Politics
City Lawyers Negotiating ‘Global Settlement’ of Lawsuits Naming CPD Officers Repeatedly Accused of Improper Traffic Stops
(WTTW News)
Attorneys for the city of Chicago are negotiating a “global settlement” to resolve 17 lawsuits naming eight members of a Chicago Police Department tactical team repeatedly accused of improperly stopping and searching Black men downtown, court records show.
U.S. District Chief Judge Virginia Kendall signed an order on July 27 giving U.S. Magistrate Judge Beth Jantz the authority to craft a “global settlement” of 17 cases which accuse the officers of violating drivers’ civil rights between 2023 and 2024.
Jantz held the first closed-door negotiation Monday.
Chicago taxpayers have already paid more than $382,000 to defend the lawsuits that could be resolved through the global settlement, according to records obtained by WTTW News through a Freedom of Information Act request.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability warned in December 2024 that more than 50 traffic stops made by eight members of the 18th District Tactical Team resulted in a troubling pattern of undocumented and unprofessional stops of Black people in Lincoln Park, West Town, Old Town, River North, Streeterville, the Gold Coast and parts of Logan Square, records show.
Five members of that tactical team were stripped of their police powers, records show.
A spokesperson for the Chicago Department of Law declined to comment on Kendall’s order, citing the city’s policy of not discussing pending litigation.
The Chicago City Council must approve — or reject — city lawyers’ recommendation to pay more than $100,000 to resolve a case before a trial. Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry has the authority to approve settlements of less than $100,000.
Richardson-Lowry told alderpeople in November that she was exploring ways to settle all lawsuits alleging misconduct by the same officer in one fell swoop.
In a separate case, taxpayers will spend $101.3 million this year to resolve 184 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, as part of the city’s first-ever global settlement.
The 18th District tactical team members have been named in at least 28 lawsuits filed by Chicago drivers who said they were improperly stopped and searched near the North Michigan Avenue shopping district because they are Black, according to an analysis of court records by WTTW News.
Six of those lawsuits have been resolved with payments totaling $408,000, records show. While a seventh case was recently resolved with a settlement, officials have not yet responded to a Freedom of Information Act request from WTTW News seeking the amount of that settlement.
Four lawsuits naming the same officers that are not part of the global settlement discussions are also pending, records show.
Officers Richard Rodriquez, Joseph Vecchio, Kenneth Sunde and Crystina Kittrell all earn more than $111,200 annually, while Officers Michael Donnelly and Nicu Tohatan earn more than $115,100, records show. Sgt. Erick Seng earns more than $152,000, records show.
Rodriquez, Vecchio, Donnelly and Tohatan have been stripped of their badges and assigned to administrative duties.
Officer Mario Fuentes, who was also stripped of his police powers, is no longer listed in the city’s database of active employees, records show. A CPD spokesperson did not respond to a request from WTTW News for an update on his employment status.
Nineteen complaints against Rodriquez have been sustained, resulting in recommended suspensions totaling at least 151 days, records show.
In addition, 19 against Vecchio have been sustained, resulting in recommended suspensions totaling at least 132 days, records show.
Twelve complaints against Seng have been sustained, resulting in recommended suspensions totaling 91 days, records show.
The city is facing a separate class-action lawsuit that accuses CPD of targeting Black and Latino drivers with a massive campaign of traffic stops in the latest chapter of the city’s “long and sordid history” of racist discrimination.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which sued the city three years ago on behalf of five Black and Latino Chicagoans who had been repeatedly stopped while driving, “put forth a substantial amount of evidence demonstrating that CPD disproportionately stops Black and Latino drivers relative to white drivers,” U.S. District Court Judge Mary Rowland ruled.
WTTW News coverage of policing and police reform is supported by The Joyce Foundation.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
