Attorneys have proposed a $7.5 million payout to settle the first of more than 150 federal lawsuits alleging phony arrests by corrupt ex-Chicago police Sgt. Ronald Watts and his team, records show.
Ben Baker sued Watts and the city in 2016, alleging the longtime tactical sergeant in charge of the Ida B. Wells housing complex pinned bogus drug cases on him — and in one instance, his partner, Clarissa Glenn — in retaliation for refusing to pay Watts a $1,000 bribe. Baker spent about 10 years in prison before his conviction was thrown out.
Attorneys for Baker and Glenn reached a deal with the city in October, though the proposed settlement amount was not revealed until Thursday, when the agenda for next week’s City Council Finance Committee meeting was made public. If the Finance Committee passes the settlement, the full City Council will vote on whether to approve it at its next meeting on Wednesday.
Kristen Cabanban, a spokesperson for the city’s Law Department, declined to comment Thursday, saying city attorneys will testify before the committee on Monday about the reason’s behind the settlement offer and take questions from aldermen.
Lawyers for Baker and Glenn also could not immediately be reached.
There are roughly 175 other Watts-related cases yet to be resolved in federal court. Three have been scheduled for trial, though it is possible the Baker settlement is a signal that the other cases might also be settled – and the proposed multimillion-dollar Baker payout could be a sign of how much the other plaintiffs might get.
The Tribune was the first to report on Baker’s accusations, which came nearly nine years ago in the wake of the Laquan McDonald shooting scandal and led to a series of mass exonerations in Cook County and one of the biggest and costliest police scandals in Chicago history.
Last summer, a lawsuit filed by Alvin Waddy in Cook County Circuit Court became the first to reach a settlement agreement. The City Council ultimately approved a $500,000 payout for Waddy.
The Watts lawsuits have the potential to be staggeringly expensive for the city. Aside from whatever payments are made to the plaintiffs through settlements or jury awards, the costs to taxpayers are already piling up into the millions because the city is using several outside law firms to handle the litigation.
Watts was arrested in 2012 along with another member of his team, Officer Kallatt Mohammed, for shaking down a drug courier who turned out to be an FBI informant. Watts received 22 months in prison and was released in 2015.
In the years since, Watts and his tactical officers have been accused of orchestrating a reign of terror at the Ida B. Wells housing project, systematically forcing residents and drug dealers alike to pay a “protection” tax and putting bogus cases on those who refused.
More than 200 Watts-related convictions have since been thrown out, and the amount of federal civil lawsuits filed against Watts and the city has snowballed since Baker and Glenn filed their case in 2016.
The plaintiffs are almost all Black men who lived in the Ida B. Wells complex and were familiar with Watts and his crew. In case after case, the lawsuits allege that when Watts’ targets complained to the Police Department or in court, judges, prosecutors and internal affairs investigators all chose to believe the testimony of Watts and other officers over their accusers, records show.
The cases also highlighted a broken system of police discipline that allegedly protected corrupt officers and punished those who tried to expose the corruption. Despite mounting allegations, Watts continued to operate for years amid a lengthy police internal affairs probe as well as investigations by the state’s attorney’s office and the FBI, according to court records.
In fact, two Chicago police officers who alleged they were blackballed for trying to expose Watts’ corruption years ago won a $2 million settlement in their whistleblower lawsuit.
Watts has denied wrongdoing in every lawsuit. He moved to Las Vegas after his release from federal prison and has kept a low profile. Records show he currently lives in Arizona.
Watts told a conservative radio host during a lengthy 2023 interview that he spent his career disrupting violent drug dealers and is now the victim of a smear campaign by ex-criminals and lawyers trying to cash in.
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
