It’s Thursday. Here's hoping for a few more moments of sun today.
Chicago City Hall. (Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)
Chicago has spent more than $225 million to resolve more than 200 lawsuits alleging Chicago police officers committed a wide range of misconduct, just six months into 2026, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News. The city’s 2026 budget set aside just $82.5 million for police misconduct settlements, and authorized officials to borrow an additional $283.3 million to cover the soaring cost of lawsuits alleging wrongdoing by police officers, records show.
In all of 2025, Chicago taxpayers spent a total of $252 million to resolve 136 lawsuits, according to a WTTW News analysis. More context:
Nearly 60% of the taxpayer money spent to resolve police misconduct lawsuits went to Chicagoans who alleged they spent decades in prison based on evidence developed by Chicago police officers. Reversed convictions have long been the most expensive kind of police misconduct in Chicago, and that is set to continue in 2026, records show.
The latest wrongful conviction lawsuit to be resolved will pay $250,000 to a man who spent approximately 17 months in prison after pleading guilty to drug-related charges based on evidence developed by current and former officers repeatedly accused of misconduct. The Chicago City Council also voted Wednesday to pay $650,000 to two women struck and injured by a driver being chased by Chicago police.
The cost of police misconduct lawsuits is set to grow significantly in the second half of 2026, records show. Taxpayers have already paid $45 million to resolve nearly 200 lawsuits filed by Chicagoans who were wrongfully convicted based on what they allege was fabricated evidence gathered by former Chicago Police Sgt. Ronald Watts, who was convicted in 2013 of taking bribes, and other officers, records show, and will pay an additional $45 million before the end of the year to close the books on those lawsuits. In addition, it is not clear how much city lawyers have agreed to pay to resolve two lawsuits filed by Arturo DeLeon-Reyes and Gabriel Solache, who alleged disgraced former Chicago Police Department Detective Reynaldo Guevara coerced them into confessing to committing a gruesome double murder and kidnapping in 1998.
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Andrew Boutros is pictured. (Department of Justice, Capitol News Illinois)
Attorneys for the former “Broadview Six” defendants are calling for an independent investigation into prosecutorial misconduct allegations, while a top Democratic lawmaker called for a Congressional inquiry into Chicago’s U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros over his mishandling of the botched case. Defense attorneys filed new motions asking U.S. District Judge April Perry to designate a special counsel to investigate, and if warranted, prosecute members of Boutros’ office for criminal contempt following bombshell allegations of grand jury misconduct. “To not appoint a special prosecutor here would enable the government’s strategy to lay all that has happened on a single scapegoat, a convenient outcome for those who are eager to turn the page,” the attorneys wrote. What else happened: That request came the same day as U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat and the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, penned a letter calling on the Office of Professional Responsibility and the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission to launch their own investigations into Boutros’ “appalling” conduct. He joins a growing list of Democratic lawmakers and ex-federal prosecutors who have publicly criticized Boutros over his office’s mishandling of the case.
What Boutros is saying: In a statement Wednesday, Boutros called Raskin’s letter “incomplete, ill-informed, and severely distorted,” but added that he “fully supports” any investigation by the OPR and ARDC into the Broadview Six prosecution. “When they do so,” he said, “we are confident that upon careful, unbiased consideration, neither entity will find misconduct by the United States Attorney because there was none.”
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(WTTW News)
The Chicago City Council voted 33-15 Wednesday to reject a ban on so-called sweepstakes machines, heeding the objections of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration. Approximately 7,000 unpermitted sweepstakes machines operate in all kinds of businesses across the city but are concentrated on the South and West sides.
Ald. Anthony Beale (9th Ward), the author of the proposed ban, called it a “slam dunk” that would speed up efforts by bar and restaurant owners to offer licensed video gambling, which he said will mean tens of millions of dollars in new revenue for the city. But Ald. Jason Ervin (28th Ward) warned that banning sweepstakes machines — and allowing video gambling to operate in every bar in Chicago — would be a bad deal for Chicago taxpayers.
“We’re tripping over $100 bills to pick up nickels,” Ervin said. “Because that’s what we get from a (video gaming terminal) machine: 5 cents on the dollar.” Context: Sweepstakes machines look like video poker machines and function in much the same way, but offer tickets redeemable for cash or merchandise, skirting the letter of the law in what officials have long called a “gray market.” Neither the city nor the state tax those machines.
Various proposals to legalize — or ban — the machines have frequently surfaced at City Hall, only to fade away amid concerted lobbying by both sides. The push to ban the machines gained new life amid the city’s latest financial crisis and after the City Council authorized video gambling as part of the 2026 spending plan, which took effect over Johnson’s objections. The city’s budget relies on $6.8 million in revenue from video gambling. That assumes that 3,300 bars and restaurants would offer as many as six video gambling machines, for a total of 19,800 new terminals.
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Back in the Day: June 18, 1896 - Silent Film Star Blanche Sweet Born in Chicago
Blanche Sweet was one of the film industry’s earliest movie stars. She acted in countless silent films and collaborated with the controversial but unmistakably influential director D.W. Griffith in features like “The Goddess of Sagebrush Gulch” (1912), “'The Painted Lady’” (1912) and “Judith of Bethulia” (1913). On this day 130 years ago, Sweet was born in Chicago to a family of entertainers and vaudeville performers. She continued acting throughout the ‘30s, reignited her career in the late ‘50s and then devoted her life to film preservation. According to her New York Times obituary in 1986, she “served on the Board of Directors of the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures for several years and was a consultant to the Department of Film of the Museum of Modern Art.”
This Week’s Arts and Culture Events
Every Thursday, WTTW News newsletter producer Josh Terry highlights his picks for the week’s must-see cultural events.
Tomorrow kicks off another holiday weekend. Juneteenth has been celebrated for at least 160 years, but it only became a federal holiday in 2021. Whether you have work off or you have to clock in, there’s still a beautiful forecast on the horizon for Chicago. Spend the time outside trekking to enrich your artistic life and curiosity at these cultural events across the area.
Theater: “Antigone” — The Den Theatre French playwright Jean Anouilh wrote "Antigone," his adaptation of Sophocles' classical tragedy, while his native France was occupied by Nazi Germany, under censorship. It premiered in 1944 at Paris’ Théâtre de l'Atelier and has endured for its searing tension, lucid historical parallels and its timeless, resonant story. It’s at the Den Theatre for a production put on by Promethean Theatre Ensemble and it runs there until June 27. Buy tickets here. Performance: “Lincoln Portrait & Ellington Harlem” — Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chicago native and Tony Award-nominee Harry Lennix narrates and conductor Joshua Weilerstein leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a decade-spanning production titled “Lincoln Portrait & Ellington Harlem.” Performances run from Thursday until Sunday with featured pieces that include Duke Ellington’s “Harlem,” Aaron Copland's “Lincoln Portrait,” Charles Ives' "Three Places in New England" and more. Buy tickets here. Film: Little Fort Environmental Film Festival — Waukegan, Illinois Head up to Waukegan, Illinois, this weekend for the Little Fort Environmental Festival, which is happening at various locations Saturday and Sunday. The films featured represent six countries and include two of local importance. There’s “
