(Feb. 21, 2019 – Source: Getty Images North America)
*The Chicago Police Superintendent at the center of the Jussie Smollett hate crime controversy is now caught up in his own scandal.
Eddie Johnson was reportedly found asleep in his car after drinking, but wasn’t tested for alcohol and allowed to drive home, newsone.com reports.
Chicago’s top police officer on Friday told Mayor Lori Lightfoot that he had “a couple of drinks with dinner” before he fell asleep at a stop sign while driving home, per abc7chicago.com.
During a news conference on Thursday night, Johnson said the embarrassing incident was caused by a combination of booze and a change in his blood pressure medication.
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Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson told Mayor Lori Lightfoot that he had “a couple of drinks” before he fell asleep in his car overnight Wednesday, the mayor said in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times on Friday. https://t.co/iTBEHlShPy
— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) October 18, 2019
“While off-duty, I was out with a group of friends for dinner and didn’t have any feelings or symptoms of impairment or side effects from my medication when I left the restaurant,” Johnson said.
The Chicago Tribune reports that Johnson said at the monthly Chicago Police Board meeting, “How can I explain it? It’s just your body kind of gives you a warning with the high blood pressure thing that you may pass out, so I pulled over, stopped and I just rested myself until that feeling passed.”
Someone called 911 after spotting Johnson slumped over at the wheel, and when officers arrived, he was never tested for alcohol and was even allowed to drive home. Johnson defended the officers by saying, “Someone asleep in a car doesn’t mean they’re impaired.”
Johnson has called for an investigation on himself by the department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs.
Johnson was left outraged when prosecutors dropped all charges against “Empire” star Jussie Smollett in March, just weeks after he was indicted on 16 counts of disorderly conduct for filing a false police report about being the victim of an alleged hate-crime attack. Johnson accused Smollett of lying about being attacked as a means to raise his profile and TV salary.
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