City Ordered To Pay $22M To Former Death-Row Inmate For Wrongful Prosecution

By Stephen Gossett in News on Dec 15, 2016 9:45PM

In what appears to be one of the largest individual settlements against police misconduct on record, former death-row inmate Nathson Fields was awarded $22 million in damages on Thursday for wrongful prosecution, according to reports.

The jury on Thursday sided with Fields, who argued that not only did defendant officers, Sgt. David O'Callaghan and Lt. Joseph Murphy, violate his civil rights and due process but that their impropriety fell into a larger pattern within the department.

Fields, a onetime high-ranking member of the El Rukn gang, was cleared in 2009 for a 1984 double murder after it was discovered that the presiding judge had accepted a $10,000 bribe—which he reportedly handed back, fearing he was being surveilled. Fields then filed a lawsuit after a so-called secret file, which Fields argued contained key evidence, was found stashed in a police cabinet in 2011. Hundreds of similar documents from other homicide investigations were discovered as well.

Fields’ first lawsuit ended in a mistrial; and a second awarded him only $80,000 in damages. Thursday’s verdict was the result of a third trial, which was prompted by a recent motion from the US Attorney’s Office after one of Fields' fellow gang members plead down his sentence for racketeering in exchange for testimony against Fields.

In addition to the $22 million owed by the city, officers O'Callaghan and Murphy were held liable for an additional combined $40,000. Within the last 10 years, the City of Chicago has paid out more than $500 million in police settlements.