Police bodycam footage showed an Illinois Democrat acting belligerently during a DUI traffic stop and telling police she was “an elected official” when asked to step out of her car.
The official, Cook County Board of Review Commissioner Samantha Steele, was arrested after allegedly drunk driving on Nov. 10, hitting several cars in the process. She also allegedly repeatedly asked an officer if his “penis was that small.”
In the video, Steele is asked by a police officer to step out of her car, saying he is “gonna help” her to exit her car.
Steele replied, “You don’t want that. I’m an elected official.”
The officer asked her, “Elected official of what?” She said, “Cook County.”
After the officer pressed further, she declined to provide more details or her last name. Steele also said she didn’t want to be on video.
She had declined to exit her vehicle, citing that she needed her attorney. She later stepped out herself before being temporarily arrested for declining a field sobriety test. The officers said she “smelled like alcohol” and had been drinking. A wine bottle was found on the floor of her vehicle on the passenger side. She also had Altoids breath mints and an open container of Orbit peppermint gum.
Officers then sat Steele in a patrol car, in which she slipped out of the handcuffs and was then re-cuffed before she accepted a field sobriety test. She later declined to finish the test, police said.
Steele’s attorney, Democratic Cook County Commissioner Scott Britton, showed up after she declined and told her not to say anything. Britton told the Chicago Sun-Times that he’s not representing her in the DUI case, for which she is due in court on Dec. 27 for one misdemeanor count of driving under the influence of alcohol.
Steele requested an ambulance and was taken to the hospital after complaining about her head.
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The Cook County Board of Review commissioner represents Chicago’s 2nd District, which encompasses Chicago’s North Side and surrounding suburbs. Her job is to rule on property tax appeals, so she has the power to reduce residents’ property tax bills.
An editorial in the Chicago Sun-Times called for her to resign, calling her actions during the police encounter “embarrassing.”