Chicago cop sued by family of woman fatally struck outside House of Blues

The family of a Texas woman has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a Chicago cop who allegedly struck and killed her outside the House of Blues last year.

The lawsuit filed Friday in Cook County court accuses Officer Tangie O. Brown of driving while intoxicated when she fatally struck Maria Schwab on Dec. 7 while off duty. The lawsuit also accuses the bar Tree House Chicago of serving Brown alcohol before the crash.

Schwab’s family, represented by Cavanagh Sorich Law Group, filed an emergency motion Monday to preserve evidence from the Chicago Police Department and Office of Emergency Management and Communications, including 911 audio call logs and video surveillance recordings.

Tree House Chicago and Brown’s lawyer did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

According to the criminal DUI charges filed against Brown in January, the officer’s blood alcohol level was 0.093% when she was tested about two hours after the crash, above the state’s legal limit of 0.08%.

Brown allegedly admitted to having three drinks earlier in the night. She was coming from a holiday party for the Near North police district, the Sun-Times reported in December. A police report showed that officers didn’t offer her a blood alcohol test at the scene.

In court, prosecutors said Brown was driving an Infiniti QX60 SUV when she crashed in the 300 block of North State Street. They say she was using her phone’s GPS and dropped the phone and reached to pick it up. When she lifted her head, she allegedly saw she was driving toward a median and overcorrected, sending her over a curb and hitting a planter before striking Schwab and another woman.

The other woman was hit in the leg, but Schwab was pinned against a fence, prosecutors said. Brown then allegedly reversed, causing Schwab to fall several feet onto a lower-level patio. She died later at a hospital.

Brown was still in the driver’s seat when officers arrived, prosecutors said.

After the crash, a police supervisor retired while facing demotion for failing to respond to the scene. Because the supervisor did not respond and secure the scene, no one notified the police department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs. As a result, no one from the department came to administer a Breathalyzer test to Brown.

Brown was relieved of her police powers after the crash, according to the police department. But she was still listed on the city’s payroll as of Monday, earning $110,178 a year. She is still actively employed in the department’s Alternate Response Section, a police department spokesperson said Monday.