Former Chicago City Councilman Rick Munoz sentenced to seven months in prison after being arrested for drunk driving

CHICAGO (CBS) — A federal judge is sending former Attorney General Rick Munoz to prison for another seven months after he was arrested for drunken driving in May while on probation following a previous corruption conviction.

US District Judge John Kness granted a request by the Federal Prosecutor's Office to revoke Munoz's suspended sentence on Thursday. Munoz must report to prison on August 26 to begin serving his additional 7-month sentence.

Munoz was arrested on May 23 in the west suburb of Berwyn after he crossed into oncoming traffic and collided with another car, prosecutors said. When police arrived, Munoz was slumped over the steering wheel of his car with a half-empty bottle of Captain Morgan rum on the front seat.

His blood alcohol level was later confirmed to be 0.3 per mille, almost four times the legal limit, according to the public prosecutor's office.

Munoz was sentenced to 13 months in prison in 2022 after pleading guilty to stealing money from a campaign fund to spend on vacations, jewelry, sporting event tickets, college tuition and other personal expenses.

After his release from prison last year, Munoz faced an 18-month suspended sentence – the federal equivalent of probation – and was still on probation at the time of his arrest.

Munoz, who represented Chicago's 22nd District from 1993 to 2019, was indicted in 2021 on 15 counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. He later pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.

According to his plea agreement, during his tenure as chairman of the Chicago Progressive Reform Caucus, Munoz took $37,891.99 from the group's political action committee to use for personal expenses.

The group removed him as chairman in 2019 after accusing him of questionable spending in its filings with the Illinois State Board of Elections. The complaint led to the federal charges against Munoz.

Munoz admitted to spending the stolen money on jewelry from a Louis Vuitton store, an insurance payment on his car, women's clothing from Nordstrom's, three iPhones, a skydiving trip, tickets to Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Kings games, a trip to Los Angeles, and paying overdue college tuition for a family member.

Munoz retired in 2019 after his wife accused him of physically abusing her. He was later acquitted of a minor domestic violence charge. He had been arrested on Jan. 2 of that year after getting into an argument with his wife on New Year's Eve two days earlier and shoving and hitting her, according to police.

A month after the alleged incident, the Chicago Tribune reported that Munoz's wife, Betty Torres Munoz, said she wanted to reconcile with her husband, calling him a “really good man” who struggled with alcohol addiction.