U.S. postal worker charged with driving drunk, trying to bribe arresting CPD officers
By Adam Harrington
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CHICAGO (WBBM) — A U.S. Postal worker was arrested last week charges of driving drunk and trying to bribe the police officers who pulled him over in the Portage Park neighborhood.
On Tuesday evening last week, two officers were on patrol in a squad car heading south on Central Avenue, according to a police report. The officer driving the squad car had to brake abruptly to avoid hitting a Hyundai Santa Fe sport-utility vehicle headed north on Central, as the second car made a sharp left turn onto Wilson Avenue right in front of the police vehicle, according to the police report.
The officers pulled over the SUV on Wilson Avenue just west of Central Avenue, and noticed a strong smell of alcohol coming from the driver’s breath, police said. The driver’s eyes were glazed over, and his speech was mumbled, the police report said.
There was a 100 mL bottle of Dzika Kaczka vodka bottle in plain sight in the center column of the SUV, and it was almost 99 percent empty, the police report said.
The driver refused to take a field sobriety test, and he had difficult standing up and walking – which he said was because of arthritis causing pain in his legs, the police report said.
The driver was apprehended and taken away in the squad car, the report said. Police said the driver – Boye Babb, 63, of the Northwest Side – was a U.S. postal worker.
While the officers took him to the Jefferson Park (16th) District police station, Babb said: “I can take care of you guys if you take care of me. I will give you money. This will cost me more,” the police report said.
The officers told him to stop trying to bribe them, but he would not, the police report alleged.
When they got to the police station and searched Babb, he turned out to have another bottle of vodka – this one a 250 mL Smirnoff vodka that was about 75 percent full, the police report said.
Babb refused to take a breathalyzer or answer questions, the police report said. He at first refused phone calls, but then asked to call his son – and during the call, which was in Spanish, another officer heard Babb tell his son that he had offered money to the officers to let him go, the police report said.
An officer also heard Babb ask his son if he had his truck, and the son, said yes, the police report said. The SUV Babb had been driving had been set to be impounded as part of the DUI investigation, but was gone when the Department of Streets and Sanitation came the scene of the earlier arrest to tow it, the police report said.
Babb was charged with driving under the influence and bribery, and carrying an open container of liquor, and was also ticketed for failing to yield the right of way while making a left turn, the police report said.
He made his first court appearance last week.
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