Finding the Right Lawyer - Stotis & Baird

John Finds the Right Lawyer by Mike Baird

While his grandson lie unconscious in a Chicago police lock-up, John’s grandfather started searching for answers. Although people at the scene saw John being beaten by an off duty cop, the police denied it. The lawyer he hired said that there was nothing that he could do against the Chicago Police Department. John’s grandfather went looking for a new lawyer. With two weeks left to file suit, he came to Stotis & Baird Chartered. Four years later, the City of Chicago delivered a check made out to John for $1.9 million. The story of what happened to John that night and of the case filed on his behalf tells you a lot you need to know when choosing a law firm.

John had gone out with his brother and a friend for beef sandwiches early on a Friday night. His brother came home alone, and told the family that John had been arrested. John’s grandfather went to the station house, and was told only that he would have to wait. Hours later, he saw John carried out on a stretcher. John had been involved in a fender-bender type accident, and the other driver had gotten the ticket. John had a valid license, and had not been drinking. No one had an explanation as to why John was even at the station house. His brother insisted that no one had been hurt in the traffic accident. John had been arrested, and somehow got a fractured skull and suffered brain damage. Because of the brain injury, he had no clear idea of what happened.

The passengers in the SUV proved to be the best witnesses. As John’s car drove west on Grand Avenue, an SUV pulled out of a side street and in to their path. John put on the brakes, but there was new snow on the street, and he could not stop in time. Both cars were going slowly and nobody was hurt. Immediately after the crash, two plain-clothes officers came up to the cars. Apparently, one of the officers did not like John’s attitude. Even though the driver of the SUV was ticketed for failure to yield, John was pulled from his car and his head was slammed up against the roof. The plain-clothes officers handcuffed John, then passed him off to a couple of uniformed officers who had him taken to the station.

He had his valid drivers-license in his possession. Subsequent blood-alcohol test showed John had not been drinking. The uniforms denied that any plain-clothes officers had been involved. They reported that they were on routine patrol and came up to the scene of an accident. They said John was standing by his car, and they asked him to be seated in the back of the squad. Shortly thereafter, a squadrol came by, and John allegedly walked in to it on his own. . When asked why they took John in, the uniformed officers reported that they wanted to "investigate the collision in an impartial manner".

Routine procedure requires that the desk sergeant approve the charges against anyone placed in a jail cell. However, John was not charged with any offense. The desk sergeant was never told that John had been placed in a cell. Although all prisoners must be screened for any medical problems before being jailed to make sure they are not ill, John was not screened. He was placed in a jail cell, and the jailers said he looked like he was sleeping.

At trial, John’s lawyers called 9 witnesses to the stand who saw John arrested by two plain-clothes officers. The City continued to deny that any plain-clothes officers were involved. The owner of a restaurant and tavern at the intersection came out when he heard the collision. He recalled that a plain-clothes officer’s squad car was parked at the corner. He also saw two plain-clothes officers take custody of John. At trial, one of the SUV passenger testified that one of the plain-clothes officers came up to her car and referred to the people in John’s car as "f***ing drunks".

Because of John’s grandfather’s complaints, the police office of professional standards investigated the incident. Of the nine citizen witnesses at the scene, the OPS investigator only spoke to one of the SUV passengers. She told him that there were no uniformed policemen involved in the arrest, and that John had been taken into custody by plain-clothes officers. His official report of this interview stated that, according to the

SUV passenger, John was arrested by uniformed policemen, and no plain-clothes officers were at the scene. OPS found that no improper conduct occurred.

One of the key discoveries in the case concerned the assignment of the squadrol. At his deposition, the squadrol driver stated that he was dispatched to meet a plain-clothes unit with a prisoner at the other end of Grand Avenue. He went to the assigned location, and could not find anyone there. He checked with dispatch, and they then sent them to the intersection where John had just been in an accident. When they got there, he saw the two uniformed officers dealing with the traffic accident. The squadrol driver asked the uniforms if they had seen a couple of plain-clothes officers with a prisoner. The uniforms said "no", and the squadrol pulled away. A few minutes later, he got another dispatch, telling him to return to the accident scene and pick up a prisoner being held by the uniformed officers. He did as ordered, and took John back to the station.

John’s lawyers wanted to find the plain-clothes officers that the City was trying so hard to keep hidden. They obtained aa list of every officer assigned to the Grand and Central police district. They then began the search for the names of the officers who first requested the squadrol. Whenever a Chicago Police vehicle is dispatched, the dispatcher fills out a form known as a "dispatch card". The dispatch card lists important information, including the unit number of the requesting officers. John’s lawyers demanded that the City produce the dispatch card. The City claimed that the card was inadvertently destroyed when they converted their system to a computer.

At trial, the technician in charge of the records said that no one ever requested the record from him. He also said that the card was not destroyed until two years after John’s lawyers made a request for it. Finally, he said that his computer records would still be able to identify the unit number for the plain-clothes officers who requested the squadrol. However, no one from the City ever asked him to identify the plain-clothes unit. Because of the City’s dishonesty regarding the dispatch card, the judge read the following statement to the jury: "You may presume that the City failed to produce the dispatch card because the evidence would have been unfavorable to the City".

So what really happened to John? We know that for some reason, the uniformed officers did not want the plain-clothes officers to bring John in to the station. One possible explanation: The plain-clothes officers had been drinking and were leaving the tavern when they saw the accident. They went over to John’s car and told him to get out. Apparently, either John didn’t move fast enough or didn’t show the officer enough respect, and the officer pulled John out and whacked his head against the roof of his car. The uniformed officers came by, and saw that the plain-clothes cops were in no shape to take John anywhere. The uniforms took John, and the plain-clothes cops disappeared.

Thereafter, the uniforms stuck to their story that there were no plain-clothes cops. They knew that there was something wrong with John, but they expected that he would recover. As time passed and John was still out of it, the uniforms didn’t want to be stuck holding the injured person. Further, they had no idea why John was in custody. They passed John off to the squadrol they saw cruising by earlier. John was arrested, but was not charged with any crime. The squadrol driver had an injured prisoner who had no charges placed against him. They couldn’t process a prisoner without charges, so they just placed him in a cell and then left. The lockup keeper knew that something was wrong, but his shift ended and he too went home. His replacement saw a sleeping prisoner, and could find no records of his name or of the charges placed against him. When he tried to wake John up, he found that he was unconscious. The jail didn’t even have John’s name. He was transported to the hospital as a "John Doe". An emergency operation stopped the bleeding in John’s brain, but the damage was done.

John’s lawyers at Stotis & Baird Chartered made all of the difference. After several years of relentless digging, they were able to expose the police cover-up, and bring John the compensation he deserved. John’s first lawyer told the family that there was nothing that could be done against the City, because they could not learn of the names of the plain-clothes officers. More accurately, there was nothing the first lawyer could do. There was plenty that could be done. By the right lawyers.