Crime & Safety

Chicago Cop's Lawsuit 'Outrageous': Northwestern Attorney

Legal expert David Shapiro can't recall another case in which a police officer sued the estate of someone he killed.

EVANSTON, IL - A Northwestern legal expert has called the $10 million lawsuit filed by a Chicago police officer against the estate of a man he shot six times “outrageous.”

“It’s a pretty outrageous number,” said David M. Shapiro, attorney and assistant clinical professor of law at the Roderick MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern University. “That’s in addition to the outrageousness about the claim being made at all.”

Officer Robert Rialmo filed the lawsuit — a counterclaim to an original lawsuit filed by the families of Quintonio LeGrier, 19 and Bettie Jones, 55 (two people he shot and killed in December) — on Friday seeking $10 million from the LeGrier estate for emotional distress and physical and emotional trauma. In December, police were called to a West Side home because LeGrier, a Northern Illinois University student at home on winter break, was emotionally distressed and wielding a baseball bat.

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When he arrived, Rialmo shot LeGrier six times (four times in the back) and accidentally killed Jones, who he claims he did not see in a narrow hallway near LeGrier.

The families of the two people killed in the early morning incident filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the city and the officer, which is not uncommon in the situation. What is uncommon, according to Shapiro, is the counterclaim made by Rialmo.

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“I am not aware of any other case in which an officer has sued the estate of someone the officer killed,” said Shapiro. “I’m also not aware of a counterclaim ever being filed in these circumstances. There could be such cases, but I’ve never heard of one.”

Police accounts say LeGrier was two feet away from Rialmo when he was wielding the bat and the officer’s attorney has stated the bat came so close to Rialmo’s head the office could feel the breeze. But attorneys for LeGrier and Jones state the officer was some 20 feet away when the shots were fired and shell casings had been found on the front sidewalk outside of where the two were struck.

Joseph Brodsky, Rialmo’s lawyer, says his client feels “horrible” about the death of Jones, which was called an unintentional tragedy by the Chicago Police Department the day of the incident.

Brodsky has also said the shell casings bounced to the walkway.

According to Shapiro, those who are being sued are allowed to file a counterclaim that could include a monetary amount that could exceed that of which was in the original claim.

Both the lawsuit initiated by the families and the counterclaim made by Rialmo will be part of the same case and be heard by the same judge and jury, “if the counterclaim is going to be heard by a jury at all,” Shapiro said.

Shapiro, affiliated with Northwestern law school for three years and was previously a member of the ACLU’s National Prison Project, says he’s at a loss for “why anyone would pursue a claim like this.”

“The idea that an officer would demand money from a family for the trouble of killing their son says a lot about the culture of impunity in the Chicago Police Department,” he said.

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