The Plaintiff was walking to work when two men in an unmarked vehicle abruptly ordered him to “come here.” Fearing for his life, the Plaintiff fled from the men. Unknown to the Plaintiff at that time, the two men were on-duty Chicago Police Officers.

One officer pursued on foot as the other officer pursued in the unmarked vehicle. Two more on-duty police officers joined the pursuit and, after arriving at the scene, one officer ran down the alley toward the Plaintiff. Upon realizing the men were police officers, the Plaintiff stopped in a nearby backyard.

One of the officers who had joined the pursuit and run down the alley claimed he saw the Plaintiff pointing a gun in the direction of one of the officers who was also located in the alley at the time of the incident. The officer testified that he was frightened and concerned for the safety of himself and his fellow officers. Within 2 to 4 seconds of arriving at the scene, the officer fired four shots at the Plaintiff from 25 feet behind. One of the bullets struck the Plaintiff’s lower spine and transected his spinal cord - paralyzing him from the waist down.

The Defense disputed liability completely. In court proceedings, the Defendant officer claimed he saw the Plaintiff point a gun in the direction of the first officer. However, an Illinois State Police Forensics examination of the gun returned no fingerprints and no bullet in the chamber. Regardless, two weeks prior to the settlement, the City of Chicago had offered $0.

Mr. Rogers, Jr., and Mr. Thomas needed to expose the factual discrepancies between the officer’s testimony and what actually happened. They also needed to magnify the irreversible destruction the officer caused to their client’s spine, which would leave him paralyzed for life.

Upon being introduced with this visual evidence in mediation prior to trial, along with the Plaintiff’s demand for settlement, the Defense quickly became aware their clients’ credibility would be a huge issue during cross-examination. As the trial date approached, the Defense attorneys literally made comments that their witnesses were “going to get destroyed” on the stand. They decided to settle the case for $10M rather than let it be decided by a jury.

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