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For more than two years, the families of two young men killed in a Thanksgiving Day collision with an off-duty Chicago police officer have fought to prove the officer was drunk and responsible for the deaths.
But Tuesday, a Cook County judge handed them their latest setback, saying the officer was arrested and detained without probable cause, a ruling the families fear guts the prosecution's case.
Several relatives of one victim erupted in anger at the decision, shouting obscenities and scuffling with court deputies, creating a scene that revealed the raw emotions behind the long and controversial case.
Three relatives of Miguel Flores, 22, who was killed in the 2007 crash, were taken to a holding cell in the Criminal Courts Building but later released. The sheriff's office said it would not press charges even though two deputies were taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
"It's a slap in the face," said Jose Lagunas, father of the second victim, Erick Lagunas, 21. "We are the ones suffering and then the deputies come after us."
Circuit Judge Thomas Gainer ruled police had no probable cause to arrest off-duty Officer John Ardelean, 36.
The judge harshly criticized police Lt. John Magruder, who ordered Ardelean arrested a few hours after the crash when he said he detected alcohol on his breath and noticed bloodshot eyes.
None of the four police officers at the crash scene -- or a responding Chicago Fire Department emergency medical technician -- reported noticing any sign that Ardelean was drunk.
In his ruling, the judge cited testimony from an assistant state's attorney who indicated Magruder had talked to her about the Police Department being under scrutiny for a previous crash in which an officer was not charged with drunken driving. The attorney quoted Magruder as saying, "We're damned if we do, and damned if we don't."
Gainer described Magruder's comments as "ramblings" and said the court did not believe his testimony. The judge also disputed the possibility of a conspiracy among police officers to protect one of their own. Two of the officers at the scene knew Ardelean.
"Everything that happened on the street that morning happened in a very short period of time," Gainer wrote. "There was no time to formulate this conspiracy to protect the defendant."
A year ago Gainer was involved in another controversial ruling when he acquitted three Chicago police officers in an off-duty beating of several businessmen in a West Loop bar.
Before becoming a judge in 2001, he was a Cook County prosecutor.
Ardelean's attorney, Thomas Needham, praised the judge's ruling. "The charging decision by Lt. Magruder was based on concerns or fears he had that had nothing to do with any evidence," he said.
Reached by phone at the Belmont District station, Magruder declined to comment.
The case has been a legal roller coaster.
Ardelean initially was charged with misdemeanor drunken driving, but by January 2008 the charges were upgraded to felony counts of aggravated driving under the influence.
Prosecutors cited a video recording from a nightclub they said showed Ardelean drinking three beers and four shots in a little more than two hours. Shortly after that, his SUV slammed into the victims' car at Damen and Oakdale avenues while traveling more than 60 mph, authorities said.
The next month, a judge dismissed the charges, not convinced by a prosecution expert who calculated that Ardelean's blood-alcohol level at the time of the crash would have been above the legal threshold. He had been ordered by a superior to give a Breathalyzer test nearly eight hours after the crash, but Ardelean was well below the legal threshold.
By May 2008 prosecutors told the families they were dropping the investigation because of insufficient evidence.
But three months later, following pressure from the families and some politicians, the state's attorney's office reopened the probe after a video aired on TV showing a woman pouring a drink down Ardelean's throat and the officer grabbing a beer as he left Martini Ranch, a River North bar.
The next month, Ardelean was charged with two counts of reckless homicide and four counts of aggravated DUI.
"It's an outrage that this hasn't gone to trial," Monica Lopez, a cousin of Flores, said Tuesday after the courtroom scuffle. "If he wasn't with the police, he'd be in jail right now. He's being treated differently, and it shouldn't be like that."
Shortly after the ruling, about a dozen relatives of Flores and Lagunas gathered outside the courtroom, many with tears streaming down their faces. When Ardelean walked by -- wearing a suit, tie and hat -- two of Flores' brothers shouted obscenities while family members tried to hold them back.
A sheriff's deputy asked them to be quiet and threatened to place them under arrest.
"You should arrest him and not us," screamed Miguel Flores' sister, Blanca.
Another deputy then said to Flores, "You're setting a good example to your son."
Flores began shouting obscenities at the deputy while another called for backup. A flood of deputies ran into the hallway. When one tried to detain Flores, her sister and mother tried to protect her. Other deputies intervened and all three relatives were taken to a holding cell in the courthouse.
The state's attorney's office said in a statement that prosecutors will review the judge's ruling and decide their next step.
Needham said he's "hoping and trusting" that prosecutors will "make the right decision." Speaking of his client, Needham said, "This experience has been stressful, but I think he sees a light at the end of the tunnel and a chance to start rebuilding his career."
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/04/key-evidence-thrown-out-in-cops-dui-arrest.html
