By Rummana Hussain, Frank Main and Fran Spielman
Chicago Sun-Times
CHICAGO — Moments after allegedly killing a 13-year-old boy in a hit-and-run, an off-duty Chicago Police officer told the arresting officers he wanted only one thing: “to go back.”
“I want to go back. I just want to go back,” Richard Bolling told an officer who inquired about the front-end damage to Bolling’s Dodge Charger, blocks away from where Cook County prosecutors said Bolling hit Trenton Booker, knocking him off his bike.
Bolling, 39, was stopped early Friday when officers spotted him driving the wrong way in the 1900 block of West 82nd Street, authorities said. The arresting officers noticed a “moderate odor” of alcohol on the 17-year police veteran’s breath, but found he “did not seem to be impaired” when he performed a field sobriety test, a police report said.
Police sources said Bolling exercised his right against self-incrimination by refusing to take a Breathalyzer test after he was stopped.
But he later took a Breathalyzer test as part of the department’s separate, administrative investigation. Had he not agreed, he could have been fired. The test, given about four hours after his arrest, revealed a blood-alcohol level of .079, just shy of the .08 legal limit, prosecutors said.
On Tuesday, Mayor Daley said the possibility of police showing favoritism to fellow officer Bolling should be investigated.
Police Supt. Jody Weis said he has directed a team to investigate the incident. “At this preliminary stage of the investigation, there is no evidence or information that makes me believe that the officer in question received preferential treatment,” Weis said. “However, our investigation will determine whether department orders were followed after Officer Bolling was stopped by police.”
“It sounds fishy,” Trenton’s father, Terrence Booker, said of the four-hour delay in administering the Breathalyzer.
“I expect nothing but that,” Booker said of the possibility of preferential treatment for Bolling.
Bolling, who is charged with reckless homicide and aggravated driving under the influence, appeared for a brief court hearing Tuesday. Over the weekend, he was ordered held on $2 million bail.
Copyright 2009 Chicago Sun-Times