EVANSTON, Ill. (AP) — A Chicago suburb has tentatively agreed to pay a former doctoral student $1.25 million to settle a lawsuit alleging police officers tackled him to the ground and arrested him for stealing a car that turned out to be his own, his attorney said.
Evanston City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz confirmed a settlement was reached with Lawrence Crosby, who was 25 and an engineering doctoral student at Northwestern University in 2015 when the incident occurred.
Bobkiewicz declined to provide the amount of the settlement pending final approval by the City Council next week.
Crosby’s attorney, Timothy Touhy, told the Chicago Tribune that the amount was $1.25 million.
The incident was one of several high-profile cases in the Chicago area in recent years involving violent, sometimes deadly encounters between police officers and black men. Last week, a judge sentenced a former Chicago police officer to nearly seven years in prison for the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald, whose death was seen on a graphic dashcam video.
Touhy said Crosby was trying to repair loose molding on his car when a woman called police to report a black man trying to steal a car.
When he drove off, the woman followed Crosby in her car as he drove from his apartment to Northwestern’s science building, giving police his location.
Crosby got out the car with his hands raised after being stopped by police but was tackled when he failed to immediately obey orders to get on the ground. Police later determined the car belonged to Crosby but charged him anyhow with disobeying officers and resisting arrest.
At the time of Crosby’s arrest, an Evanston Police Department spokesman said the use of force by police was justified as officers were responding to what they thought was an auto theft. The spokesman said officers delivered knee strikes and open-handed strikes.
A judge later threw out the charges, Touhy said.
The lawsuit asked the city of Evanston and the arresting police officers to pay at least $50,000 for compensatory and punitive damages and other relief.
“It’s his hope that as a result of this case, that all of us begin a discussion on implicit bias and begin to recognize it and begin to discuss it between yourselves and your friends,” said Steven Yonover, who represented Crosby in the case.
PHOTO: NBC Chicago screenshot
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29 thoughts on “Chicago Grad Student Arrested For ‘Stealing’ His Own Car Awarded $1.25M”
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i’ll be good much. My last month paycheck was for 11000 dollars… All i did was simple online work from comfort at home for 3-4 hours/day that I got from this agency I discovered over the internet and they paid me for it 95 bucks every hour…
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Next door of life
My last month paycheck was for 11000 dollars… All i did was simple online work from comfort at home for 3-4 hours/day that I got from this agency I discovered over the internet and they paid me for it 95 bucks every hour…
Try it yourself . See More
Like My last month paycheck was for 11000 dollars… All i did was simple online work from comfort at home for 3-4 hours/day that I got from this agency I discovered over the internet and they paid me for it 95 bucks every hour…
Try it yourself .See More
If you are reporting a crime involving a car, give the police the only the license plate number of the car. Do not report sex or race of anyone around a car. In a parking lot it is too hard to tell what is actually going on.
Am I the only one asking this question? Why, when it come to black/people of color force is the only answer. The white boy in Florida killed five people in the bank and SWAT didn’t shoot him down. A white couple walked out of a Walmart store with a 58 inch television in Central Illinois no questions ask; NOTHING!!!!!! Now the police are searching for them. What a JOKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But many of you on this forum…are supporting elected officials who are fighting tooth and nail to prevent the police, the feds, etc. from questioning or arresting illegal immigrants…yes, they are illegal…I was declared illegal and detained in Canada…it’s how the world and borders work….while nothing has changed for black male citizens…at a minimum, fight for yourselves…your tax dollars and citizenship obligate, by law, elected officials to function in your behalf….anything outside of that, like representation of foreign nationals is a violation of the law…think about what what and who you support…but folks are too death dumb and blind…I’m sure in the coming days we will read about the next case or murder in Chicago while drug and gun running Rahm declares the undocumented are safe and welcome in Chicago.
