How did we get here? Chicago police settlements cost near $100 Million in the last two months

Chicago tax payers are feeling the burn of a police settlement offer to the families of two men $20 million, who were killed in a drunk driving accident by an off duty detective. The inebriated cop, Joseph Frugoli, was approved by the Chicago Police Department’s code of silence despite his history of driving drunk, an attorney said Tuesday.

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The agreement to pay $10 million each to relatives of Andrew Cazares and Fausto Manzera was reached earlier this month after it was revealed that key evidence that Joseph Frugoli had a past as an alcohol-fueled bar fighter. Information that until the case- had been improperly withheld.

“These two young men burned to death. There was dramatic testimony as to how they died. The testimony as to the code of silence and how this enabled Frugoli to act in a criminal manner was overwhelming. That’s why this was such a powerful case,” said Kevin Conway, an attorney for the family of Fausto Manzera.

The settlement must still be green-lighted by the city’s Finance Committee before going to the full City Council for a vote. That could happen as soon as next month. Therefore, the exact amount has not been made public but Kevin Conway didn’t exactly deny the claims.

“I will not deny anything that’s reported. I’m not gonna say anything that’s false,” he said to the Chicago Tribune.

The incident occured back in 2009, when the two family men were sitting in their dark car—after a flat tire on the Dan Ryan Expy. Their vehicle’s electricity had shorted out. It was then that they were when hit by Frugoli.

After four days of surrendering the documents of Frugoli’s liquor filled past, the city acknowledged that they should have been turned over to plaintiffs’ attorneys before the trial.

These documents appeared to prove their claim that a “code of silence” — famously acknowledged by Mayor Rahm Emanuel — led Frugoli to believe he had a special permission to drive drunk.

“Attorneys talked to the jurors afterwards and they were moved by the withholding of perhaps the most important document in the case. It showed that, very early on in his employment as a police officer, he committed a number of serious crimes and he was not held accountable,” Conway said.

In the documents there are play by play descriptions on how Frugoli was suspended for five days in 1992 after he allegedly punched two people at the First Base Tavern in Bridgeport, grabbed one by the throat, threw them on a pool table and hit them with pool cues. He also allegedly threw glasses and broke two bar stools.

Frugoli was never given a field sobriety test or Breathalyzer, records show. And he was allowed to drive away from the scene, basically he passed go and collected his $200.

If the settlement is indeed approved, it can be added to the list of massive payouts for the city in a police misconduct suit. Just in the last two months alone, nearly $100 million in judgments have been appraised against the city for police-related cases.

One of those include a record $44.7 million jury verdict in October for a man who was shot by his childhood friend, Officer Patrick Kelly, in an off-duty incident. And again, earlier this month, the City Council approved a $31 million payout for the “Englewood Four,” who each spent some 15 years in prison for a 1994 rape and murder before DNA linked the crime to a convicted killer.

Chicago City Council’s Finance Committee approved the settlement for Harold Richardson, Vincent Thames, Terrill Swift and Michael Saunders, known as the “Englewood 4.”

With coerced confessions and DNA evidence that points to another suspect, City Attorney Jenny Notz told Chicago aldermen on Monday Dec. 11 that it would have cost the city millions more had the civil case gone to trial.

“If these cases go to trial, the plaintiffs will argue that their confessions were coerced and fabricated because the police took advantage of their youth. They were all between 15 and 18 at the time their statements were taken,” said Notz, first deputy corporation counsel.

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Records attained by the Chicago Tribune prove that lawyers have been sanctioning judges a total of eight times for failing to turn over records in a police misconduct case since Rahm Emanuel became mayor in 2011. In total these penalties alone have cost the city more than $1 million over the past six years. The city has also been ordered to pay millions of dollars in plaintiffs’ attorneys fees.

Is it appropriate to say better late than never in these cases? We don’t know, we are just glad justice was EVENTUALLY served and Frugoli, now 50, was convicted of aggravated DUI and leaving the scene of a fatal accident. He is serving an eight-year sentence in state prison.

What do you think?

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