Decked out in a purple suit coat and purple shoes, David B. Johnson appeared before a judge in the Markham courthouse last month on his 13th charge of driving on a suspended license.

At that Jan. 23 hearing, Judge Christopher Donnelly sentenced Johnson to 10 days in jail beginning Feb. 6. The judge also sternly warned him not to drive his car before then.

Johnson donned his purple fedora and full-length fur coat and walked out of the courthouse to his purple 1988 Cadillac. The dashboard of the immaculate four-door sedan had a placard that said “PIMP PLAZA” and the rear spare-tire cover was stenciled “Mister Oldskool.”

Johnson pulled out a feather duster — purple, of course — and cleaned off his car for about five minutes.

Then he drove away — with a bevy of female onlookers hooting and hollering to him, said Steve Patterson, a spokesman for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. When Johnson pulled onto a street outside the Markham courthouse, Cook County Sheriff’s Deputy Frank Czerwinski stopped Johnson’s car and arrested him.

“He made it easy on us,” Patterson said, adding that deputies regularly check to see whether drivers with suspended licenses get back into their cars after court.

The crackdown began about a year ago at every suburban courthouse, but most of the problems have been at Markham.

Between March and December, the sheriff’s office has busted more than 300 people at Markham for leaving a hearing for driving while suspended, getting into a vehicle and driving away.

In 2001, the Chicago Sun-Times began exposing the problem in a series called “Why Are They Driving?” that prompted tougher state laws against such scofflaws.

Czerwinski had been secretly watching Johnson to see if he would ignore the judge’s warning.

Donnelly was not happy to see Johnson back in his courtroom.

“It took you exactly 22 minutes to violate my order,” he growled.

Johnson, 31, of Maywood, was ordered held until he can come up with $10,000 for bail. On Monday, he remained in the Cook County Jail. [source]