Chicago May Pay $4.5M in Police Murder of Unarmed Black Woman & $1.8M for Police Torture Induced Confession of Black Man Beaten for 10 hours
From [HERE] Chicago taxpayers may be paying $4.5 million to the family of a Black woman who was killed by an off-duty police officer.
Chicago's City Council Finance Committee will address the proposed lawsuit settlement at their meeting Monday, along with another $1.8 million settlement, according to the committee’s agenda.
The family of 22-year-old Rekia Boyd, who was fatally shot in the back of the head by an off-duty officer in March 2012, filed a wrongful death lawsuit last April.
According to the family's attorney, James Montgomery, the off-duty officer, Dante Servin, got into an argument with the man with whom Boyd was walking. Words were exchanged and Servin pulled his gun and fired shots, hitting both Boyd and her friend.
Neither victim was armed, Montgomery said.
The committee will also address a settlement for $1.8 million in the case of James Andrews who allegedly confessed to two murders because of police torture. The suit names the officers involved, former police lieutenant Jon Burge and former police detectives Daniel McWeeny and Raymond Madigan along with the City of Chicago - all white men.
On April 26, 1983, Chicago police detectives brought 21-year-old James Andrews in to the Area Two police headquarters on Chicago’s South Side, saying they wanted to question him about a dogfight. But the questioning quickly turned to the unsolved murders of 19-year-old Kevin Lewis and 20-year-old Floyd Jenkins, who had been shot to death in separate incidents on the city’s South Side.
The detectives accused him of the murders. When Andrews – who had no criminal record -- denied involvement, they beat him, using their fists and a flashlight, over a period of nearly 10 hours. Andrews finally signed a confession saying that he and a 22-year-old acquaintance, David Fauntleroy, had robbed Lewis and that Andrews had fatally shot Lewis on March 30, 1983.
The police continued their physical assault as they questioned him about the Jenkins murder. Andrews soon signed a confession to that murder as well. Andrews was convicted of the murder of Jenkins on March 8, 1985. He was convicted of the murder and robbery of Lewis on April 10, 1987. He served 23 years in prison before he was released and exonerated. [MORE] and [MORE]
The committee has approved millions in settlements this year, including $22.5 million to Christina Eilman, who was dropped-off by police in a South Side neighborhood while having a bipolar breakdown. Eilman was later sexually assaulted and either fell or was pushed from a seventh floor window of the former Robert Taylor Homes, leaving her permanently disabled.