Chicago Police Officer Richard Bolling is charged with reckless homicide and aggravated DUI in a crash that killed a 13-year-old bicyclist in 2009. (Credit: Chicago Police Department)
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CHICAGO (CBS) — Jury deliberations continue later Wednesday morning in the trial of a Chicago police charged in connection with a deadly hit-and-run accident.
As WBBM Newsradio’s Bob Conway reports, Officer Richard Bolling, 42, is charged with reckless homicide and aggravated driving under the influence in the death of Trenton Booker, 13, who was riding his bicycle at 81st Street and Ashland Avenue as the boy was riding his bicycle on May 22, 2009.
LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio’s Bob Conway reports
During closing arguments, prosecutors insisted that Bolling received got preferential treatment from investigators at the scene, including delaying sobriety tests, one for almost five hours, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Bolling’s defense attorney, Tom Needham, has said the officer asked “for no special favors” and was in a state of “complete horror, fear and grief” when fellow officers told him Trenton Booker had died, Needham said.
But Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Ashley Romito said earlier in the trial that before he heard about the fatality, all Bolling cared about was the damage to his Dodge Charger and when he could eat the White Castle meal officers found next to an open bottle of beer in his car.
Bolling didn’t undergo field sobriety tests until two hours after the accident and he wasn’t given a Breathalyzer test until 4 1/2 hours later, Romito said in opening statements.
His blood alcohol level registered at .079 — just a bit shy of the .08 legal intoxication level. Had Bolling been given the test sooner, his blood alcohol level would have been higher, Romito argued.
Romito said in closing arguments Tuesday that Bolling might not have woken up that day planning to kill Trenton or anyone else, but he still committed a crime, the Sun-Times reported.
Bolling himself testified he had one beer and one mixed drink prior to the crash, the newspaper reported.
The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.
