Chicago to Pay $38.25M to Settle 4 Police Misconduct Cases

(WTTW News) (WTTW News)

The Chicago City Council agreed Wednesday to pay $38.25 million to resolve four lawsuits alleging that misconduct by Chicago police officers led to the death of a woman and the wrongful incarceration of three men for a combined 56 years.

In all, the settlements approved Wednesday account for nearly half of the city’s annual $82 million budget to cover the cost of police misconduct lawsuits.

Chicago taxpayers will pay $17.5 million to Thomas Sierra, who spent more than 21 years in prison after he was framed by a disgraced former Chicago police detective for a 1995 murder.

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Sierra was convicted after being investigated by Reynaldo Guevara, a former Chicago police detective accused of routinely framing suspects.

Sierra left prison in 2017, was exonerated in 2018 and received a certificate of innocence in 2022. Sierra and 44 other Chicagoans who were convicted based on evidence gathered by Guevara have been exonerated by Illinois judges, records show.

Sierra’s litigation is the seventh lawsuit filed by Chicagoans who said they were the victims of Guevara’s misconduct to be resolved, at a total cost of $78 million to Chicago taxpayers.

Another 40 federal lawsuits are pending, records show.

City officials paid at least $35.7 million between 2018 and July to hire private attorneys to defend Guevara, despite his well-documented misconduct that sent nearly four dozen now-exonerated Chicagoans to prison for decades, including one woman who was sentenced to death before her conviction was overturned.

That includes $2.8 million to defend Guevara in the lawsuit filed by Sierra, records show.

The City Council on Wednesday also approved an $8.75 million settlement for Mark Maxson, who spent nearly 25 years behind bars after being convicted of murdering a 6-year-old boy based on a confession Maxson said was coerced by Chicago police detectives trained by Jon Burge, a disgraced Chicago police commander.

Detectives trained by Burge have faced dozens of lawsuits and complaints alleging they physically abused those they suspected of committing crimes to coerce confessions.

Maxson said he only confessed after being interrogated for three days and having his request for a lawyer ignored. Maxson said detectives slapped him in the face, kicked him in the ribs and fed him information about the crime that he used in his confession, which was the only evidence against him.

The third case resolved by the City Council on Wednesday will send $7.5 million to Ben Baker, who spent a decade in prison after he was framed by convicted former Chicago police Sgt. Ronald Watts.

Convicted in 2006, Baker spent 10 years in prison before he was released in 2016, three years after Watts was convicted of taking bribes. A judge granted Baker a certificate of innocence a month after he was released.

Taxpayers spent at least an additional $5.2 million to defend the lawsuit filed by Baker and his partner, Clarissa Glenn, the first federal lawsuit naming Watts to be resolved.

Watts and the officers who reported to him were accused of demanding that residents and drug dealers pay them for protection. They arrested those who refused after planting drugs on them, according to court records.

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 the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.

The final case resolved by the City Council on Wednesday will send $4.5 million to the family of Lakisel Thomas, who died in February 2021 after being struck by an SUV fleeing from Chicago police, even though department policy prohibited officers from pursuing the SUV.

In all, Chicago taxpayers have spent at least $77.5 million since January 2019 to resolve two dozen lawsuits filed by Chicagoans injured during police pursuits, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News.

In December, a Cook County jury ordered the city of Chicago to pay $79.85 million to the family of a 10-year-old girl who was killed after a 2020 police chase. That verdict is not yet final.

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


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