City Council Delays Vote On $1.7M Police Misconduct Settlement

CHICAGO — Four aldermen used a parliamentary move to delay a full City Council vote on a police misconduct lawsuit settlement that would pay nearly $1.7 million to people involved in a violent arrest at Brickyard Mall in 2020 that was captured on video and went viral on social media.

Alds. Raymond Lopez, Felix Cardona, Nick Sposato and Silvana Tabares blocked a vote on the proposed settlement payout, which would be split between Mia Wright, who a police officer pulled out of a car through a window, and four others who were with her on the day of her arrest.

Mia Wright's encounter with police happened during civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd, a Black man who died under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer.

Wright was in a car in the mall parking lot on her way to shop with family and friends for a birthday party on May 31, 2020 when police broke out the passenger side window, pulled her from the vehicle and "onto the ground by her braided hair," according to court papers.

That's when an officer pressed a knee with the weight of his body on her neck. She couldn't breathe and was in "paralyzing fear" as her face and neck were pressed to the concrete. Broken glass was lodged in her eye during the encounter with police, according to the lawsuit.

Last week, Ald, Lopez said he believes the settlement could expose the city to lawsuits from people who were engaged in looting and vandalism during protests over George Floyd's death.

And Ald. Nick Sposato said it seemed "odd" that Wright and the others her had traveled to the Northwest Side mall when widespread looting was going on.

Ald. Jason Irvin responded to Sposato, saying people have the right to move about the city.

"What's wrong with somebody who lives at Pulaski and Cermak coming to the Brickyard to shop?" he said.

Ald. Leslie Hairston called Sposato's comments troubling, and asserted that the Chicago police department has a racial-profiling problem. "When you are a person of color in this city you are targeted because of the color of your skin," she said.

City lawyers have predicted a less than 10-percent chance of willing the case at trial.

The full City Council will take up the matter at the March meeting.