Man held on $3M bail in hit-and-run death of Cook County correctional officer
BY MATT MCKINNEY Staff Reporter mmckinney@suntimes.com July 21, 2012 6:25PM
Juan Bello / photo from Chicago Police
Updated: August 23, 2012 10:56AM
Dozens of Cook County correctional officers filled a courtroom Saturday as a Little Village man with a history of DUI arrests was ordered held on $3 million bail Saturday for the hit-and-run accident that killed a fellow officer. Juan Bello, 57, was charged with reckless homicide, leaving the scene of an accident and was cited for failing to yield to a pedestrian, driving too fast for conditions and driving on a revoked license. Nikkii Bostic-Jones, 37, was thrown onto the road and pinned under a sheriff’s car when she was hit by Bello’s van as she crossed the street outside the Cook County Jail on her way to work late Wednesday night, authorities said. The married mother of a 6-year-old girl died at Mount Sinai Hospital. A witness told investigators that Bello had been drinking alcohol shortly before the incident, according to Cook County prosecutors. He was allegedly driving to work, the same route he has taken for two to three years. Bello, a machine operator who left school after the sixth grade, hit Bostic-Jones with his front left bumper, causing significant damage to his vehicle. A second witness provided investigators with a description of his blue 2002 Chevy van and a partial license plate number, according to prosecutors. Bello’s Illinois driver’s license was revoked in January 2010 after a DUI arrest in Iowa in September 2009. He was eligible to get his license back in January 2011 but never applied, said David Druker, a spokesman for Secretary of State Jesse White. Bello also received court supervision for a 2002 DUI in La Salle County, according to records.
