Dupage Policy Journal

After having to take legal action, several months of waiting, and two separate court hearings, a DuPage County Judge unsealed all of the records from Dana Davenport’s February 2022 DUI and a subsequent felony charge of obstruction of justice – tampering with evidence, by concealing physical evidence, related to her refusal to submit to a breath test and refusal of a court-ordered search warrant for a blood test. She was arrested in downtown Naperville after leaving a Chamber of Commerce event at BMW’s.

At the time of her arrest, she was a public officer and attorney. We became interested when we received a tip asking how she could convince the court to seal all of the records related to her arrest when DUI arrests are routinely available for public inspection. It struck us as preferential treatment based on who she was.

As a media organization, we filed a motion to intervene in the case, which was granted, after Davenport pled guilty to DUI and the other charges were not prosecuted. Davenport’s attorney filed a response and argued against unsealing the records. The court ordered them unsealed, and later, we find that Davenport’s attorney had filed a motion to expunge the record of the charges which were not prosecuted. We have all of them after sending new FOIA requests to the City of Naperville and the DuPage County State’s Attorney.

From within the arrest and incident reports:

• drove under the influence
• failure to signal
• disobeyed traffic control signal
• improper lane usage
• failed horizontal gaze test
• failed walk and turn test
• failed one leg stand test
• refused to provide breath sample
• refused search warrant for blood test

From the videos below, she repeatedly says she is an attorney throughout the video, wants the cameras shut off, “woman to woman…I am an attorney,” asks to call her mother, doesn’t want to be embarrassed, mentions “I have political clout in this city . . . I would just like to keep it quiet” and “and can you take off these handcuffs I’m a lawyer” and states “I’m a pillar. Like for women,” and “I am a community servant” and “do you know I went to law school” and “then I’ll call a f-king lawyer.” At one point, she apparently came close to resisting arrest by arguing against being handcuffed again and grabbing some of the papers, based on comments from the police officer present.

Dana Michelle Davenport was, at the time of her arrest, a Liquor Commissioner in the City of Naperville, is currently an attorney and is a television and internet talk show host of “Dana Being Dana” which according to her website is aired in Chicagoland, Washington, DC, National Harbor, Maryland, New Orleans, Minneapolis, Atlanta, and at certain events. Even hosting “Finding Common Ground” on Naperville Community Television NCTV17 (See it on YouTube). Apparently, she sometimes goes by Dana Michelle.

This story was originally published by Edgar County Watchdogs. Read the original HERE.