Six months ago, an unauthorized police chase that left a 15-year-old boy unable to walk or speak triggered a $45 million settlement that was one of the largest ever paid by Chicago taxpayers.
On Wednesday, the mountain of liabilities tied to police pursuits gone bad could get even higher.
The City Council’s Finance Committee will be asked to sign off on a $1.75 million settlement to compensate Eddie Banks Jr., who was severely injured and permanently disabled after his vehicle was struck by a police squad car during unauthorized, high-speed chase on July 5, 2018.
It happened shortly after 2:30 a.m. at 83rd Street and Stony Island Avenue.
Chicago Police Officers Kevin Gomez and Andrius Tkachuk were conducting a high-speed chase of John Tinker “over a significant distance through multiple stop signs and red-light signals” when they struck a vehicle “lawfully operated” by Banks, according to a 2018 lawsuit that was “voluntarily dismissed,” then re-filed by Banks.
Banks sustained “severe and permanent injuries,” with the “continued disability” and “permanent disfigurement” causing a “loss of normal life,” the lawsuit states. Tinker was subsequently charged with “multiple criminal” offenses, including felony aggravated fleeing and eluding officers.
The lawsuit accuses officers Gomez and Tkachuk of pursuing and continuing a high-speed chase — running numerous red lights and stop signs — without authorization from or notification of police supervisors or dispatchers.
Not only did the long-distance chase — joined by other officers — violate the Chicago Police Department’s general orders, it also “did not merit the risk of dangers to persons in the community.”
Banks’ attorneys Mark Parts and Faith Spencer could not be reached for comment on the proposed settlement.
The Law Department does not publicly comment on settlements pending before the Finance Committee, but briefs members privately before their public testimony.
The stakes for beleaguered Chicago taxpayers were apparently raised by the allegations contained in Banks’ lawsuit.
It accuses the officers of creating a “subterfuge” for the unauthorized and “unreasonably hazardous” pursuit that included blowing through stop signs and red lights, violating posted speed limits and following “too close” to Tinker’s vehicle before striking it.
Although CPD’s general orders and state law require dashboard-mounted cameras to be activated, and video and audio from that camera to be maintained, the requested audio and video has not been produced, the lawsuit states.
CPD’s newly-revamped pursuit policy prohibits officers from initiating a chase when the most serious offense being committed by the target of the pursuit is a traffic violation or even a theft.
It requires a so-called “balancing test,” weighing the risks to motorists and pedestrians against the risk of letting the suspect go. Changes in the policy were intended to clarify language on how police supervisors should apply that test.
Over the years, Chicago taxpayers have shelled out millions to innocent pedestrians, motorists and passengers killed or injured during police pursuits gone bad even though the vehicular chase policy has been overhauled repeatedly.
The record $45 million settlement approved in March went to Nathen Jones, who suffered a “massive traumatic brain injury” that left him on a feeding tube, unable to walk or speak.
In his case, Chicago police officer Jhonathan Perez decided to chase a 2002 Volkswagen that went through stop signs at several Near West Side intersections in April 2021. Jones was a backseat passenger in that car.
“Nathen was a regular, happy, healthy, active 15-year-old kid. He brought our family a lot of joy. He still does,” his mother, Erika Boyd, said at the time of that settlement. “But the price that he had to pay for being in a car — no amount of money can bring back the child I had before this.”
Two other especially costly settlements stemmed from police pursuits on the same weekend in June 1999.
LaTanya Haggerty, 26 and Robert Russ, 22, both Black and unarmed, were shot to death by officers after separate police pursuits, touching off a summer filled with protests about alleged police brutality. Those incidents led to a combined $27.6 million in payments to their families.