Cook County Official Flaunts Political Status During DUI Arrest: Body Cam Footage

CHICAGO — A commissioner on the Cook County Board of Review was captured in police body camera footage refusing to follow orders from law enforcement and wielding her status as an elected official in the aftermath of a crash that resulted in a driving under the influence charge.

Samantha Steele, an Evanston resident who represents the Second District of the board responsible for ruling on county property tax appeals, struck two vehicles around 8 p.m. Nov. 10 in the 5000 block of North Ashland Avenue in Chicago’s Ravenswood neighborhood, according to the footage, published by FOX 32.

Steele repeatedly refused to provide her driver’s license and proof of insurance to the responding officer, insisting she would wait for her attorney and at one point handing her cellphone to the officer with her attorney on the line and telling the officer to talk to him, the video showed.

“I’m an elected official,” she told the officer.

She also refused to exit her vehicle, changed her mind repeatedly about whether she wanted to take field sobriety tests and asked for an ambulance, saying she hit her head during the crash, according to the recording. She was eventually taken into custody and placed in the ambulance, the video showed.

During this process the officers commented on her glassy and watery eyes and lack of balance and found an open bottle of wine in the vehicle she was driving, the video showed.

At one point when Steele was refusing to get out of the car, a second officer told her, “I’m going to help you to exit. And you don’t want that.”

“You don’t want that. I’m an elected official,” Steele said again.

According to previous reports, Steele also repeatedly asked an arresting officer, “Is your penis that small?”

Cook County Commissioner Sean Morrison has issued a statement calling on Steele to resign.

“Upon her arrest at the scene, Steele allegedly exhibited aggressive behavior towards the responding police officer, making sexually derogatory remarks and continued this belligerent behavior throughout the arrest and booking process,” Morrison said in the statement. “This incident raises serious concerns about her conduct and judgment as an elected official. If an elected official does not respect our dedicated police officers, then how can we expect the citizens to respect the police?”

Steele has previously hired a former county assessor from Indiana with a prior tax-related federal conviction, leaked confidential information about a high-profile tax appeal by the Chicago Bears, and been named in a lawsuit seeking $3 million brought by a former aide claiming retaliation, according to previous reports.