Chicago City Council approves $27 million settlement in innocent woman's death in police chase crash
The Chicago City Council on Wednesday approved a $27 million settlement with the family of an innocent woman killed in a crash during a high-speed police chase in 2017, nearly triple what a jury awarded the family before city attorneys successfully sought a new trial, only to face new allegations of a police cover-up.
The unanimous vote by the City Council came without any debate during Wednesday's meeting.
The settlement will go to the family of Stacy Vaughn-Harrell, a mother of six who was killed in a crash on June 24, 2017, while driving with her daughter, Kimberlyn Myers. Taxpayers will cover $20 million of the settlement, and the city's insurance company will pay the remaining $7 million.
In a statement after the vote, family attorney Lance Northcutt said, "There are no winners here. A precious life was lost."
Vaughn-Harrell's husband spoke for the first time on Wednesday about her death and the hole it's left in the family's lives.
"I don't think I can come up with enough words to describe that. Every major event kind of stands out more than others. As they grow and have mile markers in their life, she's not there to celebrate any of that," he said. "She was like our cheerleader. Being a mother, of all things, no matter how hard I try, I'll never be able to do the things that she does."
Myers and her mother were driving home from Indiana at the time of the crash, as a police chase was underway nearby.
Police were chasing a white Kia Sorrento that officers believed had been involved in a shooting. After initially stopping the car, officers were able to pull a passenger out of the back seat, but the driver took off.
The following chase reached speeds of up to 60 mph before the Kia slammed into Vaughn-Harrell's car, killing her and seriously injuring Myers, who suffered a broken clavicle, a head injury, and a lacerated liver.
Vaughn-Harrell's family sued the city over the crash, accusing officers of violating multiple Chicago Police Department policies, including failing to activate their squad car's lights and siren, and leading the chase with an unmarked vehicle. CPD policy requires vehicle pursuits to be conducted by marked squad cars with their lights and sirens activated.
In 2023, a jury awarded the family $10.2 million in damages – approximately $5 million for Vaughn-Harrell's death, and $5 million for Myers' injuries – but the city later appealed that verdict and won a new trial.
After a new set of attorneys took over the family's case, they accused police of not only violating rules for police chases, but of trying to cover up what happened, saying they found officers on the scene failed to activate their body cameras or turned them off during the chase.
"What happened that day was not the work of heroes. It was the work of cowboys who decided they were not only going to pursue a vehicle in violation of department policy, they decided they were going to cover it up," attorney Lance Northcutt said last week. "The coverup was wide. The coverup was systemic. The coverup was not part of the first trial, but will be in the second."
City attorneys have since recommended that the City Council approve settling the case for $27 million, arguing taking the case to a second trial would risk a verdict of more than $100 million against the city, given the new evidence in the case.
"We have a different case with new evidence," John Hendricks, managing deputy corporation counsel of litigation for the city's Law Department, told the Finance Committee on Friday. "We have a different case with new witnesses. We have a different case with new and broader claims for damages. And we have a likelihood of more evidence coming in that was not allowed in the first trial."
Deputy Corporation Counsel Maggie Mendenhall Casey told the committee that Vaughn-Harrell's family also likely would tell a jury that "officers were callous" towards her and her daughter after the crash, and would show the jury video showing Myers "crawling over her mother's dead body and falling to the ground while officers stood by and watched."
Myers spoke to alders during the public comment period of Friday's committee meeting, telling alders, "I am the individual who crawled out of that car, who was not assisted by no officer."
"I did not see one hand reach out for me in the middle of me crawling out that car," she added.
At a press conference on Thursday, Myers said her mom would be alive if Chicago police officers in hot pursuit would have used their emergency lights and sirens during the chase.
"She would have been here if you guys would have just parked on your sirens or something. She would have been here, but you guys didn't," Myers said.
Hendricks warned alders that a similar lawsuit against the city involving another deadly police chase resulted in a nearly $80 million verdict against the city in 2024.
On Sept. 2, 2020, Kevin Spicer was with his son and daughter in a car near 80th and Halsted streets in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood when they were hit by a car fleeing from police.
Officers in unmarked squad car were following a black Mercedes Benz for a traffic violation, and the Mercedes ended up hitting a gray car being driven by a 57-year-old woman and then slammed into the Spicer family's car.
Spicer's 10-year-old daughter, Da'Karia, was killed in the wreck. Her little brother, Dhaamir, only 5 at the time, was severely injured. Spicer and the woman in the other car both suffered less serious injuries in the crash.
The Spicer family sued asking for $100 million for suffering, emotional distress, loss of society, and other damages. In December 2024, a jury awarded the family $79.85 million in damages.
