"Scarface" - It's Not Just for Capones Anymore

By Karl Klockars in News on Mar 11, 2008 7:35PM

It's one of two things: Either it's so crazy it could never happen, or it's so batshit insane it's totally plausible. And as of today, it doesn't matter a lick, but it still costs nearly $200K in city (read: taxpayer) dollars. Since 2004, Lloyd Haywood has alleged that cops threatened him with a chainsaw, and downloaded porn to his computer, among other things. Monday, the city settled with him for $195,000.

It's being called the "Scarface" incident (despite the lack of "saying hello," as well as a leetle frenn) and of the three officers implicated in the harassment, not one of them has been disciplined. Finance Commission members doubted Haywood's story and called his claims "unsubstantiated and comprised one of the weakest cases in years." [S-T] Going further there were allegations that the officer "brought the running chain saw nearer to Mr. Haywood's neck, he gunned the motor and asked what body part he should cut off next," and the downloaded porn was to humiliate him in front of his daughter.

But all it took was a seven-page memo from Haywood's lawyer, Craig Futterman, to change their minds. Well, that and the fact that the attorney's fees added up to more than the settlement. Cha-ching. Keep in mind that Futterman, put out a report last November detailing the systemic abuses of the CPD. Are the two related, or is a hammer of a lawyer just treating everything like a nail? And what can all of us take away from this? Even the most outlandish-sounding charges can eventually net a paycheck from the city, we got to use the "rocket chainsaw" demotivator, and now we know how to explain how those photos got on our hard drive to HR.