Samantha Steele, the Cook County Board of Review commissioner arrested final month for driving inebriated after a site visitors accident, regained her proper to drive on a technicality after her first courtroom look Friday.
Steele, a first-term commissioner on the three-member panel that hears property tax appeals, crashed what he mentioned was a good friend’s automotive in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood on the evening of Nov. 10. The incident made headlines not solely as a result of she informed officers who responded to the scene that she was an elected official and sometimes refused to cooperate with their orders, however she additionally made lewd feedback to one in every of her officers who that they had arrested her.
Steele has not commented on the incident and took part remotely within the Board of Review’s public assembly earlier this month. He didn’t converse to reporters after Friday’s proceedings.
Those arrested for drunken driving often have their licenses suspended, however Steele’s lawyer, John Fotopoulos, petitioned to have his driving privileges reinstated final month and regained them Friday after alleged that she was not given satisfactory warning of the implications of refusing a breathalyzer take a look at. .
Fotopoulos mentioned it might be tougher for a police officer to correctly fill out DUI paperwork than Police Department paperwork in a murder case.
After hours of backwards and forwards between Steele’s lawyer and the prosecutor, in addition to testimony from the arresting officer, Judge Athena James Frentzas granted Fotopoulos’ petition and set Steele’s subsequent look for the 14th February.
Steele took a short area sobriety take a look at through the November incident however was not breathalyzed. According to the arrest report, “his eyes had been bloodshot and glassy,” he smelled of alcohol and he appeared to “stagger” through the area sobriety take a look at. Body digicam footage from the evening of the crash confirmed officers taking an open however corked bottle of wine from the footwell of the passenger seat. He admitted on the scene to hitting two different vehicles.
Steele was later taken to hospital after she mentioned she hit her head through the crash. While there, in keeping with the arrest report, she refused a breathalyzer take a look at and repeatedly requested the police officer who was together with her on the hospital, “Is your penis that small?”
Danny Yu, the officer who arrested Steele and was questioned concerning the measurement of his penis, mentioned in courtroom Friday that he learn Steele the warning that if a first-time offender refuses or fails to finish all assessments of chemical sobriety necessities, might see your license suspended for a 12 months.
Yu, a seven-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department, mentioned he has made a few dozen drunken-driving arrests for the division and interpreted Steele’s crude feedback as a part of her refusal.
Before granting Steele his license, the choose mentioned Yu by no means specified what time Steele refused the take a look at on the hospital.
In paperwork from the evening of the arrest, Yu wrote that Steele refused a chemical sobriety take a look at at 9:15 p.m. In testimony Friday, Yu mentioned the take a look at he was referring to was a area sobriety take a look at that was achieved earlier than Steele was taken to the hospital.
While a Republican member of the Cook County Board known as for Steele’s resignation over his remedy of officers on the scene — the crude statements obtained some nationwide media consideration — fellow Democrats declined to remark or they requested for “grace”.
Steele additionally serves on the Lake County Property Tax Assessment Appeals Committee in Indiana.
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