City Settles Lawsuit Claiming Police Detective Attacked Kids
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Without admitting wrongdoing, the City of Chicago has settled a federal lawsuit with a family who claimed their children were attacked by a Chicago Police detective and were left frightened for years.
As WBBM Newsradio's Dave Marsett reports, Donna Moore said the detective was upset about an alleged altercation her son and daughter, then 11 and 13, had with his son in a playground in Beverly back in May 2007, according to the Chicago Tribune.
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The lawsuit said Moore's son, who was in 5th grade and weighed 100 pounds, had gotten into an argument with the son of police Detective Robert Smith, the Tribune reported. Soon afterward, Smith showed up and chased Moore's son, then attacked him and placed him under arrest, the Tribune reported.
Moore's daughter tried to pull the detective off her brother, prompting the detective to attack her too, the Tribune quotes the lawsuit.
Police arrived and arrested both children, placing them in the back of a squad car and detaining them for eight hours at the Morgan Park District police station, the newspaper quotes the lawsuit.
The two were later exonerated in Juvenile Court, but Moore tells the Tribune her daughter, Ashley, has been depressed in the time since the incident and often ran away from home. Ashley herself told the Tribune that she "lost all respect for authority" following the alleged attack.
The lawsuit was argued for four years, and the Tribune says the city agreed to pay the Moore children $100,000. A judge also ordered the city to pay the couple's legal fees, which amounted to nearly $450,000, the newspaper reported.
But the Tribune says it was never about the money for Moore, who wishes that Detective Smith had instead faced disciplinary action within the Police Department.
