December 27th 2024.
Samantha Steele, a commissioner on the Cook County Board of Review, recently found herself in a bit of trouble. Last month, she was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol after getting into a car accident. However, at her first court appearance on Friday, she was able to win back her driving privileges due to a technicality.
Steele, who is in her first term as a commissioner, explained that she had been driving a friend's car in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago on the night of November 10th when the accident occurred. The incident caused quite a stir, not only because Steele informed the responding officers that she was an elected official, but also because she made some inappropriate comments to one of the arresting officers and often refused to cooperate with their orders.
Steele has not yet commented on the incident, but she did attend a public meeting for the Board of Review earlier this month. After Friday's court proceedings, she did not speak to reporters. Typically, those arrested for DUI have their license suspended. However, Steele's lawyer, John Fotopoulos, successfully argued that she was not properly warned of the consequences of refusing a breathalyzer test, resulting in her driving privileges being restored.
During the court hearing, Fotopoulos and the prosecutor went back and forth, and the arresting officer also testified. Finally, Judge Athena James Frentzas granted Fotopoulos' petition and set Steele's next court date for February 14th. At the time of the accident, Steele did take a brief field sobriety test, but she was not breathalyzed. According to the arrest report, her eyes were bloodshot and glassy, she smelled of alcohol, and she appeared to be swaying during the test. The body-camera footage from that night showed officers removing an open but corked bottle of wine from the passenger seat footwell. Steele admitted to hitting two other cars.
After the accident, Steele was taken to the hospital because she claimed to have hit her head. According to the arrest report, she refused a breathalyzer test at the hospital and repeatedly asked the police officer with her if his "penis was that small." The officer, Danny Yu, who was also questioned about his penis size in court, stated that he read Steele the warning that a first-time offender who refuses or fails to complete all chemical sobriety tests could have their license suspended for a year. Yu, who has been with the Chicago Police Department for seven years, has made about a dozen DUI arrests and interpreted Steele's crude comments as a refusal.
Before granting Steele her license back, Judge Frentzas pointed out that Yu had not specified when Steele had refused testing at the hospital. According to the paperwork from the night of the arrest, Yu wrote that Steele refused chemical sobriety testing at 9:15 p.m. However, in court, Yu testified that he was referring to field sobriety testing that had been done before Steele was taken to the hospital.
While one Republican member of the Cook County Board did call for Steele's resignation due to her behavior towards the officers at the scene, her crude statements received national media attention. However, her Democratic colleagues have either declined to comment or asked for "grace." It is also worth noting that Steele serves on the Lake County Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals in Indiana.
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