A judge on Tuesday threw out much of the evidence in the case of a fatal DUI crash involving a Chicago police officer, claiming it was illegally obtained.
Prosecutors are concerned that the case of John Ardelean, who was captured on video taking at least five shots at the Martini Ranch Bar before killing two young men in a car crash, may be irreparably damaged.
(Scroll down for video of Ardelean drinking before the accident.)
Ardelean wasn't arrested or given a Breathalyzer until seven hours after the accident, when his supervising officer, Lieutenant John Magruder, noticed that Ardelean had bloodshot eyes and smelled alcohol on his breath.
At that time, Ardelean's blood-alcohol level was .032, below the legal limit. But prosecution experts were prepared to testify that at the time of the accident, his blood-alcohol must have been at least twice the legal limit, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Still, Judge Thomas Gainer threw out the Breathalyzer evidence. He cited other officers' testimonies claiming that Ardelean wasn't intoxicated, and said that Magruder's statement was not credible.
As such, he argued, Ardelean's arrest and Breathalyzer test were obtained without probable cause, rendering them inadmissible.
From the Sun-Times story:
Describing Magruder as an "incredible" witness who'd given a "rambling" account of Ardelean's arrest and improperly discussed the likely media reaction to the case, telling a prosecutor that "we're damned if we do and damned if we don't," the judge wrote that "this court does not believe Lt. McGruder's testimony."
There was too little time and too many witnesses for a police conspiracy to protect Ardelean to have "gelled," he wrote.
The announcement caused an uproar among the family of the two victims, Miguel Flores and Erick Lagunas, gathered in the courtroom. Many of them followed Ardelean out of court, some chanting "murderer," and three relatives were briefly detained by sheriffs for a physical altercation with officers outside of the courtroom.
When reporters asked one of the victim's brothers about the fairness of the ruling, he responded with a dry laugh, "You're asking me that?"
"Everybody knows the system doesn't work," he said.
The families' outrage with the judicial system is understandable in a city where police violence is often punished lightly, if at all. Judge Gainer, who threw out the evidence in this case, also ruled in favor of three cops who were caught on surveillance tape beating two men at the Jefferson Tap.
Anthony Abbate, a burly cop who was also caught on a widely disseminated tape beating a 125-pound woman, was found guilty but given no jail time.
Former police commander Jon Burge, who led a crew of officers who tortured confessions out of hundreds of suspects in the 1970s and '80s, is set to face trial this summer -- not for torture, but for perjury.
In the Ardelean case, prosecutors have a month to determine if they will continue to press charges.
In a statement, the Cook County State's Attorney's office said: "We intend to thoroughly review the court's written order issued today and then make a determination as to how the ruling will affect the prosecution of this case moving forward."
Watch video of Ardelean drinking just before the fatal crash: