The city of Chicago announced a $90 million global settlement for 176 police misconduct lawsuits connected to disgraced former Chicago Police Department Sergeant Ronald Watts Thursday. 

City officials said the lawsuits, some of which date back to 2017, have remained open and placed a financial strain on the city by overloading the City Law Department's docket of pending cases and accruing ongoing legal costs.

The city said all of the plaintiffs' convictions were vacated and nearly all of the plaintiffs were granted Certificates of Innocence.

The $90 million settlement would be divided up depending on how much time each plaintiff spent behind bars, among other factors.

The settlement has been accepted by all plaintiffs and their legal representation, the city said, and their shares include attorneys' fees and costs. The settlement will be presented to the Chicago City Council Finance Committee for approval next week, before being voted on by the full council later this month.

In addition to the proposed $90 million settlement, the city already has spent $25 million on private attorneys to defend Watts against the deluge of lawsuits, and another $11 million in prior settlements, bringing the total cost to settle wrongful conviction lawsuits tied to Watts to $126 million.

City attorneys said their risk assessment manager determined fighting the 176 lawsuits settled in this deal alone could have cost the city far more.

"Her estimation was a staggering figure – $350 million to $500 million we'd be spending if we continued on this path," Richardson-Lowry said.

Watts resigned from the force before pleading guilty in 2012 to stealing from a homeless man who posed as a drug dealer as part of an undercover FBI sting. He admitted to regularly extorting money from drug dealers, and was sentenced to 22 months in prison in 2021. He has been accused of frequently planting evidence and fabricating charges.

Dozens of men and women have said Watts and his team terrorized them in or near the former Ida B. Wells housing project in Bronzeville between 2003 and 2008. Watts and his officers have been accused of planting drugs on suspects and falsifying police reports.

Prosecutors have said Watts and the officers under his command time and again planted evidence and fabricated charges in order to further their own gun and drug trade.

In some cases, Watts' victims refused to pay him money or did something that angered him; in others, there appears to be no reason for why he targeted them.

The lawsuits also involve conduct by former officer Kallatt Mohammed who was federally indicted along with Watts following a joint investigation by CPD internal Affairs and the FBI. Both pled guilty and served time in federal prison.

The cases date back decades, and those wrongfully convicted had their cases thrown out by former Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx, leading to a flood of lawsuits for civil rights violations.

More than 200 convictions in cases tied to Watts and the officers under his command have been thrown out since his arrest, with approximately 190 people exonerated.

"It was a horrible time for the city," said Chicago Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry, who heads the city's Law Department. "This is a legacy case of a magnitude unlike anything I had previously seen. It is the largest number we've had, and remains the largest number associated with a particular police officer."

Richardson-Lowry said Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling was "very supportive" of the decision to settle the lawsuits involving Watts.

"This an important chapter that we are closing for the Police Department," she said.