Former FOP president Shields wins $21K jury award in lawsuit

SHARE Former FOP president Shields wins $21K jury award in lawsuit
shields060316.jpg

Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President Michael Shields (pictured in January 2012) won a $21,600 jury award Thursday in a lawsuit claiming he was removed from office for exposing union corruption. | Sun-Times file photo

The former president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police won a $21,600 jury award Thursday in a lawsuit claiming he was removed from office for exposing union corruption.

Michael Shields previously obtained a $100,000 legal settlement from the state FOP in the same lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court.

“We’re very excited about this outcome,” said Shields’ attorney Michael Leonard.

Shields was suspended as Chicago FOP president in 2013 after he sent a letter to City Hall Inspector General Joseph Ferguson saying two police contracts and a sergeants’ contract were fixed. The letter said a former FOP president engaged in “backroom-deal” arbitrations with the city.

The next day, the FOP suspended Shields. The union barred him from negotiating with the city, accused him of violating his oath of office and branded him a “dictator.”

Shields sued the Chicago and state FOP lodges, claiming retaliation and demanding pay for the rest of his three-year term as well as for the term of his successor, Dean Angelo, elected Chicago FOP president in April 2014.

The state FOP settled with Shields for $100,000 in December after former state union president Ted Street was deposed.

In his claim against the Chicago FOP, Shields was awarded damages for the compensation he would have received as a board member from Angelo’s election in 2014 until the end of his term in 2017. A jury ruled in favor of Shields after a three-day trial.

Shields is now a beat officer on the North Side.

“This is egg on the face on Angelo for not keeping Mike on the board,” Leonard said.

“For both parties this case was not about the money. The FOP refused to offer one cent to settle,” he said.

Angelo pointed out that the jury did not find that Shields was a whistleblower.

The jury only decided that the union breached its contract with Shields, awarding him a $600-a-month stipend he would have received if he were on the FOP board until 2017, Angelo said.

“This has nothing do to with Angelo having egg on his face,” Angelo said. “This is pre-, pre-Angelo. This is the last case of garbage my administration is taking out from the previous administration. . . . This is a very dark chapter that is over for us.”

The Latest
Woman is getting anxious about how often she has to host her husband’s hunting buddy and his wife, who don’t contribute at all to mealtimes.
He launched a campaign against a proposed neo-Nazis march at a time the suburb was home to many Holocaust survivors. His rabbi at Skokie Central Congregation urged Jews to ignore the Nazis. “I jumped up and said, ‘No, Rabbi. We will not stay home and close the windows.’ ”
That the Bears can just diesel their way in, Bronko Nagurski-style, and attempt to set a sweeping agenda for the future of one of the world’s most iconic water frontages is more than a bit troubling.
Only two days after an embarrassing loss to lowly Washington, the Bulls put on a defensive clinic against Indiana.