During her arrest earlier this month for driving inebriated after crashing a automobile in Uptown, Cook County Board of Review Commissioner Samantha Steele repeatedly advised officers to police who was an elected official, made vulgar feedback about one of many arresting officers and refused to take action. cooperate with officer requests and public paperwork launched to the Tribune present.
Steele, 45, was arrested on a drunken driving cost shortly earlier than 9pm on Nov. 10 close to Ashland Avenue and Winnemac Avenue. A police report on the incident and video footage of the scene taken by 4 Chicago law enforcement officials’ body-worn cameras present probably the most graphic particulars of the arrest but. The Tribune obtained the report and photographs from Chicago police in response to its public data request.
Steele is certainly one of three members of the Cook County Board of Review, which performs a major position within the property tax world because it adjudicates property tax appeals.
According to the arrest report, officers noticed two crashed automobiles close to the intersection. An officer reported that Steele was mendacity on the sidewalk close to the crash and that Steele advised him he had hit one other automobile. At the time, the officer wrote within the report that Steele’s “eyes have been bloodshot and glassy. I additionally detected a powerful odor of alcoholic beverage coming from his breath as he spoke.”
The first body-worn digicam footage reveals Steele within the entrance seat of the automobile he was driving, a Honda Accord, which had a badly broken entrance bumper. The officers repeatedly requested Steele to point out them her driver’s license and proof of insurance coverage, which she refused to offer.
At one level, whereas being questioned by police, Steele handed her cellphone to the officer and mentioned, “He’s my lawyer,” based on the footage. Cook County Commissioner Scott Britton confirmed to the Tribune that he would act as her lawyer that night time, however declined to remark additional. Britton makes a speciality of insurance coverage protection and business litigation and mentioned he is not going to characterize Steele within the DUI case.
In the physique cam footage, Britton may very well be heard on speakerphone saying, “Hang up, Samantha, inform them I’m coming.”
Steele repeatedly referred to as Britton throughout his interactions with police as he drove from a number of miles away to fulfill her on the scene. Some of the audio from the conferences was blacked out.
“I’ve to attend for him,” Steele advised the officer. “Okay, I’ll look ahead to it.”
«Okay, ma’am. You needn’t make this any extra difficult than it already is, it is simply an accident, all I want is to see your license,” the officer mentioned. “Do you need me to handcuff you and arrest you?”
“NO.”
“Why are you proper now refusing to offer me with any…”
“They are,” Steele mentioned.
“You are, you notice that, proper?”
“YES. I’m an elected official.
“You’re what?”
“I do not need any of this,” he mentioned. “I’ll look ahead to him.”
“You have been concerned in an accident, you hit a number of automobiles,” the officer responded.
“Two,” he mentioned. “Because somebody obtained out earlier than me.”
Steele finally handed over his license however had bother opening the dashboard; he advised officers that the white Accord he was driving belonged to a buddy.
He additionally denied requests to get out of the automobile and undergo a subject sobriety take a look at.
“Ma’am, if you aren’t getting out of the car, I’ll enable you to out and you don’t need that,” an officer mentioned.
“You don’t desire this. I’m an elected official,” he responded.
“Actually sure, elected official of what?”
“Cook County.”
“Cook County, you might be elected, what workplace? What is your identify?”
He held out his hand, “I’m Sam.”
“Sam who?”
Britton, on the cellphone, once more suggested Steele to get out of the automobile. When she once more refused to take the sector sobriety take a look at, she was handcuffed and positioned at the back of a police automobile. He then agreed to undergo the sector sobriety take a look at, however throughout it appeared to “sway from entrance to again in the course of the interview,” the arrest report states.
He wavered in statements about whether or not he hit his head in the course of the accident and whether or not he wished medical consideration. However, an ambulance had already arrived and the lady was finally taken to Weiss Hospital.
Body digicam footage from two officers inspecting the automobile confirmed an open however corked bottle of wine within the footwell of the entrance passenger aspect.
“That’s good things too. Cabernet Sauvignon,” an officer mentioned. They described it as “half empty.”
The officer who drove Steele to the hospital turned off his body-worn digicam. He wrote that he started a 20-minute commentary of her at 9:30 p.m. and whereas studying a warning that her license may very well be suspended if she refused a Breathalyzer or blew a .08 or bigger handgun, she “repeatedly mentioned ‘Is that your penis?’ small.’ Steele refused all assessments after studying the warning,” the arrest report reads.
Steele has not but commented on the arrest and didn’t reply to a request for remark Saturday. His subsequent courtroom listening to is ready for December 27.
A Democrat who has pledged to carry data-driven reforms to the three-member board, Steele was beforehand an evaluation official in Indiana. She was elected to characterize many of the northern a part of the county in 2022 and has since clashed along with her different two colleagues on the council.
Last month, he obtained a minor nice from the county inspector basic for disclosing particulars of a property tax attraction involving the potential future Bears stadium website in Arlington Heights. It was additionally sued by a former worker who claimed he had been fired for refusing to launch sure info regarding the identical attraction. That worker, Frank Calabrese, obtained the identical footage of Steele’s arrest and shared it with the media on Friday.
The solely Republican on the Cook County Board, Commissioner Sean Morrison, referred to as on Steele to resign, a name he reiterated Saturday on social media.
“Still no accountability, reveals no regret, affords no apology to the officers he horribly berated and mistreated,” wrote on X. “It affords a glimpse into the vanity and lack of respect for the rule of regulation and, most significantly, our law enforcement officials! This contempt is unbecoming of any elected official.”
