$21.3 Million Verdict for Family of Mother Killed in Chicago Police Chase
Won by Romanucci & Blandin.
A Cook County jury awarded $21.3 million to the family of Maria Carrion-Adame, a 37-year-old mother of five killed when Chicago officers in an unmarked car pursued a stolen minivan that crashed into her family's SUV in December 2015.
What happened
On the evening of December 12, 2015, Maria Carrion-Adame, 37, was riding in a Dodge Durango with ten family members near 71st and Carpenter Streets in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood. The family was headed to a religious pilgrimage. At roughly 5:45 p.m., a teenager driving a stolen Dodge Caravan ran a stop sign and plowed into the Durango at high speed, sending the SUV into a light pole and onto the lawn of a nearby home.
Carrion-Adame died from her injuries at Stroger Hospital. Five family members, including her 15-year-old daughter who suffered a fractured pelvis and a lacerated heart, sustained serious and permanent injuries. Ten other passengers in the vehicle were hospitalized.
The family filed suit against the City of Chicago, two officers who conducted the chase, and the teenage driver. Attorney Antonio Romanucci argued that the officers had initiated the pursuit in an unmarked car with no lights or sirens active, and that they continued chasing the minivan after a sergeant had explicitly ordered them to stand down. The lawsuit alleged the officers showed 'utter indifference to or conscious disregard for the safety of others,' violating multiple department pursuit policies.
The teenage driver, Trevante Reed, was charged as an adult with reckless homicide after DNA evidence connected him to the crash. He later pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
In April 2019, a Cook County jury sided with the family on the civil claims, finding the officers reckless in their conduct and the City liable. The jury returned a verdict of $21.3 million, one of the largest police misconduct judgments in Chicago history at the time. The case was later resolved through a $19.25 million settlement with the City.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Chicago Sun-Times: Jury awards $21.3M to family of mother of 5 killed in high-speed police chase (Apr. 24, 2019)·Archived copy
- 2.NBC Chicago: $21M Awarded to Family of Woman Killed in Police Chase (Apr. 2019)·Archived copy
- 3.CBS News Chicago: Chicago, Two CPD Officers To Pay $21 Million After Woman Killed in High Speed Chase (Apr. 2019)·Archived copy
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