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Frank Calabrese and Ray Hanania on Politics podcast discuss court ruling on Samatha Steele’s alleged DUI
Political consultants and writers Frank Calabrese and Ray Hanania discuss the shocking decision by a former judge this week to reject DUI charges against outgoing Board of Review 2nd District Commissioner Samantah Steele on the “Ray Hanania on Politics” opinion discussion podcast on YouTube.
Steele was arrested and charged with DUI by police following an accident in which she totaled her car after crashing into two parked cars on Ashland Avenue on Chicago’s north side on Nov. 10, 2024.
The police officers and witnesses testified they could smell alcohol on Steele, who refused to take an on-scene sobriety test and sexually harassed police, and kept telling them she is an elected official.
Calabrese — not related to the famous or infamous mafia family — formerly worked for Steele but left over a disagreement that ended up in court, which he won.
Calabrese attended both days of the Steele “trial” and discussed the website he set up at www.SamathaSteeleDUI.com that provides all the police reports, police videos of an apparently slurring Steele on the night of the accident.
They both agreed that the decision by “Judge” Suriano was a miscarriage of justice.
Hanania, a columnist with CourageousThought.com, argued that the Illinois Legislature should adopt a law that mandates that any elected official who is pulled over and suspected by police of being intoxicated whuile driving must take an on-site sobriety DUI test. If they refuse, they should be immediately removed from office.
Fortunately, in the case of Steele, voters threw her out of office in the March 17, 2026, Democratic Primary.
Steele was first elected in the Democratic Primary on June 28, 2022, defeating Michael Cabonargi by a margin of about 8,000 of 172,000 votes cast. Steele was elected on Nov. 8, 2022, to the Board of Review District 2 seat.
Steele lost her re-election bid on March 17, 2026, to Elizabeth Nicholson by a huge margin of more than 66,000 votes out of 220,000 votes cast.
Steele remains in office despite the controversy.
Visit the website set up by Calabrese, which provides documents on the police arrest, videos, and documents, including the official police report at www.SamathaSteeleDUI.com.
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Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
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