Updated story
A pair of grave errors by the Chicago Police Department cost one woman her safety and normal cognitive function, while the other cost a man the middle chunk of his life.
For the city's taxpayers, the police misconduct will cost roughly $33 million dollars.
On Tuesday, a City Council finance committee took up proposals to settle a pair of lawsuits against police brought on by Christina Eilman and Alton Logan were slated for a City Council finance committee vote, reports WBEZ.
The committee preliminarily approved the settlements according to the Associated Press, and is expected to sign off on the payouts Thursday.
The most recent of the two eight-figure police settlements stems from the horrifying turn of events following the arrest and subsequent release of the then-21-year-old Eilman. The Tribune reports Eilman was arrested during a bipolar breakdown as she was trying to fly from Midway to California in May 2006. Instead of following protocol—and a watch commander's order—and taking Eilman to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, officers transferred and then released the disoriented and still-erratic Eilmen without assistance into one of the city's highest-crime neighborhoods.
Once released, the former UCLA student was abducted and sexually assaulted by gang members before plummeting seven stories to the ground below. Eilmen suffered a severe and permanent brain injury, and doctors say she will not recover.
The $22.5 million payment—a steep decline from the $100 million Eilmen's parents were seeking—will be the largest single-victim settlement in city history.
Logan's settlement is a proposed $10.2 million after he was wrongfully sent to prison at age 28 for a murder he didn't commit. According to WGN, Logan lost 26 years of his life in jail. Logan was released in 2008 only after convicted cop killer Andrew Wilson died and his attorneys, to whom Wilson had confessed, revealed the truth.
The Sun-Times reports Logan was among the victims of former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge's abusive tactics. After the 1982 murder of security guard Lloyd Wickliffe during a robbery at a South Side McDonald’s, Logan accused Burge and his detectives of hiding evidence that would have freed him.
Burge has continued to be a black eye for the Chicago Police Department even as he serves his 4 1/2 year sentence in federal prison for lying about the torture and abuse of police suspects. The Tribune estimates Burge's legacy, with legal fees accounted for, has already cost the city nearly $60 million. The tab for Burge's legal fees was also balanced on the backs of Chicago taxpayers.
A WGN broadcast (embedded) reported Ald. Howard Brookins (21st) as saying the city didn't take a hard enough line on police misconduct over the years.
Flickr user niXerKG.
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