Peter Mendez speaks about $2.5 million settlement after botched Chicago police raid
In 2017, officers pointed guns in the face of Peter Mendez, then 9 years old, after raiding the wrong home.
On Friday, Peter, now 17, spoke out for the first time about his family's settlement with the city.
"Kind of relieved; I can close this chapter of my life and move on," he said.
Peter said he's ready to move on from the fear and trauma he experienced the night a team of Chicago police officers wrongly raided his family's home.
Back then, the CBS News Chicago Investigators had no idea they would uncover a citywide systemic pattern of officers taking the word of informants without verifying the information and then raiding the homes of innocent people.
In Peter's case, he testified officers pointed guns at him and his parents, and handcuffed his father, Gilbert, face down on the ground in front of him.
This week, the City Council voted to end the Mendez family's civil rights lawsuit by agreeing to pay the family $2.5 million.
What message does the family's legal team think the lawsuit sends to the city?
"It says stop pointing guns at kids. Get your search warrant investigations right," attorney Al Hofeld Jr. said.
After the CBS News Chicago Investigators revealed what happened during raid on the Mendez family's home, other families started coming forward to say the same thing happened to them.
In 2019, Gov. JB Pritzker signed the Peter Mendez Act, requiring police to get training to deal with children during traumatic situations like a raid or seeing a parent handcuffed.
Peter was all smiles when the bill was signed into law. He said Friday he feels like he will always be a champion for other kids.
"I don't believe that children should have to go through the same thing I experienced; not at all, not in the slightest," he said.
His high-profile case impacted adults too, like Anjanette Young, who also came to CBS for help exposing her wrong raid after seeing Peter's story.
Together, the two wrong raid victims, along with CBS News Chicago's 7-year probe into wrong raids, have led to a completely overhauled police search warrant and raid policy.
"You gave a voice to the voiceless, you know, gave us the voice when we didn't feel like we had nothing," Peter said.
Botched raids by Chicago police have cost taxpayers millions of dollars in settlements.
In the Mendez family's case, in addition to the $2.5 million settlement, the city spent another $700,000 in legal fees to a private law firm to defend the officers in court before ultimately settling the case.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Ghislaine Maxwell moved to a minimum-security prison camp, authorities say
Jeffrey Epstein's former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell has been moved to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas, officials have said. is serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted of helping traffic and sexually abuse underage girls in 2021. She was being held at a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida, that housed men and women. The federal Bureau of Prisons said on Friday that Maxwell has been transferred to a prison camp in Bryan, Texas, but did not explain the circumstances. Her lawyer confirmed the move but also declined to discuss the reasons for it. The Texas camp houses solely female prisoners, the majority of whom are serving time for nonviolent offences and white-collar crimes, Sky's US partner NBC News reports. Minimum-security federal prison camps house inmates considered to be the lowest security risk and some facilities do not even have fences. A senior administration official told NBC: "Any false assertion this individual was given preferential treatment is absurd. "Prisoners are routinely moved in some instances due to significant safety and danger concerns." Maxwell has received renewed attention in recent weeks, after the US Justice Department said it would not be releasing the so-called 'Epstein files'. The department said a review of the Epstein case had found "no incriminating 'client list'" and "no credible evidence" the jailed financier - who killed himself in prison in 2019 - had blackmailed famous men. Read more: Officials from the Trump administration have since tried to cast themselves as promoting transparency in the case. Last month, they lodged a request to unseal grand jury transcripts - - and Maxwell was last week by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Epstein survivor's family criticises move Maxwell's move to a lower security facility has been criticised by the family of Epstein abuse survivor Virginia Giuffre, who , and accusers Annie and Maria Farmer. They said in a statement: "It is with horror and outrage that we object to the preferential treatment convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell has received. "Ghislaine Maxwell is a sexual predator who physically assaulted minor children on multiple occasions, and she should never be shown any leniency. "Yet, without any notification to the Maxwell victims, the government overnight has moved Maxwell to a minimum security luxury prison in Texas." The statement concluded: "This move smacks of a cover up. The victims deserve better."
CBS News
5 minutes ago
- CBS News
Chicago man charged with hate crime in Portage Park stabbing
A Chicago man has been arrested and charged with a hate crime in a stabbing in the city's Portage Park neighborhood in early July. Police said just after 11 p.m. on July 8, a 42-year-old woman was in the 5700-block of West Addison St. when a man approached her, said a racial slur and then stabbed her. Chicago police arrested 20-year-old Andres Stathoulopoulos Wednesday night just before 8:30 p.m. in Schiller Park, Illinois. He is charged with one felony count of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and two counts of felony hate crime. Stathoulopoulos appeared in court for a detention hearing Friday.
New York Times
5 minutes ago
- New York Times
Police Seek Gunman After Shooting in Montana
Multiple people were shot in Anaconda, Mont., on Friday afternoon, prompting a manhunt for the suspected gunman, according to social media posts by local authorities and the Denver office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and explosives. The extent of any injuries was not immediately clear. But Gov. Greg Gianforte of Montana posted that he was monitoring the situation closely and praying for the victims. The sheriff's office in neighboring Granite County said on social media that a police tactical team had searched a house in Anaconda, a town of about 10,000 people in Deer Lodge County, looking for the suspect but had not found them, and advised residents to avoid the area. This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
