A raucous confrontation broke out Sunday outside Cook County Criminal Court after a Chicago police detective charged with causing a deadly auto crash while driving drunk was ordered released on $500,000 bail.
The fight highlighted the outrage underlying the case. As they streamed out of the hearing, many of the friends and relatives of the young victims were shouting and crying, angered that Joseph Frugoli, an 18-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department, would be set free while the case makes its way through court.
“If I hit your kids, it would be a different story!” one man shouted as Cook County Sheriff’s officers created a human barrier on the front steps of the courthouse.
“Only $500,000 — that’s what two lives are worth?!” yelled another member of the crowd, referring to Andrew Cazares, 23, and Fausto Manzera, 21, the two men killed in the fiery crash.
The stand-off came after the prosecutor and defense attorney laid out new claims about the crash and Frugoli — some of them conflicting.
Frugoli, a burly man who appeared in court in jeans and a long-sleeve polo shirt, was released from custody Sunday after posting $50,000, 10 percent of the bail, said Steve Patterson, a spokesman for the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.
The crash occurred around 3:30 a.m. Friday on the southbound Dan Ryan after Cazares pulled his car over to wait for help, possibly with a flat tire.
John Dillon, an assistant Cook County state’s attorney who sought an “extremely high bond,” said Frugoli’s blood-alcohol level was 0.277 — more than three times the legal limit for driving — when his SUV crashed into the car, and that he was driving between 60 and65 mph, which was above the speed limit.
According to witness accounts, Dillon said, the impact of the crash propelled the car forward as if it “had been shot from a cannon” and to explode like “a bomb went off.”
When officials from the Illinois Department of Transportation arrived, Frugoli tried to flee the scene on foot until he was stopped by an official from the department, Dillon said.
Frugoli’s defense attorney, Gregg Smith, said the car was stopped in the right-hand lane with its lights off, not pulled off to shoulder, as the prosecution said. Smith said there was no proof that Frugoli was speeding, and that he was not trying to flee when he started to walk away from the scene.
“My client was disoriented,” Smith said.
Frugoli, he insisted, “wasn’t trying to evade arrest.”
Smith portrayed Frugoli as a committed police officer born and raised in Chicago whose strong family ties prevented him from being a flight risk.
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Looking back
John Dillon, an assistant Cook County state’s attorney, said Joseph Frugoli, who has been relieved of his police powers, had a history of driving dangerously, pointing to a 2005 crash and a 1990 speeding ticket.
Last week, a Cook County judge ordered Frugoli to pay more than $7,000 in damages in a civil case involving the 2005 crash, in which Frugoli struck a 61-year-old man’s vehicle from behind on the Dan Ryan. Frugoli, who denied consuming alcohol before the crash, was cited for failure to reduce speed, but the ticket was dropped.
