Samantha Steele, the Cook County Board of Review commissioner arrested last month for driving under the influence of alcohol after a car crash, won back her right to drive on a technicality after her first court appearance Friday.
A first term commissioner on the three-member panel that hears property tax appeals, Steele crashed what she said was a friend’s car in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood the night of Nov. 10. The incident made waves not only because she told responding officers at the scene that she was an elected official and often refused to cooperate with their orders, but also made crude comments to one of her arresting officers.
Steele has not commented on the incident and virtually attended the Board of Review’s public meeting earlier this month. She did not speak to reporters after Friday’s proceedings.
Those arrested for DUI typically have their license suspended, but Steele’s attorney, John Fotopoulos, petitioned for her driving privileges to be restored last month and won them back Friday after arguing the officer didn’t give her proper warning of the consequences of refusing a breathalyzer test.
Fotopoulos said it might be more difficult for a police officer to properly fill out DUI paperwork than Police Department paperwork in a murder case.
After hours of back and forth between Steele’s attorney and the prosecutor, as well as testimony from the arresting officer, Judge Athena James Frentzas granted Fotopuolos’ petition and set Feb. 14 as the date for Steele’s next appearance.
Steele did take a brief field sobriety test during the November incident but wasn’t breathalyzed. According to the arrest report, “her eyes were bloodshot and glassy,” she smelled like alcohol, and appeared “to be swaying” during the field sobriety test. Body camera footage from the night of the crash showed officers taking an open but corked bottle of wine out of the passenger seat footwell. She admitted at the scene that she hit two other cars.
Steele was later taken to the hospital after she said she’d hit her head during the crash. While there, according to the arrest report, she refused a breathalyzer test and repeatedly asked the police officer with her at the hospital “Is your penis that small?”
Danny Yu, the officer who arrested Steele and was questioned about his penis size, said in court Friday that at the hospital he read Steele the warning that if a first time offender refuses or fails to complete all chemical sobriety tests requested, they could see their license suspended for a year.
Yu, a seven-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department, said he’d made around a dozen DUI arrests before and that he interpreted Steele’s crude comments as part of her refusal.
Prior to granting Steele her license back, the judge said Yu never specified what time Steele refused testing at the hospital.
In paperwork from the night of the arrest, Yu wrote that Steele refused chemical sobriety testing at 9:15 p.m. In testimony on Friday, Yu said that the testing he was referring to was field sobriety testing that had been done before Steele was taken to the hospital.
While one Republican member of the Cook County Board called for her resignation over how she treated officers at the scene — the crude statements received some national media attention — Democratic colleagues have declined to comment or called for “grace.”
Steele also serves on the Lake County Indiana Property Tax Board of Appeals.
