Aldermen try again to settle controversial police shooting case

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration is making another push for a $2 million Chicago police shooting settlement, four months after the deal narrowly failed in the City Council in a high-profile rebuke of the city Law Department’s handling of such misconduct cases.

On Monday, the Finance Committee advanced the award for the family of Darius Cole-Garrit, a 21-year-old man fatally shot by police in 2014 after officials said he pulled a gun from his waistband and pointed it at officers.

Aldermen who voted no were Chris Taliaferro, 29th, Bill Conway, 34th, Matthew O’Shea, 19th, Debra Silverstein, 50th, Marty Quinn, 13th, Nicholas Sposato, 38th, Derrick Curtis, 18th, and Brian Hopkins, 2nd.

The full City Council will take up the item on Wednesday, the second time it will consider the settlement this year.

In July, the same amount was rejected in a 26-22 vote, the body’s most notable pushback to a Chicago Police Department settlement award under the Johnson administration. At the time, aldermen in opposition voiced long-running frustrations with how the council handles police settlements, which cost the city more than $100 million last year.

The settlement was scheduled to come up for another vote in September, but Finance Chair Ald. Pat Dowell pulled it from the committee at the last minute, saying the delay was “to allow the Law Department to do some more work.”

On Monday, Dowell, 3rd, had more to say, reminding colleagues of particulars of the shooting that she said “gave us an indication about how difficult this case would be to win.”

“I believe that it’s in the city’s best interest to settle this. This is not like the black-and-white kind of case,” Dowell said. “A lot of outstanding concerns. And so I would ask that we maintain our fiduciary duty as counsel and pass this settlement agreement.”

The 2016 lawsuit in question surrounds the fatal police shooting of Cole-Garrit, who was biking down 133rd Street on the Far South Side when he was pulled over by Chicago police officers in an unmarked vehicle who were investigating a weapons tip. Cole-Garrit ditched his bike and ran, the city’s corporation counsel John Hendricks said Monday, leading two of the cops to chase him on foot.

One cop fired 11 shots, while another fired nine, killing Cole-Garrit, Hendricks said, but “there are up until that point multiple disagreements, or multiple facts, in dispute about what took place.”

“(There are) very different versions of the story, radically so that the plaintiffs claim there was actually no gun. The police officers claimed that in fact a gun was pointed at one of them,” Hendricks said. “In short, this is a difficult case factually.”

Hendricks said even among the cops testifying, there were “conflicting stories” about Cole-Garrit pointing a gun at them, on top of only one eyewitness who observed the shooting and “supports the deceased’s version of the facts.” And, should the settlement fail and the case go to trial, the award could double or triple, he added.

The city’s Independent Police Review Authority found the shooting justified, and a semi-automatic handgun was recovered 20 feet from Cole-Garrit. But fingerprint testing was inadequate because there were too many smudges, Hendricks said.

“One of the big disputes here: there were obviously officers who allege they saw the gun and saw it aimed at least one officer, but there are other witnesses who claimed there was no gun, and that the presumption is that maybe it was planted,” Hendricks said.

But Hopkins, who voted against the settlement before, said the Law Department ought to be more bullish on its “very strong case to make.”

“This is a difficult case and a difficult decision, as many of these cases are,” Hopkins said. “But the fact that they want this settlement and seem to be averse to a trial, is that a possible indication that plaintiff’s counsel does not have as much confidence as they would like us to think?”

The Finance Committee also approved an $8.75 million settlement Monday to the family of Michael Craig, a 61-year-old man who was killed by a cop in 2021 after he called 911 to report his wife threatening him at knife point.

Police body camera footage shows two people struggling before a gunshot is heard, Law Department counsel Caroline Fronczak said. Craig was then on the ground for two seconds before a second shot went off, she said. An autopsy showed he died of two gunshot wounds and also suffered nonfatal defensive stab wounds.

“The Department of Law believes the potential exposure in this case is reasonably high, given the 911 calls identifying that the female was the one that was threatening the husband with the knife,” Fronczak said.

And the committee approved a $515,000 settlement to Chicago firefighter James Mundo, stemming from a workplace harassment suit in which he alleged his supervisor made inappropriate comments about his sexual orientation.

Meanwhile, the council’s ethics committee approved changes Monday to ease lobbyist registration requirements for nonprofits following years of negotiations.

As part of a suite of reforms to ethics rules in the early months of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s tenure, the council required nonprofit lobbyists register with the city and report their activities each quarter. Supporters argued it was an important transparency measure that let the public know who was working to sway council members, the mayor and department heads.

But after an uproar from nonprofit leaders about the cost of compliance for smaller organizations and a chilling effect the rules might have on participation in city programs and projects, implementation of that portion of the ordinance was repeatedly delayed.

Among the changes: Individuals only need to register if the nonprofit they lobby for “has both an operating budget and net assets or fund balances of five million dollars or more.” Lobbying fees would be capped at $20,000, and those who participate in grassroots lobbying events — like sending mass emails to members of council — would also be exempt.

Steve Berlin, the executive director of the Board of Ethics, said the changes still put Chicago “well within the fold of its peer cities” like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Philadelphia. So far, 122 people have registered as nonprofit lobbyists. If passed, the ordinance would take effect in July 2024.

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