Chicago expected to settle in police sex assault suit
CHICAGO - The city of Chicago is expected to approve a $415,000 settlement with a woman who says she was sexually assaulted in 2011 by two on-duty police officers.
The woman's federal lawsuit follows a criminal case in which initial charges of sexual assault were dropped as part of a deal with prosecutors. The former officers, Juan Vasquez and Paul Clavijo, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of official misconduct and were sentenced to two years' probation each. The convictions disqualified them from working as police officers, reports the Chicago Sun-Times Media Wire.
An attorney for one of the officers has maintained that the sex was consensual but conceded that "some bad decisions" were made, according to the paper.
Prosecutors say the officers were on-duty when they found the woman, then 22, intoxicated and crying near a North Side transit station and offered her a ride home in March 2011.
They say she was sexually assaulted in the car and at her apartment.
The paper reports the woman had a blood-alcohol level of .38 at the time of the alleged assault -- nearly five times the legal limit for driving a car in Illinois.
Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvaraz has argued the woman was so intoxicated that the couldn't possibly have given "knowing consent" to have sexual intercourse with the officers.
The City Council Finance Committee is expected to approve the $415,000 settlement Tuesday.
According to the Sun-Times, Clavijo was accused in another March 2011 alleged sexual assault but was never charged. In that case, he and Vasquez allegedly picked up a 26-year-old woman at a bus stop and brought her home where Clavijo is accused of forcefully performing a sex act on her.