CHICAGO (AP) - Chicago will appeal a verdict that instructs the city to pay $44.7 million to a severely injured man who jurors concluded was shot in the head by an off-duty police officer after the two had been drinking together.
City legal department spokesman Bill McCaffrey says in a statement emailed Friday that taxpayers shouldn’t be responsible for what he calls an off-duty officer’s “purely private actions.”
Thursday’s verdict for Michael LaPorta followed a federal civil trial. Jurors rejected Officer Patrick Kelly’s assertion that LaPorta grabbed Kelly’s service weapon and shot himself in a suicide attempt. The two were friends.
LaPorta uses a wheelchair and requires 24-hour care. LaPorta’s lawyers argued the city was responsible because its police department retained Kelly despite multiple allegations about his aggressive behavior before the 2010 shooting.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.