Family attorneys say coverup of fatal Chicago police chase led to proposed $27 million settlement

The death of an innocent mother of six in a high-speed police chase in 2017 led to a $10.2 million verdict against the city of Chicago, but the city's attorneys appealed that verdict and won a new trial, only to later reverse course and recommend settling the case for nearly three times that amount, based on newly discovered evidence.

Attorneys for the victim's family said evidence the first jury never heard has the city now offering to settle the case for $27 million.

On Friday, the City Council Finance Committee will consider the proposed settlement with the family of Stacy Vaughn-Harrell, who was driving with her daughter, Kimberlyn Myers, near 59th and LaSalle streets in Englewood on June 24, 2017, when a white Kia Sorrento ran a stop sign and crashed into them. Vaugn-Harrell was killed in the crash, and Myers suffered a broken clavicle and lacerated liver.

"It's been eight and a half years since our mom's been gone. To you guys, that's numbers, but to us that's lost memories that we could have had," Myers said.

Myers had just finished a singing event in Indiana, and her mom was driving her home as a police chase was developing nearby. Myers said her mom would be alive if Chicago police officers in hot pursuit would have used their emergency lights and sirens to warn them, because out of nowhere a white SUV fleeing police struck them, killing her mom and trapping her in the car.

"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," Meyers said.

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.

A jury heard the case in 2023 and awarded the family a $10.2 million verdict. The city didn't want to pay, and won its appeal for a new trial, but since then new evidence has surfaced – allegations of a coverup – according to the family's attorney, Lance Northcutt.

"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," Northcutt said.

Last August, after the city won a new trial, newly hired lawyers for the family handling the lawsuit said they found officers on the scene failed to activate their body cameras or turned them off during the chase.

Northcutt said the two officers who did turn on their body cameras waited critical moments to help the victims.

"The coverup was wide. The coverup was systemic. The coverup was not part of the first trial, but will be in the second," he said.

The family's attorneys also said they found at least two officers handling evidence that night were connected to disgraced former Chicago Police Sgt. Ronald Watts, who has been tied to dozens of wrongful convictions. Those officers are no longer allowed to testify in criminal court cases because of their tainted reputation.  

"Their testimony was so lacking in credibility that their affiliation with a convicted felon was so tight that they could not even put them on a witness stand," Northcutt said.

John Hendricks, managing deputy corporation counsel of litigation for the city's Law Department, said that since the city won its bid for a new trial in the case, "new factual allegations have come to light that required substantial reevaluation."

"City lawyers have a duty to regularly reassess the value of cases based on the current posture of the lawsuit. Given the substantial new evidence that would be presented at trial, the Department of Law believes the recommended settlement is in the best interest of the taxpayers," Hendricks said in a statement.

If the Finance Committee backs the settlement on Friday, the full City Council could vote on final passage on Wednesday.