City could be on hook for $27M settlement from deadly police chase

Three years ago, a jury awarded $10 million to the family of a woman killed in yet another high-speed police chase.

Now Chicago’s decision to appeal that verdict and an appellate court’s decision to order a new trial based on an improper closing argument and other legal violations has turned into a proposed $27 million settlement. Of that amount, 74% would be paid by taxpayers, and the rest from the city’s catastrophic insurance.

On Friday, the City Council's Finance Committee will be asked to authorize the settlement with the family of Stacy Vaughn-Harrell.

The 47-year-old woman and her then 21-year-old daughter, Kimberlyn Myers, were driving home in June 2017 — after Myers sang at a performance in Indiana — when they were hit by a car that was fleeing police through a residential area in Englewood at a speed of roughly 50 mph.

Vaughn-Harrell was killed, and Myers suffered serious injuries, including a concussion, a lacerated liver, and a broken collarbone requiring a plate and five screws. Vaughn-Harrell left behind six children, three of whom were teenagers.

Myers and Vaughn-Harrell’s husband, Henry Harrell, sued the city and the Chicago Police Department. In 2023, a jury decided that around $5 million should be paid to each of them.

Before the chase, police had pulled over a white Kia they believed was present during a shooting, though they didn’t know if the shots came from the car, the family’s attorney said at the time. A passenger got out of the car when it was pulled over, then the Kia sped off.

Police chased the Kia in an unmarked car, with a marked car following, according to the family's trial court attorney, who contended this violated department policy requiring a marked car to lead a chase using both lights and sirens.

The Kia had run through four stop signs before crashing into Vaughn-Harrell’s car at an intersection.

Myers had been pursuing a music career and considered Vaughn-Harrell as her “mom manager,” trial attorney Zane Smith said at the time of the jury verdict.

“When she died, Kimberlyn never sang again,” he said.

The city Law Department's managing deputy of litigation, John Hendricks, said after the first trial and appeal, new factual allegations came to light "that required substantial reevaluation."

City attorneys must "regularly reassess the value of cases" based on those facts, Hendricks said. "Given the substantial new evidence that would be presented at trial," the $27 million settlement is "in the best interest" of Chicago taxpayers, he said.

The final amount skyrocketed after discovery was completed in what was to be a second trial in the case. Attorney Lance Northcutt, who represented the Harrell family during the latter portion of the case, said there were “multiple reasons” for the higher settlement, though he did not elaborate.

Ald. Nick Sposato (38th), who attended the confidential aldermanic briefing on the case, said he doesn’t understand how a $10 million jury award turned into a $27 million settlement.

“It’s another one of those things where you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. You’re in a police chase. We’re wrong if we chase them. We’re wrong if we don’t. Somebody got severely hurt, and now we’re responsible for it because we’ve got the deep pockets," Sposato said. “We chase them … trying to uphold the law. Then something happens and they find the littlest, teeniest, weeniest thing. They didn’t get the OK from the sergeant. They didn’t the OK from OEMC."

Earlier this year, the Finance Committee narrowly refused to authorize an $8.25 million settlement to compensate the family of a 55-year-old woman killed when a carjacked SUV fleeing police blew a red light and crashed into her Toyota Corolla.

Finance Committee members acknowledged that the September 2022 collision at 31st Street and Kedzie Avenue that killed Dominga Flores Gomez is a tragedy, but they argued the city is not responsible for it.

The rejection by a 18-15 vote was the latest sign that an emboldened City Council fed up with the avalanche of settlements tied to allegations of police wrongdoing is no longer willing to rubber-stamp giant payouts.

“These attorneys are just out of control. They have an army of people, and it’s hard to take them on. … They take on our two or three people, and we’re settling,” Sposato said Wednesday. “Why are we responsible for this stuff? This woman died, but is it really our fault? We weren’t the bad guy that did something wrong. The bad guy is the one responsible, driving like a maniac down the street."