A City Council committee Wednesday narrowly refused to authorize an $8.25 million settlement to compensate the family of a 55-year-old woman killed when a hijacked SUV fleeing police blew a red light and crashed into her Toyota Corolla.
Finance Committee members acknowledged that the September, 2022, collision at 31st and Kedzie that killed Dominga Flores Gomez is a tragedy, but they argued the city is not responsible for it.
Juan C. Vazquez, the alleged carjacker being chased by police for 11 miles at speeds as high as 95 mph, is the one who should be held responsible, they claimed.
The 18 to 15 rejection was the latest sign that an emboldened City Council fed up with the avalanche of settlements tied to allegations of police wrongdoing is no longer willing to rubber stamp those giant payouts.
They took a stand against the settlement to the family of Flores Gomez even as they signed off on a combined, $29.2 million pay-out to four men who were framed for murders they did not commit by now-retired Chicago Police detective Reynaldo Guevara.
There was no debate about and no opposition to any of the Guevara-related settlements.
There was plenty of debate, however, about the Flores Gomez settlement in spite of the heartbreaking consequences of the latest police chase gone bad.
Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) noted that the Deering District, where the crash occurred after a pair of alleged carjackings by the same offender, struggles with “high crime and cyclical gang issues.”
Lopez said he is grateful to police officers who put their lives on the line to pursue Juan C. Vazquez, whom Lopez called an “individual who had no regard for human life and ultimately caused this accident trying to evade capture.”
“As much as it pains me that we had an innocent life lost, it is still unacceptable to say this originates with us….This is again one of those lawsuits where we are, I’m not going to say rewarding criminality, but we are definitely paying for the mistakes of others,” Lopez said.
“Juan C. Vazquez. That’s the individual [who] is incarcerated currently…He is the one who’s responsible for this. He and his group are the ones violently attacking people, violently attacking people in Brighton Park or wherever they did this. And they are the ones that need to bear the burden for this. The city of Chicago simply because we have the biggest checkbook—it’s just not acceptable.
Under questioning from Finance Chair Pat Dowell (3rd), Deputy Corporation Counsel Margaret Mendenhall-Casey said an asset check was conducted on Vazquez, but it “revealed that he did not have and does not have any financial assets” that could be used to compensate the dead woman’s family.
“That’s not particularly surprising….He was 17 at the time of the accident and has been incarcerated since then” for reckless homicide, the deputy corporation counsel said.
Ald. Bill Conway (34th), a former Cook County prosecutor, called Flores Gomez’s death a “tragic situation” and said he “hates the officer’s history” of having been involved in “at least four, if not five” prior police pursuits that caused accidents.
A judge has already ruled that history is admissible at trial.
But, Conway said the officer was “pursuing a potentially armed carjacking/hijacker” and that from the video, it was “pretty clear that it was a police vehicle, so the fact that it wasn’t marked I didn’t think was much of an issue.”
“I didn’t think the officer’s behavior in this case was willful and wanton,” he said.
Tom Power, an attorney representing the family of Flores Gomez, said the decision to reject the $8.25 million settlement “might be something they regret.”
“They didn’t really look at the case in depth. If they did that, they might have a different opinion. It’s terrible,” Power said Wednesday.
“This police car went through at 95 mph for eleven miles and nine minutes through neighborhoods and past schools, churches and parks. It’s an unbelievable case with respect to how many rules they violated during this chase and none of that was really discussed. They didn’t concentrate on the rules that were broke and how egregious this case was.”
A jury was picked in June before the city “increased their offer,” Power said. Now, it’ll full speed ahead toward a trial.
“The City Council will have no say-so. It’ll be out of their hands.”
Conway said the failed settlement underscores how imperative it is for the City Council to “understand that we need to be investing in either more helicopters [or] more drone technology so we don’t put our officers in situations like this and the public in situations like this.”
Ald. Nick Sposato (38th) noted that the Chicago Police Department’s general order requires a marked vehicle to join a vehicular chase and take the lead “as soon as possible or if possible.” That didn’t happen before the five-car crash that killed Flores Gomez.
“Sometimes it’s not possible. Otherwise, you might end up losing the chase,” Sposato said.
Also on Wednesday, the Finance Committee authorized a $1.9 million settlement to compensate the owners of abandoned vehicles with expired license plates whose vehicles were towed, impounded and disposed of without notice by mail.
