Chicago Police dash cam video of Martina Standley receiving medical attention after being struck by a Chicago Police SUV in South Shore in November 2019.
Chicago taxpayers should pay $3.25 million to the family of a 32-year-old woman who died in 2019 after being struck and pinned to the ground by a Chicago Police Department SUV, city lawyers recommended.
A Chicago police sports utility vehicle struck Martina Standley on Nov. 13, 2019, near 71st Street and South Jeffery Avenue. Suffering injuries to her head and leg, Standley was trapped under the car for eight minutes and suffered a traumatic brain injury, according to the lawsuit filed by her family. Standley died on Jan. 30, 2022.
The proposed settlement is set to be considered Wednesday by the City Council’s Finance Committee. If approved, a final vote of the City Council could come as soon as Thursday.
Andrew M. Stroth, the attorney for Forestine Williams, Standley’s mother, said her family wants Chicago police officers “to value the sanctity of life.”
“Martina Standley was unjustifiably run over by a Chicago police officer and her life was never the same,” Stroth said. “She couldn’t work, play basketball or enjoy everyday life. Martina should be with us today.”
Police reform activist William Calloway won a court order in January 2021 to obtain dashcam and body-worn camera video of the incident after the administration of former Mayor Lori Lightfoot refused to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request. In 2015, a lawsuit brought by Calloway forced Chicago officials to release the footage of the police murder of Laquan McDonald.
That footage shows Standley, who was experiencing a mental health crisis, approaching the stationary SUV’s passenger side. The SUV swerves into Standley, who drops to the ground. Ten seconds elapse from the moment she approached the SUV and was struck.
Brian Greene, who remains an active Chicago police officer earning nearly $103,000 annually, gets out of the SUV to examine Standley, saying “girl, ain’t nobody hit you like that,” according to the footage.
When Greene sees blood pooling around her head and her leg under the car’s tire, he says, “Oh, s---. F---,” according to the video.
Greene can also be heard telling other officers “she came banging on the window — it was not like no one was running from nobody or nothing like that.”
Officers spend several minutes debating whether to move the vehicle, which was pinning Standley to the ground, before paramedics arrive, according to the video.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the agency charged with investigating police misconduct, has concluded its probe into the incident that took place more than four years ago, and those results are awaiting review by Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling.
Snelling will decide what, if any, discipline Greene will face.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
