Family Settles with the City for $700,000 After Months of Abuse by Corrupt Cops
Police Misconduct, Police Officers 04/21/2020bhorwitz
In 2012, the City of Chicago agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by The Blake Horwitz Law Firm on behalf of a family from Chicago’s South Side that was abused and extorted for nearly a year by four corrupt Chicago police officers.
As described by the Chicago Tribune, starting in 2004, a group of Chicago police officers began routinely showing up to Sharon Wilkins’ mother’s house demanding cash from the family upon learning that they received Social Security checks. The officers repeatedly threatened Ms. Wilkins that they would plant drugs on her brother if she refused to pay.
The officers would often handcuff and beat family members in the home. On at least one occasion, an officer held a gun to Ms. Wilkins’ 10-year-old son’s head. In his own words as an 18-year-old recalling the incident: “I thought he was going to shoot me. . . They corrupted my whole image and the way I think of police.”
The abuse finally ended in 2005 when the officers were arrested on federal drug distribution charges. However, they ultimately stole thousands from the family. As Ms. Wilkins told the Chicago Sun Times, the settlement hardly compensates the family for the year-long ordeal, but at least the city finally provided them some closure by acknowledging the corrupt officers’ wrongdoing.
If you or someone you know share a similar story, contact The Blake Horwitz Law Firm at (312) 676-2100 or [email protected].
Read more about this case below:
- Chicago Sun Times, “Family tells of settlement with city over police abuse”
- Chicago Tribune, “City settles over rogue cops’ shakedown”
- CBS Chicago, “City to Settle Lawsuit From Family Terrorized By Rogue Cops”
