Deluge of cologne, fake IDs not enough to save man from DUI arrest

RIVERSIDE (STMW) - He tried just about everything to avoid a DUI arrest — fake name, false identification and even pouring on the after shave to mask the smell — but a west suburban man is now behind bars without bond on drunk driving charges.

Daniel F. Marquez, 34, is facing new DUI charges and being held on a no-bond warrant for an earlier DUI arrest by Cook County sheriff’s police, though it took Riverside police about 24 hours to figure out who he really was, a statement from the department said.

Just after 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, an officer saw a black 1999 Ford westbound near Forest and Longcommon make an abrupt U-turn, then start “weaving from lane to lane in a residential area” right in front of a marked police SUV, police said.

The vehicle was pulled over on Riverside Road at Burling Road, and the officer “could smell a strong scent of a man’s cologne coming from the car,” police said. The officer could also “detect a strong odor of alcohol emitting from the driver’s breath.”

The driver, whose eyes were “bloodshot, glassy and droopy,” mumbled when talking to the officer and failed every part of the field sobriety test, police said.

Inside the vehicle, police found an open can of beer and a plastic cup of beer, and determined the suspect had “poured cologne on his chest in an attempt to mask the alcohol smell.”

“The defendant thought that by dousing himself in cologne it would be enough to hide the signs of extreme alcohol impairment when the officer was having a conversation  with him at the driver’s window,” police Chief Tom Weitzel said in the statement. “That in itself is nonsensical and demonstrated his level of intoxication.”

A passenger in the vehicle, “who was also intoxicated, was drinking open alcohol in the car when stopped,” police said, and “the passenger’s pants were completely falling off him when he was asked to exit the vehicle.”

Once in custody, the driver told police he was Daniel Fernandez, but fingerprints showed that to be false.

“It took my officers over 24 hours just to identify and go through the data that was provided by a fingerprint check to find out who this individual actually was in addition to logging in his habitual driving history as evidence in order to find the outstanding warrant that he had been avoiding since 2012,” Weitzel said.

That’s when they found he was really the 34-year-old Marquez, who had an active aggravated DUI felony warrant issued by county police in October 2012, police said.

He also had 20 prior traffic arrests “including numerous DUI arrests,” police said. His first DUI was in April 2004 and his license had been suspended ever since.

Marquez admitted that he changed his name, date of birth, and address — using Cicero, Bellwood, Chicago and Melrose Park at different times — after each arrest “in an attempt to fool them from actually finding his driving history and outstanding warrant,” police said.

Marquez, of the 1900 block of North 17th Street in Melrose Park, was charged with aggravated DUI, obstruction of identification, and driving while license suspended based on DUI convictions. He was also cited for illegal U-turn, driving without insurance and possession of open alcohol. He was ordered held without bond.

His passenger, a 33-year-old Melrose Park man, was was also charged with possession of open alcohol.