DOWNTOWN — The city should pay a man with cerebral palsy who was given a black eye by police searching a Calumet Heights home $225,000, city attorneys recommended Friday.
Robert Lee Simmons, 67, was eating lasagna in the basement kitchen of a home in the 2700 block of east 92nd Street on March 9, 2014, when two officers — dressed head-to-toe in black and wearing masks that revealed only their eyes — entered the home, according to court records.
The officers had a warrant to arrest a 45- to 50-year-old man with long black wavy hair they knew as Sunny who had sold an informant drugs from the home, according to court records.
Simmons, who has a speech disorder as well as cerebral palsy, had hair that he kept buzzed so short that he was almost bald, according to court records.
Simmons said the first officer who entered the residence tripped over a rug, causing his gun to fire, according to court records.
Simmons alleged the second officer to enter the home struck him twice with a closed fist after asking him what he was doing before forcing him to the ground, according to court records.
While Simmons was on the ground, a second shot was fired in the home, Simmons testified. An officer identified in court records as Officer Thomas Derouin, who remains on the force, was hit, according to city records.
Representatives of the Chicago Police Department said they had no information about Derouin's injury or whether anyone was charged or disciplined in connection with the shots fired during the incident.
Derouin is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, which names Chicago Police Sgt. John Piechocki as well as Officers Mark D'Amato, Marvin Otten and Timothy McFarlane.
Because the officers were masked, Simmons could not identify which officer punched him, according to court records.
After being handcuffed, Simmons was forcibly removed from the house by officers because his disability made it difficult to comply quickly with orders from the officers, according to court records.
Before he was placed in a police vehicle, Simmons hurt his knee and defecated on himself. In addition, Simmons suffered a head injury when he was thrown into a police van, according to court records.
When Simmons was photographed at the Calumet Police District Headquarters, his right eye had been blackened, according to court records.
After being held for 14 hours, Simmons was released without charges, according to court records. After his release, he sought medical treatment.
His lawsuit claims he was illegally arrested, improperly detained and the victim of excessive force.
Bill McCaffrey, a spokesman for the city's Law Department, said he could not comment on the proposed settlement before Tuesday's meeting at City Hall.
The full Council could approve the settlement Wednesday.
