..."Prosecutors have said Ardelean, who was off duty, drank three beers and four shots at a River North bar just before the crash at Damen and Oakdale avenues that killed Lagunas, 21, and Flores, 22. But officers who had been on the scene later testified they had no indication Ardelean was drunk at the scene.
...A police supervisor at the district later ordered Ardelean to submit to a Breathalyzer, but Judge Thomas Gainer Jr. ruled in April that police had no probable cause arrest and detain him,let along force him to take the test, which did not show he was drunk.
...Gainer harshly criticized police Lt. John Magruder, who ordered Ardelean arrested a few hours after the crash, saying he had 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."
Sorry to quote so extensively from the original article, which is posted above! But emphasis added...leave us not rush to judgement, just because it's Chicago?!
They could all be lying, or they could all not be lying, which makes it no less of a tragedy, but the circumstances are not at all clear from the article how the officer happened to broadside the victims' car...i.e., who missed the stop sign or crossed the road?
You can slam 4 drinks and then head out the door. Officers typically wait upwards of an hour to breath test a driver accused of drunkeness.
Some will blow higher, some will blow lower. Depends on if he grabbed “one for the road” or drank them a happy hour and then stuck around for 4 hours.
Bad analysis. A cop leaves a bar after three beers & four shots (over what time period we don't know), t-bones a car killing two people and drunk driving never occurs to anyone?
No probable cause? Not the least suspicion?