DUI case continued for school bus driver

Innocent until proven guilty.

The premise underscores our legal system, but defense attorney Ernie Blomquist suggests some people have rejected the presumption when it comes to his client, former Elementary Dist. 57 school bus driver Betty Burden.

Police charged the Mount Prospect woman with aggravated DUI last month after authorities said she drove 50 schoolchildren home while intoxicated. Burden, who is free on a $10,000 bond, appeared briefly in a Rolling Meadows courtroom Thursday to see her case continued until April 22.

"My client's taking this hard," Blomquist said. "It's taken a heavy toll on her emotionally, financially and socially. She's suffered a great deal."

People have approached Burden in stores, sent her hate mail and bothered her at home, where strangers have knocked on her door at 9 p.m., Blomquist said.

A spokeswoman from the Cook County State Attorney's Office said prosecutors requested a continuance of the preliminary hearing because their witnesses were not in court.

Burden, of the 1400 block of Park Drive, was fired March 18, a little more than a week after she was arrested when police said she failed a field sobriety test and admitted drinking vodka and orange juice at lunch. School officials said no alcohol was found on her bus. Her supervisor, Transportation Coordinator Vince Ramirez, was also fired for allowing her to drive despite reports of alcohol on her breath.

"I believe strongly in her innocence," said Blomquist.

That Ramirez followed her for six miles and that she committed no traffic violations during that time may become an issue, said Blomquist, whose own investigation into the case continues. He also suggested the results of a police-administered blood-alcohol test indicating Burden had a BAC of .230 at the scene may become an issue as well.

Blomquist said people are not giving Burden "the benefit of the doubt," but the law does, presuming her innocent until the state proves otherwise.

"This is still America," he said.