I said in that press conference, I did not try to run through a police roadblock; I was not driving without car insurance – I had accidentally given them an outdated insurance card instead of a current one and they never asked me if I had an up-to-date card, which I had in my car; I was not driving intoxicated; and I said I would prove what I was saying was true in a court of law. I said I was sorry and I apologized to the people of Chicago and to the City Council for bringing any embarrassment to them. In the end, however, I said they would find out that the whole thing was just a big misunderstanding.
All of what I said then has proven to be true today. In a 4-hour hearing before a judge to get my driver’s license back – and after the testimonies of myself and the Chicago police officers involved in my arrest had been heard in a court of law – the judge said I was “inappropriately arrested for DUI by the Chicago police” and she returned my driver’s license. While at first the Police and the City were anxious to try my case in the media, after nine court delays by the City and State a second judge finally dismissed the DUI case because THE CITY HAD NO CASE.
The Chicago police threw dirt all over my clean dress, and while two judges and the courts did their best to take my dress to the cleaners and clean it up, it has not removed the stain. The humiliation and emotional distress remain with me because in the eyes of many Chicagoans and others – based on what they saw on TV and read in the newspapers at the time – the stain remains!