(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The City of Chicago has written checks for nearly $700 million dollars since the year 2000 for lawyers and people who said they were framed by police.
Add up 300 cases in the last 23 years and, according to a report by the Sun-Times, the City has paid $537 million to people who claimed they were convicted of crimes based on wrongdoing by police or were the victims of police brutality.
Their attorneys, meanwhile, were paid nearly $140 million.
One man, who was paid millions for being convicted of a murder he did not commit, said most plaintiffs want to move on with their lives and settle — but the City makes them wait longer by going to trial.
Those trials, too, can prove extra costly to Chicago. After a man who wrongly spent 20 years in prison was awarded more than $17 million, he said he would have been willing to settle for $10 million before the trial.
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