A Cook County judge released a woman on electronic monitoring Saturday despite allegations that she rear-ended a motorcyclist on Lake Shore Drive while drunk, then dumped what appeared to be a liquor bottle in Lake Michigan, leaving the rider fatally injured on the pavement.
Judge D’Anthony Thedford denied a request from prosecutors to detain Miracle Hall, 25, ahead of trial on charges of aggravated DUI causing a fatal accident, instead sending her home on an ankle monitor. It marks the second time this month that Thedford declined to detain a defendant accused of drunk driving in a fatal crash. On August 11, he released a man accused of fleeing the scene of a fatal crash in Lakeview while the victim’s body remained inside his vehicle.
During Saturday’s detention hearing, Assistant State’s Attorney Kevin Nolan said Chicago police surveillance footage shows 49-year-old motorcycling enthusiast Mehnoosh Hatam riding south on Lake Shore Drive near Jackson Boulevard around 11 p.m. Wednesday, August 19. Hatam, a grandmother and advocate for female riders, was widely known as the “Princess of Persia.” Nolan said Hall was driving a 2016 Ford Fusion behind Hatam in the same lane…