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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.<\/p>\n
Finance Committee members acknowledged that the September, 2022, collision at 31st<\/sup> and Kedzie that killed Dominga Flores Gomez is a tragedy, but they argued the city is not responsible for it.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n There was no debate about and no opposition to any of the Guevara-related settlements.<\/p>\n There was plenty of debate, however, about the Flores Gomez settlement in spite of the heartbreaking consequences of the latest police chase gone bad.<\/p>\n Ald. Ray Lopez (15th<\/sup>) noted that the Deering District, where the crash occurred after a pair of alleged carjackings by the same offender, struggles with \u201chigh crime and cyclical gang issues.\u201d<\/p>\n Lopez said he is grateful to police officers who put their lives on the line to pursue Juan C. Vazquez, whom Lopez called an \u201cindividual who had no regard for human life and ultimately caused this accident trying to evade capture.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs much as it pains me that we had an innocent life lost, it is still unacceptable to say this originates with us\u2026.This is again one of those lawsuits where we are, I\u2019m not going to say rewarding criminality, but we are definitely paying for the mistakes of others,\u201d Lopez said.<\/p>\n \u201cJuan C. Vazquez. That\u2019s the individual [who] is incarcerated currently\u2026He is the one who\u2019s 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\u2014it\u2019s just not acceptable.<\/p>\n Under questioning from Finance Chair Pat Dowell (3rd<\/sup>), Deputy Corporation Counsel Margaret Mendenhall-Casey said an asset check was conducted on Vazquez, but it \u201crevealed that he did not have and does not have any financial assets\u201d that could be used to compensate the dead woman\u2019s family.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s not particularly surprising\u2026.He was 17 at the time of the accident and has been incarcerated since then\u201d for reckless homicide, the deputy corporation counsel said.<\/p>\n Ald. Bill Conway (34th<\/sup>), a former Cook County prosecutor, called Flores Gomez\u2019s death a \u201ctragic situation\u201d and said he \u201chates the officer\u2019s history\u201d of having been involved in \u201cat least four, if not five\u201d prior police pursuits that caused accidents.<\/p>\n A judge has already ruled that history is admissible at trial.<\/p>\n But, Conway said the officer was \u201cpursuing a potentially armed carjacking\/hijacker\u201d and that from the video, it was \u201cpretty clear that it was a police vehicle, so the fact that it wasn\u2019t marked I didn\u2019t think was much of an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t think the officer\u2019s behavior in this case was willful and wanton,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Tom Power, an attorney representing the family of Flores Gomez, said the decision to reject the $8.25 million settlement \u201cmight be something they regret.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey didn\u2019t really look at the case in depth. If they did that, they might have a different opinion. It\u2019s terrible,\u201d Power said Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cThis police car went through at 95 mph for eleven miles and nine minutes through neighborhoods and past schools, churches and parks. It\u2019s an unbelievable case with respect to how many rules they violated during this chase and none of that was really discussed. They didn\u2019t concentrate on the rules that were broke and how egregious this case was.\u201d<\/p>\n A jury was picked in June before the city \u201cincreased their offer,\u201d Power said. Now, it\u2019ll full speed ahead toward a trial.<\/p>\n \u201cThe City Council will have no say-so. It\u2019ll be out of their hands.\u201d<\/p>\n Conway said the failed settlement underscores how imperative it is for the City Council to \u201cunderstand that we need to be investing in either more helicopters [or] more drone technology so we don\u2019t put our officers in situations like this and the public in situations like this.\u201d<\/p>\n Ald. Nick Sposato (38th<\/sup>) noted that the Chicago Police Department\u2019s general order requires a marked vehicle to join a vehicular chase and take the lead \u201cas soon as possible or if possible.\u201d That didn\u2019t happen before the five-car crash that killed Flores Gomez.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes it\u2019s not possible. Otherwise, you might end up losing the chase,\u201d Sposato said.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n