A key panel endorsed a recommendation from city lawyers to pay nearly $15 million to settle four lawsuits claiming Chicago police officers committed a wide range of misconduct, as several alderpeople demanded a new approach to the growing cost to taxpayers.
Monday’s meeting of the Chicago City Council’s Finance Committee was the first since a federal jury ordered Chicago to pay $50 million to Marcel Brown, who was wrongfully convicted of a 2008 murder and spent 10 years in prison before being exonerated.
Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th Ward) said that jury verdict, setting a new city record for a wrongful conviction case, poses a significant threat to the city’s financial stability by adding potentially billions of dollars in liability.
“I don’t know what the plan is,” Villegas said. “What’s the plan? I’m concerned.”
Villegas said the City Council should form a new working group to develop new solutions to the longstanding issue. Victoria Benson, the head of the newly created complex litigation division in the city’s Law Department, said she would be happy to work with alderpeople as part of the renewed effort to address these cases ordered by Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson Lowry.
However, Ald. Daniel LaSpata (1st Ward) said city officials must reform the Chicago Police Department to stop the payouts.
“They stem from the culture in the Chicago Police Department,” LaSpata said.
The Chicago Police Department is in full compliance with approximately 7% of the 2019 federal court order known as the consent decree, which requires CPD to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers.
Chicago taxpayers paid $40.5 million between Jan. 1 and June 30 to resolve lawsuits alleging police officers committed misconduct, records show. Between 2019 and 2023, taxpayers paid an additional $384.2 million to resolve lawsuits alleging approximately 1,300 Chicago police officers violated department rules and laws, according to a WTTW News analysis.
The Finance Committee unanimously endorsed the recommendation of city lawyers to pay $11.6 million to Anthony Jakes, who spent 20 years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of a 1991 murder based on a confession coerced by Chicago police detectives trained by Jon Burge.
Ald. Emma Mitts (37th Ward) abstained from the vote, telling her colleagues that Jakes, who was just 15 when he was arrested, is her nephew.
An additional $2.5 million is set to be paid to a man who spent five years in jail awaiting trial after being charged with a 2008 murder. Michael Liggins was acquitted and accused two Chicago Police detectives — who remain on the force — of framing him.
Neither detective has been disciplined in connection with that case, according to city lawyers.
In addition, Chicago taxpayers are set to pay $500,000 to Alvin Waddy, who was arrested on drug charges brought by a crew of corrupt cops that included disgraced former Sgt. Ronald Watts.
Waddy spent 394 days in prison after being convicted on the original charges he faced before being released on parole. He spent an additional 73 days in jail after the same group of officers alleged he violated the terms of his release by possessing drugs. Those charges were dropped after tests showed the substance he was accused of possessing was not an illegal drug, according to Deputy Corporation Counsel Jessica Felker.
In 2013, Watts was convicted of shaking down a drug courier who turned out to be an FBI informant. Watts spent nearly two years in prison.
Since 2017, 212 convictions tied to Watts have been overturned, according to Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.
The city is facing 193 lawsuits that name Watts, Felker said.
The cost of resolving police misconduct lawsuits has long been a source of political heartburn for members of the Chicago City Council, which must ratify all settlements of more than $100,000.
While conservative alderpeople frequently vote against settling the cases, not a single alderperson on Monday voted against any one of the four proposed settlements, which now head to a final vote by the full City Council on Wednesday.
Those alderpeople often accuse the city’s lawyers and their colleagues of being too eager to settle cases before trial, guilty of criminal wrongdoing to sue the city in the hopes of an easy payday.
But on Monday, that criticism was notably absent, as alderpeople grappled with the growing cost to taxpayers of police misconduct.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]