$22.5 Million Proposed Settlement In Chicago Police Department Case

In 2006, a 21-year-old California woman, Christina Eilman, was picked up by Chicago Police for behaving erratically at Midway Airport. Eilman suffers from bipolar disorder.

Subsequently, Eilman, who is white, was released without wallet or cell phone into a predominantly black, gang-infested neighborhood where she was abducted, raped and thrown (or jumped) from a seventh floor window in a notorious public housing project. As a result of the fall, Eilman suffered permanent brain damage and other injuries that will require lifelong care.

Eilman's parents live in California, where she also lived at the time of the attack. They did not know why or how their daughter ended up in Chicago. Eilman's mother, as guardian for her disabled daughter, is suing the city and several individual officers involved.

The case is scheduled to go to trial next week. Tomorrow, the city council will consider a $22.5 million settlement proposed by the mayor's office. That's about $22 per Chicago household, not including the cost of six years of legal wrangling.

The details of the case are the stuff of nightmares for family members of the mentally ill.

After her arrest, Eilman's parents were in touch with CPD who were informed of Eilman's serious mental health problems. Initially the parents felt somewhat reassured that the police understood the situation and that they would see that Eilman would receive proper medical attention.

A superior instructed officers to transport Eilman to a hospital, but that did not happen. Officers claimed that no car was available to transport her, yet she was transported to lock-up at another police station several miles away. During the time Eilman was held at the first police station, other arrestees were transported to a hospital for medical treatment.

Inmates at the second police station testified that Eilman screamed and begged to be taken to a hospital, throwing herself against the cell bars for hours and smearing menstrual blood on the walls. Several alarmed inmates also urged officers to help her. According to the other inmates, Eilman's pleas were met with dismissals and ridicule, including racist ridicule.

As of the last activity in court, cases against several officers as individuals were going forward. Given all of the known circumstances, it's hard not to consider the possibility that Eilman's release into the high crime neighborhood was a very deliberate and depraved retaliatory act.

Additional details.

Comments

[Noni Mausa]

I clicked through briefly, and was a bit surprised to see that 5 of the 6 defendants appear to be women, at least judging by their first names.

Now I have to ask myself why this would surprise me. There goes the rest of my (intellectual) day. Good thing I have housework that needs doing.

Noni

[T Carisse]

The details of the case are the stuff of nightmares for family members of the mentally ill.

Now a few police officers are having nightmares.

[Bill]

Sick bastards. How do they live with themselves?

[retriever]

Grrrr. Several relatives of mine have had terrible experiences at the hands of the police when ill, tho mercifully they didn't die as a result...

Notice from the picture how beautiful the woman is. Precious few female police officers are that attractive....it's just POSSIBLE female jealousy fed into their abominable treatment of this poor woman. Also, sadism.

People are often incredibly cruel to manic people and don't feel in the slightest guilty about it. It's like the way people used to go see the chained up "maniacs" at Bedlam for Sunday amusement.

ALso, police officers are used to intimidating people and controlling them and being obeyed. Manic people don't do what anyone tells them to reliably and it can be exasperating and unsettling for people used to being obeyed.

Having said all that, this story still makes me so angry and scared and sad. We are still a frighteningly backwards country when it comes to how we treat people with mental illness. And it isn't just the police. It's our coworkers, our neighbors, our kids' fellow students, TV shows, our President (that Special Olympics remark), everyone. It's okay for people to talk about head cases and joke about people having issues and to call people wack jobs, and to say "she needs to up her meds" etc.

Anyone with a mentally ill relative or who is ill themself lives in terror of falling afoul of the authorities when in public. Being socially phobic is actually adaptive for the mentally ill in as barbarous a society as ours.