CHICAGO (WLS) — Chicago is proceeding with plans to resolve a couple of long-standing police misconduct lawsuits, costing the city over $35 million.
The Chicago City Council’s Finance Committee recommended the settlements on Monday.
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Council members expressed serious concerns about how the city is going to pay for them when it is already facing a major budget crisis.
The city had only allocated $82 million for settling police misconduct claims this year, and that budget was depleted two months ago. Now, cases involving two discredited former detectives are contributing to an already challenging budget year.
“So, this is you see, a tough one. Anytime you mention Burge or Guevara or Watts, it’s always a scary thing,” said 38th Ward Ald. Nick Sposato.
The Finance Committee grappled with two police misconduct or torture cases, including one connected to notorious former CPD Detective Jon Burge.
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One case involves Jackie Wilson, wrongfully convicted of the 1982 murders of two police officers, having spent decades in prison. The city plans to settle his lawsuit for $12.7 million.
The other big dollar settlement stems from another wrongful conviction case, this one involving former CPD Detective Reynaldo Guevara.
The Finance Committee recommended settling with Roberto Almodovar for $17 million after he spent 23 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
There are also hundreds of other police misconduct cases still to be reckoned with, and the impact could be stunning.
“This is a huge elephant in a room north of a billion dollars of unfunded liability that the taxpayers ultimately have to pay for,” said 36th Ward Ald. Gil Villegas.
The Better Government Association says the city owes it taxpayers to be more honest in budgeting for these settlements.
“It is both transparency and accountability and also, if in budgeting, we took a more realistic look at the actual cost, we could be more strategic as a city about how to deal with these backlogs of cases,” said BGA President David Greising.
Several alderpersons wonder how the city is going to pay for all these settlements.
“Clearly, the answer to that question is not in this room right now,” said Finance Committee Chair and 3rd Ward Ald. Pat Dowell.
“Well, she’s absolutely wrong. This is the place to talk about it. It’s in this room right now that taxpayers are expecting us to bring up the subject, to discuss it and make sure that we can start formulating resolution for it,” said 32nd Ward Ald. Scott Waguespack.
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There is also concern about the need for better police training and accountability to minimize future lawsuits.
“If you stop these things from happening in the first place, then you’re not going to see the future of it. I mean, we’re dealing with stuff that’s from the 80s, at this point, so I think we should all shudder to what that might look like 20 years from now,” said 40th Ward Ald. Andre Vasquez.
The settlements will go to the full city council on Wednesday, but with hundreds of other police abuse or misconduct cases still outstanding, this is financial burden that the council is going to have to deal with for years to come.
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