Chicago city taxpayers appear poised to pay the family of Dexter Reed, a black man killed by police in Humboldt Park after he opened fire when police stopped his car, to settle a lawsuit the family filed quickly following Reed's death less than eight months ago.
On Nov. 27, lawyers for Reed's family and the city filed documents in Chicago federal court saying they had reached a settlement to end the family's legal action.
Settlement terms have not yet been disclosed. However, the documents indicate the settlement must yet be approved by the Chicago City Council.
The council must vote to approve any settlements worth more than $100,000.
News of the settlement was first reported by CWBChicago.
Both the lawsuit and its apparent completion came long before either police or Chicago's civilian oversight agency could complete any thorough and complete investigation into the encounter between Reed and the Chicago police officers involved in Reed's death.
The lawsuit was filed in April 24, just about a month after Reed died in the shootout with police on March 21. The suit was filed on behalf of Reed's mother, Nicole Banks, identified as the independent administrator of Reed's estate.
Banks is represented by attorneys Andrew M. Stroth, of Action Injury Law Group; Steven A. Hart and Bradley Kupiec, of Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge; and Sheila A. Bedi and Kara C. Crutcher, of the Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic, of the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, all of Chicago.
The lawsuit rested heavily on statements contained within a letter written by Andrea Kersten, who leads the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), to Chicago's police superintendent. In that letter, Kersten said her initial review of video of the incident raised concerns over the officers' justification for the traffic stop and officers' actions up to and including their decision to collectively fire at and kill Reed that day after he opened fire on them from inside his vehicle.
The letter was not issued publicly. Rather, the letter was made public under a Freedom of Information Act request filed by a reporter with WTTW News.
Following the shooting, Kersten also repeatedly made statements questioning officers and their tactics in various media interviews, despite her responsibility to ultimately lead the investigation into the incident.
Kersten's handling of the Reed case also served as a central point of contention within a lawsuit brought against the city and COPA by a whistleblower, who claims Kersten fired him from his post as a deputy COPA administrator in retaliation for bringing attention to alleged politically motivated and slanted anti-cop investigations under Kersten's leadership.
Reed, who was black, was killed by a Chicago Police tactical response unit after opening fire on officers when they stopped his car on March 21. During the incident, Reed reportedly rolled his car window back up while talking with police, despite repeated commands from officers to keep his window down, while repeatedly saying "Okay, okay, I'm trying" in response to officers' commands.
Reed then reportedly opened fire on officers from within the vehicle, leading officers to return fire, killing him. According to reports, an emptied ammunition magazine was found inside Reed's vehicle.
Despite evidence showing Reed likely fired first and no investigation completed, Kersten and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson moved quickly to fault police for the traffic stop and everything that happened after, including their decision to collectively fire at and kill Reed after he opened fire on them.
In Haynam's lawsuit, he asserted Kersten improperly intervened in the investigation of Reed's death and made public comments about the incident she knew were "unsupported by the actual evidence adduced in the investigatory file," including comments asserting officers had "fabricated" a reason for initiating the traffic stop.
Kersten then "publicly demanded" Chicago Police "immediately relieve the officers involved in the Reed traffic stop of their police powers."
The city of Chicago and COPA have asked the judge to dismiss Haynam's lawsuit, saying he can't sue as a protected whistleblower, because he never reported the alleged misconduct to an agency that could do anything about it.
For now, Haynam's lawsuit remains pending, as a judge has not yet ruled on the city's motion to toss the case.
However, Reed's family's lawsuit relied heavily on the narrative pushed by Kersten and Mayor Johnson that officers in the incident were the true aggressors.
The lawsuit asserted officers, who were members of a special Chicago Police Department tactical unit operating in plain clothes in an unmarked vehicle in the high crime Humboldt Park neighborhood, pulled Reed over for no reason, and then "approaching him aggressively ... brandished their weapons in a threatening manner, screamed curse words at (Reed), and attempted to unlawfully enter his vehicle."
The lawsuit did not concede that Reed fired first, even though Kersten has repeatedly stated she believes that is what the evidence indicates.
Rather, the lawsuit claimed officers "used wildly disproportionate force against (Reed) - repeatedly shooting at him even when he clearly presented no threat."
The lawsuit further claimed that Reed suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, caused, in part, by living in a high crime neighborhood subject to "hyper policing" and other alleged abuses by Chicago Police officers.
The lawsuit claimed, without evidence, that Reed's PTSD caused him to react poorly to officers' commands, for instance, rolling his car window back up when commanded to roll down the other windows, while repeatedly stating "okay, okay I'm trying" in response to officers' further commands.
The lawsuit asserted police officers should have known "when stopping people in a neighborhood historically and culturally known for its heightened levels of police harassment and violent traffic stops, there is a strong likelihood that the individual lives with PTSD symptoms such as hypervigilance."
The lawsuit accused officers of violating federal law and Reed's Fourth Amendment rights, and of excessive force.
The lawsuit further leveled accusations of racism against the officers and Chicago Police in general, claiming the traffic stop was "unlawful" and is part of a "longstanding practice" by CPD of allegedly using legal "pretexts" to pull over black drivers on Chicago's south and west sides, particularly in high crime neighborhoods.
They asserted the officers only stopped Reed "because he was a young, Black man driving a vehicle on the westside of Chicago."
At the time the lawsuit was filed, law enforcement advocates had predicted the speed with which the suit was lodged in federal court indicated Reed's family and their lawyers sought to ride a wave of public opinion and outrage stoked by Mayor Johnson and others to a quick settlement, regardless of the actual facts of the case.
The judge's order dismissing the case under the settlement indicated the dismissal is without prejudice, noting the plaintiffs would be allowed to resume their legal action should the City Council not approve the settlement.
The settlement has not yet been placed on a City Council agenda for discussion or action, as of Dec. 5.
CWBChicago has also reported that, after the settlement deal was announced in court, Chicago Police also arrested Dexter Reed's younger brother, Julius Reed, during a traffic stop after allegedly finding two loaded firearms in his vehicle.