Chicago Park District pays nearly $2 million settlement to former lifeguards alleging misconduct, hazing

The Chicago Park District has paid out more than $1.9 million in legal settlements to three former lifeguards who allegedly suffered from sexual misconduct and hazing by supervisors at public beaches and pools, according to documents obtained by WBEZ.

And that might not be the end of the legal costs from the scandal that WBEZ exposed in 2021, leading to the resignations of park district leaders, criminal charges against two male lifeguards and promises of reform.

A fourth female ex-lifeguard filed a lawsuit this year against the park district, its former CEO Michael Kelly and a Humboldt Park supervisor who was convicted of sex crimes last year. That suit is pending in Cook County circuit court.

The park district’s board approved the three settlements in the last nine months after claims from anonymous “Jane Doe” complainants.

The board voted in favor of those payouts without disclosing that the cases involved sexual misconduct or revealing the amounts that were expended by the taxpayer-funded agency to resolve the cases.

But WBEZ obtained copies of claim letters and the settlement agreements through a public records request. Two of the three cases were settled out of court after lawyers for the former lifeguards threatened to sue, according to park district documents.

All three settlements include a clause prohibiting the former lifeguards from disparaging the park district.

A spokeswoman for the agency declined to comment except to say it “carefully evaluates claims” and “enters into fair and reasonable settlements, where appropriate.”

Plaintiffs’ attorneys in the pending case criticized the lack of transparency in the park district’s handling of the three settlements, noting that officials had attempted to conceal the lifeguard abuse scandal from public view.

“This appears to be a continuing cover-up so that other victims don’t come forward,” said Stephan Blandin of Romanucci & Blandin, one of the lawyers for the young woman who is suing.

Misogynistic rituals at Gold Coast beach

In the biggest of the settlements, the park district agreed in May to pay $977,250 to a woman whose lawyer had asked for $2.5 million to avoid going to court, records show.

According to a letter from attorney Bridget Duignan to the park district, her client was a victim of Mauricio Ramirez, the Humboldt Park lifeguard manager who pleaded guilty after being charged with sexually abusing two underage female employees he had supervised.

Duignan wrote in January that her client was so traumatized by the experience with Ramirez and unnamed “other supervisors and peers” that she “stays away from city parks and beaches and anything associated with the Chicago Park District.”

Duignan also represented another female former lifeguard in a case filed in 2021 in Cook County circuit court against three park district supervisors at Oak Street Beach. That case was settled for $350,000 in June, records show. In court filings, Duignan said her client suffered from the same sort of misogynistic workplace as at Humboldt Park and was a minor for part of her tenure with the park district from 2014 until 2018.

Her suit said she was subjected to “bullying, harassment and gender-based violence” at Oak Street Beach, the iconic, sandy stretch of the Gold Coast. According to the complaint, the young woman was “grabbed, slapped and touched inappropriately, without her consent, often throughout the day by male lifeguards.”

When she spoke up and asked to be transferred in 2017, the young woman said her request was ignored. She soon found her locker vandalized and she was “rotted” — ordered to sit on a small boat in Lake Michigan under the summer sun for hours at a time, court records alleged.

“Many victims of sexual harassment and misconduct do not come forward until long after the harassment and misconduct occurred,” Duignan told WBEZ this week. “Although we faced a similar challenge, we were able to obtain compensation on behalf of our clients and they are satisfied with the results.”

‘Rampant abuse over many years’

Another female ex-lifeguard who got an out-of-court settlement from the park district said she had jumped at the chance to work for the agency because it paid well and she got to spend time outside, lawyer Julia Rickert told parks officials in a claim letter on behalf of the woman last year.

“Unfortunately, those benefits came with a terrible price that no young person should ever have to pay,” according to Rickert. “From the very start, Ms. Doe was subjected to the misogynistic, toxic and abusive culture that, unbeknownst to her, had pervaded the Aquatics Department for decades.”

Rickert’s client allegedly was a victim of a lifeguard supervisor who faced accusations from the park district’s inspector general and got placed on the agency’s do-not-rehire list.

Rickert sought a settlement of $950,000. The case was settled out of court for $575,000 in December, records show.

“Ms. Doe’s wish is to hold the Park District accountable, obtain compensation for her injuries, and continue the difficult task of moving on with her life,” the lawyer wrote to parks officials. “At the same time, she believes that the Park District itself must never entirely move on; it must keep in sight what happened to her and other victims.”

Former CEO’s wife shuts door on process server

The pending lawsuit in Cook County court, which was filed June 9, similarly blames parks officials, including Kelly, saying they “allowed and concealed a pervasive institutional culture of sexual misconduct against female [park district] lifeguards.”

The suit says Ramirez, the lifeguard supervisor who later was convicted, was more than 30 years old when he “groomed and sexually exploited” the anonymous plaintiff at Humboldt Park. The plaintiff was underage at the time.

Her attorney, Jason Friedl, accused parks officials, including Kelly, of “reckless and careless disregard for the safety and welfare of its employees, including Jane Doe.”

At his sentencing last year, Ramirez said he wanted to apologize to his victims and took “full responsibility for my actions.”

A process server who tried to deliver the complaint to Kelly’s home said a woman there identified herself as Kelly’s wife but refused to accept the documents, according to court records. The process server said he left the complaint under a doormat.

The lawyer for Kelly in the case declined to comment.

After the lifeguard abuse scandal surfaced in 2021, Kelly defended his handling of the matter. But Mayor Lori Lightfoot forced him to resign that October.

Dan Mihalopoulos is an investigative reporter on WBEZ’s Government & Politics Team.