Family of man allegedly kicked from wheelchair, beaten by CTA worker files wrongful death lawsuit

The family of a homeless man who died after he was allegedly beaten by a CTA worker at a downtown subway station is suing the transit agency for wrongful death.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Cook County, seeks more than $50,000 from the CTA and the former employee, Emmett Richardson.

Richardson, 40, was indicted on murder and aggravated battery charges last summer after surveillance video allegedly showed him repeatedly attacking 54-year-old Kevin Powell on March 25, 2023, at the LaSalle Street Blue Line stop at 150 W. Congress Parkway.

“We just want justice for my brother,” Powell’s sister, Rachelle Powell, told reporters Wednesday. “He wasn’t some homeless man on the street. I wish you all could have gotten to know him. He would have helped anybody that was in need.”

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Powell was asleep in his wheelchair when Richardson kicked the wheelchair, causing Powell to fall to the floor, the suit claims.

Richardson is then seen dragging Powell by his hood to the top of a stairwell and flipping him down the stairs, feet-over-head “like so much garbage,” prosecutors said at a court hearing last year. Powell didn’t provoke the attack or even try to fight back, they said.

He was found unconscious about 4 a.m. on a stairwell landing at the station and taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Chicago police said.

“Kevin Powell died without ever clenching a fist, without ever attacking his attacker, without ever defending himself,” attorney Lance D. Northcutt told reporters.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Richardson was hired by the CTA in August 2020 and had been working as a customer service assistant, an agency spokesperson told the Chicago Sun-Times.

The suit claims the CTA had previously received warnings about Richardson from other CTA workers about his treatment of riders, including that he “had twice been verbally warned by a customer service manager for the CTA about his negative treatment of customers and poor attitude.”

CTA President Dorval Carter Jr. said at the time that Richardson “has been removed from service without pay pending further investigation and disciplinary action,” calling the allegations “absolutely reprehensible.”

A spokesperson for the agency declined to comment Tuesday, citing the pending litigation.

Richardson was initially charged with aggravated battery. At the time, a ruling on Powell’s cause and manner of death was still pending by the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

In May, the office ruled Powell’s death a homicide but listed his primary cause of death as an overdose with stress from the attack as a secondary cause. The charges were upgraded against Richardson in June. He has pleaded not guilty.

Richardson’s bail was set at $3 million but was later reduced to $100,000 during a May hearing before Judge Carol Howard. He was released after posting $10,000.

Defendants who were released on bond before the state eliminated cash bail last fall have the option to stay on that bond. Court records do not indicate prosecutors have since sought to have him detained or that Richardson has requested a review of the conditions of his pretrial release.

His next court date on the criminal charges is scheduled for Friday. A status hearing for the lawsuit has been set for May 8.