City Council Panel Backs $13M In Settlements
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Aldermen have recommended settling three lawsuits against the city's police and fire departments, for a combined $13 million.
The City Council Finance Committee voted Monday to approve a settlement of more than $7.5 million for Dean Cage, who was jailed for a 1994 rape, but who was later cleared by DNA evidence.
"Mister Cage was sentenced to 20 years. He served 14 years of that sentence, until subsequent DNA testing showed that, in fact, he wasn't the perpetrator of this terrible crime," Corporation Counsel Steve Patton said.
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Aldermen also backed a $1.2 million payment to Donald Williams, who sued three detectives, claiming they pressured him into falsely confessing he acted as the lookout in a murder.
Finally, aldermen approved $4.3 million in payments to 59 women who tried to become Chicago firefighters, and sued for discrimination after failing the city's old physical abilities test.
The city has since scrapped that test, and more than 100 women who failed the physical exam in 2006 were given another chance to take a new test which matches federal standards.
Last year, aldermen agreed to settle another lawsuit tied to the exam, filed by 50 women who are now beyond the mandatory maximum age limit of 38 to take the exam, who no longer want jobs as firefighters, or who are not granted jobs after taking the new test. That lawsuit was settled for $1.98 million.
The women who failed the 2006 test claimed the old physical exam focused on brute strength, not physical skills required for firefighting and rescue operations.
