Chicago taxpayers must pay $10.5 million to the family of a man who was struck and killed in 2018 by a driver being chased by Chicago police after the Illinois Supreme Court rejected the city’s appeal of the latest massive verdict sparked by a police pursuit that violated department policy, records show.
The Illinois Supreme Court’s decision Wednesday not to hear the city’s appeal means a ruling by Illinois’ First District Appellate Court requiring the city to pay the entire verdict will stand. Lawyers for the city had argued that the man police were chasing should have to pay some portion of the verdict, since he was found to be partially responsible for the crash, records show.
The Supreme Court’s decision to reject the city’s appeal, which will become final in 21 days, is likely to force the city to bear the entire cost of resolving lawsuits filed by the families of those killed or seriously injured during police pursuits that violated CPD policy, regardless of whether the person the police were chasing was at fault or guilty of a crime…