A federal judge Thursday ordered former Chicago Ald. Ricardo Munoz back to prison for seven more months for causing a low-speed drunken-driving crash in Berwyn in May with a blood-alcohol content nearly four times the legal limit.
“It’s plain as day that Mr. Munoz was drunk as a skunk,” U.S. District Judge John Kness said in revoking Munoz’s supervised release. “It’s a miracle that nobody was killed with you being behind the wheel in the condition you were in. You couldn’t even stand up.”
When the judge announced his decision, Munoz bowed his head and broke into tears. The judge ordered him to self-surrender later this month.
A longtime 22nd Ward alderman who retired in 2019, Muñoz, 59, was sentenced to 13 months in prison in 2022 for stealing from a political action committee formed by the Chicago Progressive Reform Caucus, where he served as chairman and performed the duties of its treasurer.
Prosecutors accused him of moving funds from the CPRC into another fund he controlled, Citizens for Muñoz, and then into his personal checking account. Among the personal items purchased with the funds were $169 for tickets to a Los Angeles Kings hockey game, $265 for a room at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in LA and another $160 spent on items at Lover’s Lane in West Dundee.
He also bought jewelry, cuff links, women’s clothing, three Apple iPhones and accessories, aerial sightseeing trips and skydiving excursions, according to the indictment. Muñoz also transferred $16,000 to pay college tuition for an unidentified person, according to the charges.
He tried to hide the fraud by lying to the Illinois State Board of Elections and staff members and contractors about the legitimacy of the expenditures and by cutting off others’ access to the CPRC fund to conceal the low balances, according to prosecutors.
Munoz was released from prison in February 2023 and was serving two years on court-ordered supervised release that included the condition he abstain from alcohol, records show.
In May, he was arrested at a busy intersection in Berwyn after his SUV allegedly veered across traffic and slow-rolled into another car. Body-worn camera footage shown in court Thursday showed the former alderman slumped at the wheel and struggling to find his identification. A half-empty bottle of Captain Morgan rum was in the passenger seat.
When the police officer asked Munoz how many drinks he’d had that day, Munoz slurred, “Too many.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jared Hasten said Munoz’s BAC was later measured at .3%, nearly four times the legal limit of 0.08%. Though no one was hurt, Hasten noted the incident occurred on a Thursday afternoon near a busy park.
Munoz’s attorney, Richard Kling, did not dispute the facts of the arrest, saying Munoz “fell off the wagon” after receiving “devastating” news earlier in the day that his long-running divorce had been finalized.
“He was at work, got the email and he immediately went downhill,” Kling said. “And he did a stupid thing, drank and got into a car.”
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com