Cook County tax commissioner Samantha Steele not guilty in DUI trial

A judge declared Cook County Board of Review Commissioner Samantha Steele not guilty of driving under the influence late Tuesday morning. While Cook County prosecutors established a “suspicion” of impairment, Judge Donald Suriano said they failed to definitively prove Steele was under the influence of alcohol when she crashed a friend’s car into two parked vehicles along Ashland Avenue in November 2024. Steele refused a field sobriety test and a blood draw that night, and did not show “obvious signs of impairment,” Suriano said, noting the bottle of wine in her front passenger seat was corked and sealed within a...