Soaring Chicago police lawsuit payouts hit record amount, more on way

Chicago Tribune

26-05-2025

Chicago's spending on police misconduct settlements and other police lawsuits is soaring this year, and the steep price for taxpayers could rise hundreds of millions more.
Through May alone, the City Council has already approved at least $145.3 million in taxpayer payments to settle lawsuits involving the Chicago Police Department, a record number that dwarfs sums from past years, according to a Tribune analysis.
That amount — far above the $82.6 million Mayor Brandon Johnson and aldermen budgeted for settlements, verdicts and legal fees involving the department — does not include many smaller payments that face less aldermanic scrutiny.
It also leaves out a whopping $120 million a federal judge ordered the city to pay in March for two wrongful conviction cases — verdicts city leaders plan to challenge — and the oft-expensive cost of outside counsel retained by the city.
And the budget-swamping cost will grow this year as Chicago stares down dozens and dozens of pending wrongful conviction lawsuits and handles a backlog of cases that went unheard while the COVID-19 pandemic closed courts.
In City Hall, top attorneys, budget leaders and aldermen alike know the sharply heightened bill for police lawsuits is coming due.
'There's no real way around them,' Budget and Government Operations Committee Chair Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th, said. 'We have to deal with what's on the table right now.'
Many of the most expensive police-related cases involve wrongful convictions and imprisonments related to confessions detectives allegedly forced from suspects through torture and coercion, as well as car chases that violate strict CPD pursuit policies and end in injuries or deaths.
The city's Law Department recommends in many such cases that aldermen approve settlements to avoid risking far higher payouts that could follow court losses.
The expensive deals and verdicts regularly tied to decades-old cases will make it harder for the already cash-strapped city to pay for new investments, like Johnson's progressive plans to expand youth employment or mental health care, both of which have price tags that pale in comparison with the lawsuit spending.
But even as Johnson's administration hints at another large spending gap after grappling with a deficit of almost $1 billion last year, his budget director, Annette Guzmán, says the city has no choice but to make the best of the 'frustrating' situation.
'We're not kicking the can down the road. We are dealing with the situation and the hand that we've been dealt,' Guzmán said.
Other cities are also contending with heightened police-related lawsuits, Guzmán added. She cited Los Angeles, where Mayor Karen Bass during a 'state of the city' speech last month blamed a nearly $1 billion shortfall that ultimately led to layoffs for 650 city workers in part on 'backed-up lawsuits' and 'uncapped damages.'
Police-related settlements and verdicts have long cost the city a fortune, totaling over $1.11 billion from 2008 to 2024. The cost has generally risen over the last decade, passing $100 million for the first time in 2022 and hitting the mark again last year, according to the Tribune's analysis of city data.
And the city has routinely failed to budget enough money to pay the bill. Chicago has only put enough in its annual police budget to cover the cost twice in the last 17 years, even after the budgeted amount jumped from below $20 million in 2018 to $82.6 million in 2020, where it remains today.
Though she did answer a Tribune question about police misconduct costs at a news conference this week, Guzmán denied several requests for an interview.
Her Office of Budget and Management said in a statement that the city has budgeted over $150 million this year for settlements across the city's entire general fund, but added, 'it is difficult to predict/estimate what will settle, when it will settle and how much it will likely settle, often times over a year before it does.'
'Given the amount that has settled this year and for, in some cases, record setting amounts, we will be working with the Department of Law and the CFO on options for addressing potential settlements through the end of the year,' the Budget Department statement said.
The city's insurance providers have had to pay an additional $19 million tied to settlements.
The Law Department released a statement saying the city manages around 17,000 legal matters every year, including transactions, defense litigations and prosecutorial cases. The cases for large amounts 'represent a small fraction,' and the city issued payment of 739 matters for settlements and judgments last year, the statement said.
The city's 2025 payouts include $89 million tied to reversed conviction cases 'that involve decades-old conduct and do not reflect current police practices,' the statement said.
A Law Department spokesperson declined to say how much future cases could cost the city this year.
