The first settlement agreement between the city and an alleged victim of ex-Chicago police Sgt. Ronald Watts puts Watts’ accuser in line for half a million dollars, records released Thursday show.
Alvin Waddy’s lawsuit was the first to reach resolution out of more than 150 that have been filed against the city related to Watts and his team. It remains to be seen how the agreed payout affects the rest of the cases, but given the sheer volume of lawsuits, the Watts scandal could become one of the most expensive in Chicago police history.
Waddy alleged in his lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court in 2019 that Watts and his crew of tactical officers pinned a phony drug case on him in 2007 at a building in the now-demolished Ida B. Wells housing complex on the South Side.
After years of legal wrangling, Waddy and the city reached a settlement agreement in July, on the eve of trial. The payout still must be approved by the city’s Finance Committee, which is scheduled to meet Monday, and then by the full City Council.
Apart from the potential payout, Waddy’s lawsuit has already cost the city more than $1.2 million in payments to the outside lawyers tasked with defending the city, according to records obtained by the Tribune through an open records request.
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 were accused of orchestrating a reign of terror at Ida B. Wells, 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 there are some 175 pending lawsuits against Watts.
While Waddy’s lawsuit was filed in Cook County court, the swath of other cases against Watts are pending in federal court, where they have been consolidated for their early stages since many of the facts and allegations overlap. The first trial is scheduled for January.
The first lawsuits against Watts came in 2016 amid the fallout of the shooting death of Black teen Laquan McDonald by white Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke.
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 when Watts’ targets complained — to the Police Department or in court — that judges, prosecutors and internal affairs investigators all believed the testimony of Watts and other officers over their accusers, records show.
Watts has denied wrongdoing in every lawsuit. Last year, he told a conservative radio host in a lengthy 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.
Also up for a vote at Monday’s Finance Committee meeting is a payout in the case of Anthony Jakes, who alleged that Chicago detectives abused him into a false confession when he was just 15.
Jakes filed suit against the city in 2019; trial had been scheduled for December of this year before the parties agreed to a settlement of $11.6 million.
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com