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Chicago Daily Southtown - Chic
11 March 2007

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The cost of facing lawsuits ju

The city of Harvey -- a magnet for costly civil lawsuits -- may now have to spend even more taxpayer money when its embattled police force is accused of brutality and misconduct.

At a city council meeting last month, Harvey aldermen approved a new liability insurance package that dramatically increases the city's deductible in police-related lawsuits.

Harvey must now pay, with taxpayer funds, the first $500,000 in damages and legal fees for each suit, said the city's longtime insurance agent, Bill Owens. For non-police cases, the city's deductible remains steady at the previous rate, $100,000 per suit.

Since Mayor Eric Kellogg took office four years ago, the city has been slapped with more than 100 lawsuits in state and federal court. Of the dozens of suits pending against the city in federal court, the vast majority target Harvey's beleaguered police department.

Of the 54 full-time police officers and administrators listed on the department's 2006 roster, 37 have been named in at least one federal lawsuit in recent years. A smaller group of cops has been sued many times each.

Owens said insurance companies renewing the city's policy insisted on the higher deductible because of the city's "claims experience." Aldermen balked at the more expensive policy but went along with it when Owens said the city would be left without insurance if it didn't agree to the deal.

"We all know what the problem is. It isn't Mr. Owens, or the insurance brokers," Ald. Frank Piekarski said at the Feb. 26 council meeting. "We're in bad shape because of all the claims. ... This is being shoved down our throats, and the citizens of Harvey have to pay for it. ... We don't know what we're doing."

The suits against the city range from lengthy tomes detailing wide-ranging corruption in the police department to harrowing tales of innocent people seriously injured by over-aggressive officers to two-page complaints claiming a suspected drug dealer was roughed up by an unnamed cop. But each one must be dealt with in the expensive, slow-moving civil court system.

According to financial records filed by the city with Cook County, Harvey paid $1.5 million to several outside law firms in the first year of Kellogg's term alone. And the audit of Harvey's 2004-05 fiscal year said $1.96 million was spent on "claims against the city" that year -- more than 10 percent of the city's total spending from its general fund.

Records from 10 suits settled by the city in 2005 -- documents obtained only after the Daily Southtown filed its own lawsuit to win their release -- show settlements ranging from $5,500 for a parking lot scuffle with a police sergeant to $257,000 for a man who claimed he was severely beaten by a posse of officers. The dollar figures include money paid to attorneys for the plaintiffs, but don't account for the tens of thousands billed for each case by giant Chicago law firms representing the city.

At least another dozen suits were settled last year with the plaintiffs agreeing to strict confidentiality clauses, although the settlements are considered public records because they involve taxpayer money. Chicago attorney Kenneth Flaxman, who represents several clients suing Harvey, said the city insists on confidentiality agreements when settling federal lawsuits -- and that his clients have to agree to the terms if they want their financial award.

"It's not in the public's interest to have these confidentiality agreements, because this is a municipality we're dealing with," Flaxman said. "But my clients are interested in resolving their case -- not litigating the public's interest."

And while it may seem expensive to settle suits, the city recently hasn't had much luck in cases that have gone all the way to trial. In just the past few months, a jury awarded $25,000 to a man unlawfully detained in a feud with a police commander, and $12,000 to another man who claimed he was beaten outside of his house by officers.

In the 2004 lawsuit that resulted in the $257,000 settlement with the city, prominent Chicago civil rights attorney Jon Loevy claimed Harvey's track record of policing its own police left people wronged by cops with little recourse other than federal court.

"When citizens complain of police abuses -- such as excessive force, illegal searches or general corruption -- Harvey police officers almost never face any genuine investigation, much less discipline, thereby encouraging officers to believe they are above the law," Loevy wrote. "Harvey's 'procedure' for investigating and punishing police abuses is an absolute travesty."

After the city's new insurance deal was approved at the council meeting, Kellogg said Harvey also has agreed -- at the request of insurers -- to enroll in an improvement program offered by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. The commission trains departments in best practices and has given accreditation to many suburban agencies, including Tinley Park, Lemont and Joliet.

"We know these officers are costing the taxpayers," Kellogg said. "We want to bring in the best people."

But as the lawsuits pile up, they're starting to build on one another: Many new cases allege the city is even more liable than normal in some police misconduct cases because the accused officers have been accused so many times before.

And in a final bit of irony, the city has had to defend against lawsuits filed by at least two officers who were fired after warning superiors about police conduct that could get the department sued.

"I wish to go on the record in speaking out against the abuse of authority and illegal conduct that continues to plague the image and integrity of the Harvey Police Department," officer David W. Shaffer wrote in a July 2004 memo to Chief Andrew Joshua.

The city ultimately had to settle a suit filed by Shaffer after he was fired. Another former cop who also warned of rampant malfeasance and unconstitutional policing in Harvey was fired after specifically warning the city could be sued -- and is now a plaintiff himself in a pending lawsuit that spurred a Department of Justice probe into possible reverse racism at the department.

"I have reported these allegations to the FBI's public integrity unit for further review," former officer Christian Daigre wrote in the memo that allegedly got him fired. "They pose the potential to be deemed significant civil rights violations that may expose the city of Harvey to unnecessary and preventable lawsuits."

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Chicago Daily Southtown - Chic11 March 2007

The cost of facing lawsuits ju

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Chicago Daily Southtown - Chic
11 March 2007