Posted on 10/25/2009 1:17:20 PM PDT by Dallas59
A federal jury on Friday awarded more than $1.5 million to a supervisor in the city's Traffic Management Authority after finding that four Chicago police officers conspired to violate her civil rights when she was arrested during a dispute over a parking ticket.
Jacqueline Fegan hunched over the plaintiff's table in U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow's courtroom and wept at word of the verdict. She alleged the officers permanently injured her wrist when she was handcuffed and tossed into a police vehicle on Michigan Avenue.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
What percent of the $1.5 million will her lawyers receive?
I’m guessing 95%
Just another “Litigation Lotto” winner....nothing to see here, just move along.
Well, I dunno—this is Chicago, after all. The cops might have been Daley’s thugs.
Probably were....but a wrist injury settling out at $1.5 million of taxpayer money?
I remember when this was first reported. One of the cops rear ended her at a stop light. His buddies showed up, they handcuffed her, then proceeded to conspire how to frame her to cover it up. Caught on the car’s video camera, with her in the back seat, IIRC.
True that. Wish I had more details.
She clearly deserved this. Hope it’s the cops paying, personally. Though I doubt it.
OH? Wow. That’s why my normally ambulance-chasing-hating alarm didn’t go off in quite the same way. Chicago is rotten to the core.
Her lawyers discovered the video during discovery.
These were the stupidest cops on the planet.
Just imagine how many of this same kind of story goes unpunished. Their best slogan is “Who’s gonna arrest us, we’re the cops” is so true.
Beyond your bizarre animus, you betray your profound ignorance. A typical fee arrangement would be 1/3 if it's settled and 40% of any jury verdict.
Goodness, I seem to have touched a nerve!
I will apply a palliative ointment to my bizarre animus while researching legal fee fee spits in an attempt to raise my ignorance level from profound to simple.
You may now call your psychiatrist and request that he up your meds.
BMB.
It all started in the afternoon of May 18, 2006, on Chicago's Magnificent Mile. A traffic-control employee noticed the van parked illegally in front of a high-rise mall in the 700 block of North Michigan Avenue and promptly wrote a ticket.
Reid protested, contending he was in the area on police business that also drew a squad car and squadrol.
Fegan, on patrol as a traffic management supervisor, told an agitated Reid that there was nothing she could do.
“He said, ‘Is that how you're going to be?’ “ Fegan testified. “He said, ‘You people better never meet us. You people better never even jaywalk.’ “
She was turning to go back to her car when Reid allegedly grabbed her arms, yanked them back and slapped handcuffs on her. Lawyers for the officers contend it was a rightful arrest because Fegan was walking into oncoming traffic.
“I heard my shoulder pop,” testified a teary-eyed Fegan, who wound up having wrist surgery and is still on unpaid medical leave. She also alleges psychological damage.
Susan Sullivan, a lawyer for Reid, pelted Fegan with questions about whether it was she who threw her clout around. Sullivan insinuated that Fegan bragged about City Hall connections and about how fast she would be out of police custody.
Fegan disputed whether she even stepped into the street just before Reid arrested her. Sullivan pressed her on whether Reid had in fact pulled her from walking into traffic.
“Officer Reid pulled me from walking to my car,” Fegan answered.
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