Man charged with coughing in Chicago cops’ faces and saying he had coronavirus

A 21-year-old college student from Wilmette allegedly coughed in the face of a Chicago police officer and said he had coronavirus.

Anthony Ponzi struggled with police who stopped him at the scene of a two-car collision in Rogers Park around 7 a.m. Sunday in the 700 block of North Wolcott, Cook County prosecutors said. Officers said Ponzi was “slurring his speech and was profusely foaming at the mouth” as he yelled at police and another driver, according to a police report.

Chicago police

Officers smelled alcohol on Ponzi’s breath, but Ponzi denied he’d been drinking, prosecutors said Monday. When officers reached to check Ponzi’s eye response, Ponzi allegedly yelled “Corona, ok!”, stepped toward the officer and coughed in his face.

“[The officer] immediately felt particles of saliva/breath landing in [his] face area,” Ponzi’s police report states.

Officers took Ponzi to the ground, handcuffed him and took him to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, where he continued to struggle with hospital staff until he was sedated, prosecutors said. Ponzi told hospital staff he did not have COVID-19.

According to the other driver, Ponzi was speeding in the wrong direction down North Wolcott until he struck his vehicle, then got of out his Jeep Cherokee and kicked the other driver in the thigh.

Ponzi faces charges of aggravated battery of a police officer, resisting police, driving under the influence, driving the wrong way on a one-way street, and driving without a valid license or insurance.

At a bond hearing conducted using internet-based video conferencing software, Judge Charles Beach granted Ponzi released on his own recognizance, noting he had no prior criminal convictions.

“I am concerned with the battery of a police officer... particularly spitting, especially in these times,” Beach said.

Seated in front of a camera inside the jail, a look of relief washed over Ponzi’s boyish face, framed in the corner of the split monitor screen.