Politics
Jury Finds CPD Officers Used Excessive Force During Botched 2018 Raid, Awards $5.7M to Family
Surrounded by her family and her attorneys, Cynthia Eason chokes back tears as she discusses the $5.7 million verdict in the lawsuit her family filed against the city over a 2018 botched raid. (Heather Cherone / WTTW News)
A federal jury ordered the city of Chicago on Wednesday to pay $5.7 million to a family with four children, determining that a botched 2018 Chicago police raid of their Back of the Yards apartment violated their civil rights.
The eight-member jury found that nine CPD officers acted improperly and used excessive force against Ebony Tate, her mother, Cynthia Eason, and four children on Aug. 9, 2018, when a CPD SWAT team set off flash-bang grenades outside the family’s apartment before breaking down the door and repeatedly pointing assault rifles directly at the children.
The jury, which deliberated for approximately five and a half hours, found that the officers lied when they testified that they did not point their weapons at Tate, Eason and the four children — who were 13, 11, 8 and 4 years old at the time — while serving a valid search warrant and were liable for the family’s suffering.
E’Monie, La’niya, Legend and Lakai’ya Booth were awarded $1 million each in compensatory damages, according to the verdict. Tate and Eason were awarded $750,000 each in compensatory damages. An additional $240,000 in punitive damages was awarded to the family members against the officers, according to the verdict.
“This is a measure of justice,” Eason said, choking back tears at a post-verdict news conference. “The next family should not have to go through what we went through.”
The jury cleared the city and all officers of allegations of assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress and unlawful imprisonment, according to the verdict.
In addition, the jury found the city liable for the officers’ misconduct, determining that officials knew officers were routinely violating Chicagoans’ rights while serving search warrants and improperly using force against children and pointing guns at them.
“While we appreciate the jury’s work in this complex case, the city disagrees with the verdict and is exploring its options for post-trial motions,” said Kristen Cabanban, a spokesperson for the Law Department.
Al Hofeld, the family’s lead attorney, said he was prepared to defend the jury’s verdict on appeal, which he said was an important milestone in the push for police reform in Chicago.
“We think they don’t have much of a chance, and we will fight them, and we will win in the 7th Circuit (Court of Appeals),” Hofeld said.
Because the city took the case to trial, taxpayers will pay the family’s attorney fees, subject to the approval of the judge.
Lawyers for the family argued that the problems that led to the botched raid were allowed to fester because of a “code of silence” that kept officers from reporting and testifying about wrongdoing by other officers, preventing officials from holding CPD officers accountable for misconduct.
Eason, the children’s grandmother and Tate’s mother, was about to take a bath when officers conducted the raid. She testified that she was forced to leave her home even though she was not fully dressed.
Eason testified she was was forced to stand outside her home in nothing but a T-shirt and underwear. Tate suffered a panic attack, and was treated by paramedics while officers searched her home, records show.
There is no body-worn camera footage of the raid, since officers assigned to SWAT teams were not required in 2018 to wear them, according to the lawsuit.
No drugs or weapons were recovered during the search, nor was anyone charged with a crime based on evidence discovered by the officers during the raid, records show.
The search warrant obtained by police to search the Tate and Eason apartment identified a man who did not, and had never, lived in the home, but lived nearby, according to the lawsuit.
Although officers were not authorized to enter the Tate and Eason apartment without announcing their presence, officers used a pry bar to break down the apartment’s door without warning, the family testified. The jury found that the officers acted unreasonably while entering their home.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the agency charged with investigating police misconduct, never determined whether officers violated CPD policy during the raid, according to documents obtained by WTTW News through a Freedom of Information Act request.
None of the officers involved were disciplined.
WTTW News coverage of policing and police reform is supported by The Joyce Foundation.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
