A protester faces a line of police officers in Chicago on Saturday, May 30, 2020. (Hugo Balta / WTTW News)

The Chicago City Council voted Wednesday to pay nearly $1.3 million to resolve two lawsuits alleging Chicago police officers committed misconduct during the protests and unrest during the summer of 2020 that were triggered by the police murder of George Floyd.

The City Council voted 37-10 to pay $750,000 to Brian Mejia, who said CPD officers hit him so hard during a May 31, 2020, protest near Trump Tower that they broke his leg and tore a ligament in his knee.

In a separate vote, the City Council unanimously agreed to pay $525,000 to the family of Astarte Washington, who was 15 years old in 2020 when she was run over by a Chicago police SUV.

In all, Chicago taxpayers have spent at least $6.8 million to defend and settle lawsuits alleging Chicago police officers committed a wide range of misconduct during the protests and unrest during the summer of 2020, according to an analysis by WTTW News.

In both of the cases alderpeople voted on Wednesday, the city hired private lawyers to defend the conduct of CPD officers, according to records obtained by WTTW News through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Chicago taxpayers paid approximately $125,000 to defend Mejia’s lawsuit and an additional $29,000 to defend the lawsuit filed by Washington’s family, records show.

Chicago taxpayers paid a premium for private lawyers in those cases even though two probes found officers during the 2020 unrest beat protesters with batons, doused their faces with pepper spray, used racial slurs and mocked the push for racial justice and police reform. In many cases, that conduct violated protesters’ First Amendment rights and involved unjustified and excessive force, according to the probes.

Mejia alleged officers arrested him without probable cause while using a racial slur city officials identified as the “n-word.”

Before city lawyers recommended that the city settle Mejia’s suit, a judge ruled that CPD officers arrested Meija improperly and battered him, ensuring that he would receive a significant award after a trial.

Deputy Corporation Counsel Caroline Fronczak told alderpeople the city and its attorneys have been unable to identify the officers who struck Mejia and then arrested him, making it impossible for them to argue to a judge or jury that the force used against Mejia was justified.

The lawsuit filed by Washington’s family said she was injured when a Chicago police SUV rolled over Washington’s legs and torso, fracturing her hip and leaving the teen, who was an acting student council president and captain of her basketball team, with post-traumatic stress disorder.

City lawyers said a Chicago police officer working to quell the unrest and looting swirling near 111th Street and Michigan Avenue ordered Washington to the ground as she helped a relative carry a garbage can full of new clothes down the middle of the street.

As she laid in the street, following officers’ orders, CPD Officer Christopher Holmes stopped the Ford Explorer he was driving near Washington — and “forgot” to put it in park before he hopped out of the vehicle.

The SUV was still in reverse, and struck Washington, city lawyers said.

Holmes was suspended for one day after an investigation by the Bureau of Internal Affairs, according to records obtained by WTTW News.

In other action, the City Council agreed to pay $940,000 to Lamar Johnson, who was hospitalized for a month after a car being pursued by Chicago police crashed into him in June 2019.

In all, Chicago taxpayers have paid nearly $100 million since 2019 to resolve lawsuits brought by nearly two dozen people injured during police pursuits, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News.

The series of events that led to the crash that injured Johnson began when a police officer attempted to stop a car for having a broken taillight. When the car fled, the officer pursued it, even though police department rules prohibit chases in cases where the only reason for the stop is a non-criminal investigation.

The officer involved was reprimanded, city lawyers said.

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]