In January, the City Council approved a $7.5 million settlement for Ben Baker and his partner. Baker says allegedly corrupt ex-police Sgt. Ronald Watts pinned bogus drugs on him as retaliation when he refused to pay Watts a $1,000 bribe.
Baker spent about 10 years in prison before his conviction was thrown out. His story will soon seem commonplace to aldermen.
Around 175 other Watts-related cases are yet to be resolved in federal court. The incoming wave of those cases tied to alleged wrongful convictions could see Watts join disgraced former detectives Reynaldo Guevara and Jon Burge in the roll call of police officers who ended up costing taxpayers massive amounts of money for their misdeeds on the job.
Another Watts case settled this week for $1.2 million, part of a lofty $62 million package approved by the City Council in May.
The mounting costs sparked briefings presented to aldermen by city attorneys Thursday. Attendees said Law Department staff members laid out how they will address the coming cases, including the idea of hiring more attorneys. It will be hard to stomach the cost of settling, but it will often be more prudent than risking court verdicts, Ervin said.
'When the facts are stacked against you, you have to know when it's time to let go,' he said.
As aldermen approved the fortune in settlements Wednesday, some loudly disagreed with Ervin's position. Ald. Raymond López, 15th, Johnson's most vocal opponent, argued settlements create a 'cottage industry' for attorneys who sue the city. Aldermen were debating a $5 million deal for a woman who lost both legs to frostbite after police who found her walking shoeless in a bathrobe did not drive her to a station around a mile away when she was locked out of her home and suffering a mental health crisis while temperatures hovered near 5 degrees.
'We have to stop settling every single time in this room,' López told his colleagues. 'We have to learn that some situations, while tragic, are not our fault. They are not the responsibility of taxpayers.'
Ald. Andre Vásquez, 40th, fired back, arguing those favoring trials over settlements were gambling with taxpayer money. The same aldermen refused to include revenue-raising policies in the city's budget, he added.
'Stop talking on both sides of your neck just because you want to cater to whatever crowd you're speaking to,' Vásquez said. 'If you are not going to pay the bill, then accept the cheaper bill and take the settlement.'
The settlement passed in a 36-13 vote.
Moments later, aldermen considered an $8.25 million deal for a man who alleged police fabricated evidence that led to his murder conviction and 16 years behind bars before his conviction was vacated and charges dropped.
The City Council considered a deal in the case last year. At the time, aldermen rejected a settlement $650,000 cheaper than the one they passed Wednesday. A key city witness was since convicted of sexual assault, city attorneys said.
'These are the types of cases we need to settle because they are bad cases,' Ervin said during debate before offering support for the work of Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry, Johnson's top lawyer. 'If we don't trust her, then that's a different conversation. … Sending her to court in these circumstances only runs up the bill.'
In response, a frustrated Ald. Nick Sposato, 38th, defended his frequent 'no' votes on settlements. He chided Ervin, arguing the Finance Committee briefings where aldermen discuss the deals might as well not happen if the body should always follow the Law Department's advice.
'If we are just going to do what they say, we don't need to do this,' Sposato said. 'Why are we wasting time, dragging people down there, listening, sitting in? … Forget the briefing, forget anything. We'll just go back to the old days.'
But Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, who chairs the Finance Committee, told the Tribune afterward many aldermen do not come to the briefings where settlements are discussed. She urged her colleagues to show up and take on the ugly but necessary task of dealing with settlements.
'They have to be addressed,' Dowell said. 'We cannot stick our head in the sand and ignore these cases.'
At a news conference later Wednesday, Richardson-Lowry argued it's a 'misnomer' for the aldermen often opposed to settlements to think the city is merely settling. The 'vast majority' of the lawsuits that her department handles are tried, not settled, 'but there are categories of cases that are in the interest of the city to settle,' she said.
The Law Department does not expect to get every alderman's support, but it does expect their participation in briefings, Richardson-Lowry added. A backlog of cases is 'coming due,' she said. When it is appropriate, that will mean more trials, but it will mean more deal-making too, she said.
'I want all the (aldermen) and the general public to get ready, because we're going to have more settlements,' Richardson-Lowry said. 'It's the responsible thing to do.'