$2.5M in settlements set in 2 deaths tied to allegations of police wrongdoing

Chicago taxpayers will spend $2.5 million to compensate the families of two young people— ages 18 and 24 — whose deaths are tied to allegations of police wrongdoing.

The largest of the two settlements — for $1.3 million — will go to the family of 18-year-old Tevin Jones-Rogers, who was killed in a crash during a 2017 police pursuit.

On April 28, 2017, police officers said they were responding to a call of shots fired at around 8:45 p.m. when they saw a white Ford driving away from the 12700 block of South Halsted Street.

The Ford, which had been reported stolen, ran a red light and struck a red Toyota Corolla at the intersection of 127th and Throop streets, police said. The impact caused the Toyota to crash into a 2003 Saturn.

Jones-Rogers was driving the Toyota and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. A 20-year-old man in the passenger seat of the Toyota was also injured.

In a lawsuit filed in Circuit Court, Tammi Jones, the teenager’s mother, accused Chicago Police officers of pursuing the Ford at high speeds despite the risk of injury or death to civilians, and recklessly disregarding the safety of others.

The 18-year-old driver of the Ford was taken into custody after the crash and charged with a misdemeanor for criminal trespass to a vehicle.

At the time of his death, Jones-Rogers was a junior at Perspectives Charter School in Chatham. He was returning home after celebrating a friend’s birthday and had just dropped off a friend at the corner moments earlier.

The second large settlement — for $1.2 million — will go to the family of Heriberto Godinez, who died in police custody in July 2015 at the age of 24.

Godinez had been arrested by Chicago police as he was in the process of committing a burglary to a garage in the Brighton Park neighborhood on the Southwest Side.

Police dashcam footage captured Godinez flailing around on the pavement in an alley with his hands restrained behind his back. He is then seen wiggling while handcuffed and sitting against a Chicago Police SUV.

The dashcam video showed him attempting to move away from the car, and an officer puts a foot on his neck for about two seconds. Then several other police officers arrive to help take Godinez into custody.

Paramedics later found Godinez unresponsive in the back of a police van, where he had been placed while awaiting an ambulance to transport him to a hospital for a mental health evaluation, according to the state’s attorney’s office.

The Cook County medical examiner’s office concluded that Godinez died of cocaine and alcohol poisoning with physical stress from his being restrained listed as “a significant contributing factor.”

In September 2016, then-State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez announced that no charges would be filed against any of the Chicago police officers involved in the arrest of Godinez.

His family and their attorney, who had filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city and 14 police officers, expressed outrage.

A lawsuit filed by the Godinez family alleged excessive force was used and that other officers at the scene failed to intervene. It further alleged that a “code of silence” within the Police Department hinders investigations into civilian deaths in police custody.

“I was beyond upset. I called my attorney and said, ‘This cannot be happening.’ They didn’t charge him with one thing, not one thing,” the dead man’s sister, Janet Godinez, said then.

“So that goes to show that any cop in the city of Chicago can go ahead and do the same exact thing and they won’t be charged.”

The family’s attorney, Jeffrey Granich, said the decision underscored his contention that Alvarez could not be “trusted to conduct an appropriate investigation when the other side is the Chicago Police Department.”

Alvarez lost a Democratic primary battle against Kim Foxx in the furor that followed the court-ordered release of the Laquan McDonald shooting video by now-convicted Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke.

After examining the evidence, Alvarez concluded that “at a minimum, it cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the actions of the Chicago Police Officers in restraining Godinez were unjustified or that they were the cause of Godinez’s untimely death.”

Both settlements are on the agenda and expected to be approved at Monday’s meeting of the City Council’s Finance Committee.

A third large settlement — for $850,000 — will go to Donna Gillespie, legal guardian of Shaquille Gillespie.

Donna Gillespie has accused the Chicago Police Department of malicious prosecution to cover up the excessive force used on her son.

In March 2013, Shaquille Gillespie was in a West Side alley with his brother when they were approached by police officers, who accused the men of ignoring their commands. The officers allegedly threw Shaquille Gillespie to the ground and used pepper spray to subdue him, then falsely claimed that Gillespie attacked them, according to the family’s lawsuit.

Yet another settlement — for $125,000 — will go to a woman who witnessed the police shooting of Laquan McDonald and claims she was pressured by detectives to change her story that the black teenager posed no threat while walking away from police with a knife in his hand.