A first-term Cook County elected official was arrested and charged with drunken driving after she crashed into another car Sunday on the North Side, according to Chicago Police records.
Democrat Samantha Steele — one of three commissioners in the relatively obscure but powerful Cook County Board of Review — faces a misdemeanor count of driving under the influence of alcohol.
Steele, 45, was arrested about 8:50 p.m. Sunday in the 5000 block of North Ashland Avenue, police said.
Officers encountered two cars with “extensive” damage and found Steele lying on the sidewalk, according to police reports. She told officers that she drove into another vehicle.
The police records show she made a wide turn from Winnemac Avenue onto Ashland and collided with a parked Dodge Charger, which then struck a Subaru Forester,
Officers spotted an open bottle of red wine on the floor of the passenger side of her car, the records show.
“I observed her eyes were bloodshot and glassy,” an officer wrote in a report. “I also detected a strong odor of alcoholic beverage coming from her breath as she spoke.”
The officer said Steele refused to perform field sobriety tests and when asked how much she had had to drink, she replied, “I want my lawyer, and I am not talking to you.”
Steele was arrested and handcuffed after complaining of pain from head injuries and was being treated at a hospital, records show. During her arrest, Steele “repeatedly said, ‘Is your penis that small'" to an officer.
Steele summoned Scott Britton, a member of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, to the hospital to serve as her lawyer, records show. Britton said Tuesday that he isn't a criminal attorney and has since referred Steele to another lawyer.
Her court date was set for Dec. 27, police said.
Steele did not return messages seeking comment Monday.
Police and political records show Steele lives in Evanston. She represents the Board of Review’s District 2, which includes much of the North Side of Chicago and the northern suburbs.
Steele was first elected to the Board of Review — which has power to decide on property tax appeals — in 2022, defeating incumbent Michael Cabonargi in the Democratic primary after she had worked on Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s transition team.
An aide to Steele, Frank Calabrese, recently filed a whistleblower lawsuit against her and her chief of staff in federal court.
Earlier in the year, Steele defended giving a county job to a former northwest Indiana politician who had pleaded guilty in a federal case.
And Steele has found herself at the center of the dispute over the Chicago Bears’ property tax bill for the old Arlington Park racecourse property, where the football team has considered building a new stadium.
Dan Mihalopoulos is an investigative reporter on WBEZ’s Government & Politics Team. Tom Schuba is a criminal justice editor for the Sun-Times.
