Taxpayers Dished Out Over $93 Million To Settle Lawsuits Against City In 2019 Alone

CHICAGO (CBS) -- $93,229,692.

CBS 2's Morning Insiders have discovered that's how much Chicago taxpayers dished out in 2019 for legal settlements and lawsuit judgments and claims.

Some of the cases made headlines:

• $4.5 million dollars to Carl Chatman, years after his rape conviction was reversed.

• $3.7 million to Kelsey Ibach and other passengers in a car that plunged down an embankment in 2014.

• $1.18 million to Laquida Cockerham, whose nephew was shot and killed by police in 2015.

[scribd id=442972056 key=key-X5jtMvKRTcVMHZqdHoVh mode=scroll]

But Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th), a member of the Committee on Finance, says the headline grabbers aren't the only ones he's worried about.

"If you look along the list, there are sidewalk issues. There are maintenance issues. Construction issues. From all of our departments," Ald. Lopez said.

Also in 2019, the city paid out more than $128,000 to Peoples Gas for 65 different cases of property damage, according to city records sent to CBS 2 by Lopez.

Lopez said he requested that a list of payments be presented at each finance committee meeting so aldermen can take a close look at all the payments.

"So if we can start isolating behaviors and the issues that are causing us to have repeat lawsuits and settlements, we can hopefully start correcting them so that we're not spending more money on the back end," Lopez said.

The largest settlement in 2019 was $19.25 million dollars to the family of Maria Carrion Adame, who was hit and killed by a stolen car during a 2015 police chase in Englewood.

The Chicago Police Department was listed as the city department involved for 279 of the cases on the list of settlements and judgments.

A city spokesperson says in 2018, the city paid out $141.7 million dollars.