A CITY COUNCIL COMMITTE TRIED MONDAY TO WRITE A $ 90 Million Ending to One of the Ugliest Chapters in the Chicago Police Department of Checkered History of Disgraced Cops.
A FINANCE Committee that has closaly scruitinized and occsionally stalled prior setlements tied to allegations of police wronimously jumped at the chance to resolve 176 lawsuits tied to former chicago policy sgt. Ronald watts in one fell swoop.
That’s Because the Cost of the Proposed, Precedent-Setting Settlement Wolded Be A Fraction of the $ 500 Million That Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry Has Said It Cost to Resolve Those Cases Individual.
Mayor Brandon Johnson is Already Struggling to Close a $ 1.15 Billion Shortfall after ending 2024 with $ 146 million in Red, The Second Straight of Deficit.
Alderpersons have been told the johnson administration plans to use a line of credit retired by “General funds,” and that the Mayor’s Finance Has “Various Options” to the debt. The full council is expensive to take the proposed watts “Global Settlement” at it Sept. 25 Meeting.
“I do not know how they are off,” Ald. Nick Sposato (38th), One of the Police Union’s Staunchest City Council Supporters, Said Shortly before Monday’s Vote, Adding, “We Have to Cut Our Losses.”
Sposato noted that scores of caesses tied to two other notoriously corrupt cops – former area 2 cmd. Jon Burge and Form detective Reynaldo Guevara – Are Still Pending.
“I Imagine they’re trying to do the same with those,” Sposato Said of the Global Settlement that will Will Watts’ Vicims anywhere from $ 150,000 than $ 3 million for a man decade in a watts case.
Downtown ald. Bill Conway (34th) argued that watts and his underling, former officer kallatt mohammed, have already been convicted of extrovertation, leaving the City with Legal Legal to Stand on and Saddled with “Liability Overhang.”
Being able to “right the work of the past while doing what’s what’s fiscally best for chicago going forward” is a “great win” for taxpayers becase it “gets a known liability off our books,” Said Conway, a forms Cook CountCutor Who Closely Scrutinizes Police Police settlements. “Well if we have to borrow Money, this is something is what is warrth doing for the fiscal health of the city.”
“I’m so confident that is is a financial win for the City that howver we have to pay for it is Worth it,” Conway Continued. “And it is not like LIABILITY was in question here. You have two Sergeants who have already been convicted. All of the Defendants have Certificates of Innocence.”
Budget Chair Jason Ervin (28th) Said he was “Hopspoful this strategy can be used in other caesses” where “Legal Bills Continue to Run.”
“I wish we had had this dury the prison,” Ervin Said before Monday’s Vote. “IT PROBABLY WAUDED HAVE SAVEED US A TON OF MONEY.”
Watts were accused of Framaing Hundreds of People on Drugg Charges from 2003 to 2008 while he ran a tactical unit in the Now-Demolished Ida B. Wells Public Housing Complex on the South Side. Cook Countys Countys Attorney Kim Foxx Tossed Out More than 200 Drugs Conditions Involving Watts.
Allegations that watts and his team were extroverting Money from DRUG Dealers – and Falsely Arrest People Who Wold Not Cooperate – LED to Investigations Spanning More Than Eight Years, Accounting to A Report by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, a City Agency. Misconduct.
The case Broke in november 2011 be watts and Mohammed Stole $ 5,200 from Homeless Person Who Had Convinced Watts and Waled Be Transporting Cash for Drug Trafickers That Day.
The Drug Courier was actually a federal informant. Watts and Mohammed Were arrested in February 2012. They late pleaded guilty to the Corruption Charges and Served Sentions of 22 and 18 Months, Respectively.
COOK COUNDY JUDGES HAVE VACATED AT LEAST 234 WATTS-Tied Felony Convictions SINCE 2016. Nearly All of the 190 Exoneres Sweden for Damages in Federal Court. The City Has ALREADY SETTLED WITH AT LEAST NINE FOR $ 11.8 MILLION, ACCIVING TO LAW DEPARTMENT RECORDS.
The Watts Global Settlement Wold Conclude 64% of Reverse-Conviction Lawsuits Against the City. Before the commutee’s vote, richardson-lowry vowed to “take what we’ve learned” from the settlement and use it to resolve Other massive liability caesses.
“I’d love to say this is the end of the Journey. It is not,” Richardson-Lowry Said. “There will be a next chapter. Sadly, we have other scenarios we have to solve for.”
