Crash during police chase leads to proposed $750,000 settlement for innocent victim
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago taxpayers will soon be paying $750,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a 61-year-old man who was seriously injured in a crash in 2018, after he accused police officers of violating policy by chasing the car that slammed into him.
On Aug. 19, 2018, Vincent Tucker was headed east on 76th Street, when an Audi headed the wrong way on Harvard Avenue crashed into him.
Police had been chasing the car, suspecting it had been stolen, and that the driver and passenger had drugs in the car.
At a City Council Finance Committee meeting on Monday, city attorneys told aldermen that Officer Carlos Yanez Jr. and Officer Julian Rodriguez had stopped the Audi a short time earlier because it had an invalid South Carolina license plate.
After stopping the car, the officers believed they smelled marijuana in the car, and saw bundles of cash, so Yanez asked the driver to get out, but the driver sped off.
The officers began chasing the car, but didn't inform supervisors of the reason for the pursuit, according to Assistant Corporation Counsel James Ormond.
Immediately before the crash that injured Tucker, a supervisor asked Yanez and Rodriguez why they were chasing the car. Rodriguez was later heard telling supervisors the chase was for a traffic offense, but did not mention drugs.
After crashing into Tucker's vehicle, the suspects kept going before crashing a couple blocks away. Ormond said the chase reached speeds of up to 52 mph on city streets.
Tucker suffered a broken hip and broken vertebrae in the crash, and will require a future hip replacement surgery. His medical bills have totaled more than $331,000 so far, and his future hip surgery is expected to cost another $93,000.
He spent 12 days at University of Chicago Medical Center, followed by another 20 days of rehab at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, and 30 days of home nursing care.
Ormond said it was determined that Yanez and Rodriguez had no basis to initiate the chase, because the potential dangers outweighed the need to make an immediate arrest. They also did not use their lights and sirens throughout the pursuit as required, turning them on only intermittently, according to Ormond.
The Finance Committee voted 18-3 to approve a $750,00 settlement with Tucker.
Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th) was one of the aldermen who voted against the settlement, saying the city shouldn't be on the hook for Tucker's medical bills simply because it "has the deepest pockets" in the case, and arguing the stop that led to the chase was legitimate.
He noted the suspects' Audi was totally unregistered, despite police having no report that it was stolen.
Three years after the crash, Yanez Jr. was partnered with Officer Ella French Jr., and was wounded in the same 2021 shooting that killed French. Yanez lost an eye and was left partially paralyzed, but no mention of that shooting was made during the hearing on the settlement in the chase and crash that injured Tucker.
The proposed settlement now goes to the full City Council on Wednesday.