Posted on 05/10/2010 3:55:05 PM PDT by The Magical Mischief Tour
Edited on 05/10/2010 3:58:54 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
As many as 514,000 people arrested by Chicago Police over a ten-year period only to claim their constitutional rights were violated would divide $16.5 million, under a settlement advanced Monday by a City Council committee.
The class-action lawsuit involves three different allegations of mistreatment.
The first group includes those arrested on suspicion of a felony without warrants. They claim they did not receive a probable cause hearing before a judge within 48 hours of arrest.
Each of those 12,000 plaintiffs will receive up to $3,000.
The second group's members were held for more than 16 hours in interview rooms without bedding, meals or regular bathroom breaks. Each of those plaintiffs will receive up to $2,000.
The third group is by far the largest. It includes as many as 500,000 people held in police lock-ups overnight without mattresses to sleep on. Plaintiffs in this case will each receive as much as $90 apiece.
Corporation Counsel Mara Georges said $15 million of the settlement would be paid by Chicago taxpayers. The remaining $1.5 million will come from the city's insurance policy against catastrophic legal settlements.
"It's too bad that it had to come to this. It's too bad that it had to be this much money. But, Judge [Sidney] Schenkier truly assisted us in getting a $100 million demand down to a manageable number where we were able to get some help from our insurance companies. And we can avoid the risk of trial," Georges said.
Plaintiffs attorney Michael Kanovitz could not be reached for comment.
Before dispersing the $16.5 million, the city will publish notices in local newspapers to alert potential plaintiffs. They will be required to submit signed and notarized claim forms along with "some form of secondary proof."
"It's not just a matter of saying, 'I want my money. Give it to me.' You have to go through a series of steps to prove that you actually fall within the class parameters," Georges said.
Pressed on what would constitute appropriate proof, Georges said, "If you're saying you were held longer than 48 hours without going in front of a judge, perhaps you were not at work one day because of that and your employer could attest to that."
Conditions that triggered the lawsuit have all been remedied to prevent a costly repeat, officials said.
Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed the need for a probable cause hearing within 48 hours of arrest, there are "duty judges" on call "if someone gets arrested in the middle of the night on a weekend," Georges said.
To address the bedding complaint, the Police Department is securing thicker versions of a yoga mat to soften the benches in police lock-ups.
And Police Department policies have been clarified to make certain that arrestees held in interview rooms get regular meals and bathroom breaks.
ping
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...the poor babies...will the checks be delivered to all their jailhouses, crackhouses and whorehouses?
How is posting a news article “cop hating”?
I’ve raised that question to everyone here like you, who hurls the cop basher moniker around like AL Sharpton and Jesse jackson hurls racism around and yet no one can answer the question, so how is posting a news article cop bashing?
Could be worse, like if you were that pitbull guy.
I guess, but not only do I question the whole thought (or lack thereof) process for calling someone a cop basher for just posting a news story.
I am a bit disappointed that we now have moderators stooping to such childish antics, conducting “drive-by post editing” and then hiding behind the Admin Moderator tag.
Thats something you would expect at Democratic Underground, not here.
Well, statist ‘conservatives’ are like that. They haven’t got the stones to make other people ‘mind’, so they identify with those who do.
During the Revolution, they’d have been Tories.
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