Taxpayers On Hook For $500,000 Settlement After Cop Tasers Pregnant Woman
By Chip Mitchell
Taxpayers On Hook For $500,000 Settlement After Cop Tasers Pregnant Woman
By Chip MitchellCity of Chicago lawyers have negotiated a $500,000 payment to settle a lawsuit brought by a woman who said she had a miscarriage a few days after a police officer repeatedly used a stun gun on her.
On Aug. 2, 2013, Elaina Turner was a few weeks pregnant when cops came to her Back of the Yards home and started towing her partner Ulysses Green’s van, according to the suit.
The city admitted in court filings that officer Patrick J. Kelly stunned Turner multiple times with a Taser but denied that those jolts caused the miscarriage.
During his 13 years with the police department, Kelly has been a subject of complaints and lawsuits about more than two-dozen incidents, according to court records and police data.
“The city keeps paying for these bad officers and the department suffers and the city suffers and we all suffer,” said attorney Jeffrey Granich, an attorney for Turner and Green.
Attempts to reach Kelly for comment on Thursday were not successful.
The settlement includes no admission of wrongdoing. A city Law Department spokesman declined to comment.
The City Council will have to approve the settlement, scheduled to go before the finance committee on Monday.
Chip Mitchell reports out of WBEZ’s West Side studio. Follow him on Twitter at @ChipMitchell1.