Oct 16, 2009 5:09 pm US/Central
Cop Hailed As Hero After Incident Involving DUI
Officer Handcuffed Nurse Who Would Not Give Motorist Blood Test Without Paperwork
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Emergency room nurse Lisa Hofstra filed a lawsuit against Chicago Police Officer Rodriguez for hancuffing her and escorting her out of the hospital.
Surveillance Photo
A Chicago police officer who has been criticized for handcuffing a nurse in her hospital's emergency room was being hailed as a hero on Friday. CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery explains why anti-drunk driving activists want to honor the officer for what he did that day.
The officer has only been identified so far as Officer Rodriguez. Members of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, though, hope eventually to meet him and honor him.
MADD Director Susan McKeigue said, "I think Officer Rodriguez is a hero."
Sources have told CBS 2 News that Rodriguez was at the intersection of Ashland and Wilson Avenues on Aug. 1 as the horribly injured body of Alex Foamete was examined by paramedics.
Foamete had been riding his motorcycle when he was struck by a car.
Rodriguez heard paramedics say the 24-year old motorcyclist was likely brain dead and would not survive. Witnesses said motorist Raquel Wright failed to yield the right of way, crashed into Foamete, then emerged from her car looking drunk.
Prosecutors said she failed a field sobriety test and that she admitted she'd been drinking.
Not until Thursday, though, was Wright formally charged with felony aggravated DUI causing death. The victim's friends and family, in fact, feared there might be no charges at all.
Foamete's fiancée Alina Rusnac said, "We were like, 'What happened there?' I mean, she did it by mistake, but she killed a man, she killed a person. So, she has to pay for it."
When a crash causes serious injuries like those to Foamete, Illinois law requires suspected drunk drivers to submit to blood and/or urine testing. But it took 4½ hours for Wright to undergo a blood test.
Lisa Hofstra , 27, was the overnight nurse in charge of the emergency department at the time of the incident.
Hofstra claimed in a lawsuit Rodriguez and the city that she told the officer he'd have to follow normal procedures to get Wright's blood drawn for a DUI test.
Hofstra and her attorneys claimed the officer "ran amok" and placed Hofstra under arrest.
"He snuck up behind me, grabbed my arms. I didn't even realize what was happening. I just saw the faces of the people in front of me before I even realized I was in handcuffs," Hofstra said when she filed her lawsuit last month.
The officer can be seen on surveillance video as he marched Hofstra out of the crowded ER. Later, she was finally allowed to get out of a police squad car and to have the cuffs removed.
It was not until 7:37 a.m. on Aug. 1 that Wright underwent a blood test to check her sobriety.
Activists with MADD said Rodriguez may have been wrong to handcuff the nurse, but he was right to protest her hospital's long delay in testing a suspected killer.
"He had the courage to go do the right thing and get the evidence. There was a 24-year old lying dead in the street," McKeigue said. "I think the nurse and the police officer both deserve our sympathy, because they're both front-line people in the fight against drunk driving."
By the time she was tested, Wright's blood alcohol content was far below 0.08. In court papers, prosecutors have said that based on her height, weight and other characteristics, scientists were able to extrapolate that at the time of the fatal crash, Wright was legally drunk.
Hofstra's lawsuit against Rodriguez and the city of Chicago alleges false arrest. Her lawyer, Blake Horwitz, said, "if the officer needs to gather evidence for a criminal matter, that's fine. But that does not mean he can arrest innocent people."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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