The woman called the police thinking a African-American was stealing the car. She then followed him to campus in the delusional mind-set of being a hero for the so-called “white-Christian European race cause”. The police came in “heat” to demonstrate their superiority over the “American way of life” and savagely, like former “Jim Crow” propagators issued out their idea of justice. All of these sequences of events clearly prove that America still has “institutionalized racism” ingrained in our way of life.In “truth” and in “science” there is no white-man, black-man, or brown-man. There is only the “hum-man”. Now if people actually thought this way this kind of @hit wouldn’t happen.
You are right, racism is alive today but of course you fail to mention that the black race is more racist and hateful than all other races combined! Am I wrong????? Every now and then there is a decent black man who gets unjustly treated but for the most part this is the norm for the black race
https://www.ksl.com/article/46475159/uhp-trooper-finds-stolen-guns-drugs-during-stop-that-sends-3-to-jail
It seems to usually be white women who perpetrate this abuse. Holding them accountable for nuisance reports may well stop such harassment. Too bad he didn’t get out of the car and whip the crap out of her for following him
Some dumb rascist white cow trying to be a hero to the cause of destroying black people. That young man is lucky to be alive and I wish the reward was 20 times that amount. The “itch” who made the call should have been fined also and her identity shown everywhere especially since she had the gall to follow him. And those cops should have been reprimanded for unnecessary use of force..jackasses.
It was a racist trifecta: biased white woman misinterprting what she saw; biased white cops assuming the worst; then, doubling down when presented evidence of the man’s innocence.
It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how we keep from going under…
Glad he made it out alive BUT it wasnt Enough money to compensate him for what he went through.
That arrest could have gone way south, angels camped around you young man. Now you’ll have no tuition worries and you won’t be struggling to repay student loans until you’re 40.
SO HAPPY HE JUST GOT A FEW KNOCKS AND BANGS AND CAN LAUGH ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK AND PAY OFF ALL HIS STUDENT LOANS. THE ANGELS WERE WATHCING OVER HIM.
Hallelujah
Mac Racist can you please comment on this article. No. Because all you know how to post is something racist about black women.
ppen to me I spent two weeks in the hospital I sued in Federal Court Case became Federal Law you can read about the case here in https://casetext.com/case/merritt-v-county-of-los-angeles
I read your case am so sorry this happened to you. I also love cars and own an expensive German make. This could happen to me. Glad you did well
Ms. Kravitz needs her ass kicked too. Nosy ho.
Lmbaoooo
So glad they didn’t kill you Mr. Crosby… They knew exactly what they were doing. Once we start shooting their asses back it’ll stop.
What ever happened to being stopped by a police officer and being asked: License and registration please…..
It’s called common sense. But when you’re low iq with the education level of 8th grade drop out you simply act on raw emotion and/or racism.
Good All You Do My last month paycheck was for 11000 dollars… All i did was simple online work from comfort at home for 3-4 hours/day that I got from this agency I discovered over the internet and they paid me for it 95 bucks every hour…
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Good, for all the Lawrence Crosbys who gets not justice I’m glad he won. It’s sad and terrifying to know there are people in position of power that are licensed and armed to carry weapons who possess this kind of blatantly stupidity. I’m sure this situation could have been avoided with the use of common sense questioning, professionalism, and plain old respect. How can you be dumb enough to arrest someone for stealing their own car? A young, educated black male with no criminal record being stereotyped through the criminal lens of racist cops. Cops who barley have a high school diploma. The educational bar is very low to become a police officer. He’s lucky to be alive to collect his check.
They need to charge that woman as well. This is getting out of hand, disgusting to say the least. She falsely accused this man of stealing his own car, because of her racist stereotypes. She is a POS as well.
The woman who made the bogus call should be locked up and throw away the key.
Blue racists just can’t admit when they are wrong. Eye witness testimony has proven for decades to be unreliable, but when it pertains to black people it is 100% used as “just cause.” Instead of saying, “Sir, we are so sorry.” Those fools still charged him with nonsense. This is what I mean by our corrupt system. We have thousands of black people that have these type of charges and are then convicted or plea. Happy he was compensated, but his life will never be the same.
Blue racist….LOL! You’re right Ted, never say sorry or I made a mistake the trumpian way.