Update 8:30 a.m. — According to a source, the driver of the vehicle had a blood alcohol content higher than .30 — about four times the legal limit in Illinois. The source said several vehicles were struck over a three-block stretch of Astor Street, including the 1400 block, where Gov. JB Pritzker lives.
A vehicle registered to embattled former Chicago Ald. Proco “Joe” Moreno crashed into a line of parked cars before plowing into a tree in the Gold Coast on Sunday evening, according to a CPD report. Police would not confirm who was driving the vehicle.
Officially, CPD said a 48-year-old male driver struck several parked cars and a tree before coming to a stop in the 1200 block of North Astor around 9:21 p.m. The driver was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in good condition, and no other injuries were reported, police said.
“The incident is alcohol-related and charges are pending,” according to CPD’s statement.
According to a source, the car that crashed is an Audi registered to Moreno, age 48.
Last year, prosecutors charged Moreno with felony filing of a false report after he told police that someone stole his Audi from the garage of his Wicker Park home. In fact, police discovered he loaned the car to a female friend. Moreno is also accused of insurance fraud in that case as he allegedly tried to collect payment for the “stolen” car.
Moreno has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and the criminal case is still working its way through the court system.
A woman who was arrested and briefly charged with driving the “stolen” Audi that Moreno loaned to her is suing Moreno for defamation.
In 2018, another woman told police Moreno flashed a badge to intimidate her during a parking dispute in Wrigleyville.
The woman said she had just backed into a parking spot when Moreno pulled up next to her in an Audi and flashed a badge that turned out to be the star given to Chicago aldermen, according to a Block Club Chicago report.
“I never said I was a police officer or anything like that,” Moreno told the Tribune at the time. “I showed her the aldermanic badge simply to give her some encouragement that I knew what I was talking about and she should move closer to the curb.”
CWBChicago will update this story when police identify the driver of the crashed vehicle.
