That distinction is why Hoff is required to serve half of his 5-year sentence rather than the vast majority of it. Tiffany Davis recommended that Hoff be placed in a substance abuse program while incarcerated.
The case was prosecuted under McHenry County State's Attorney Randi Freese, who took office following the 2024 election and oversees felony prosecutions out of the McHenry County State's Attorney's Office in Woodstock. Hoff's mandatory supervised release will begin once he completes half of his prison term, continuing the string of court proceedings that have followed him through McHenry and Lake counties for nearly a decade.
