Elmhurst Settles With Arrestee

ELMHURST, IL — The Elmhurst City Council unanimously approved a settlement Monday with a Westchester man who sued the city over a 2017 arrest outside his brother's house in Elmhurst. Thaddeus Brooks, 58, was charged with drunken driving and drug possession after police said they found him "unconscious" in a church van.

Although the council approved the agreement, the city is keeping secret the settlement amount for the time being. "In regards to your request, we do not have a fully executed agreement at this time. You will have to submit a (Freedom of Information Act) request and once the agreement is fully executed, it will be available to release," city spokeswoman Kassondra Schref said in an email.

Brooks is the brother of Darius Brooks, pastor of Westchester's Grace Central Church and a well-known gospel musician who has earned an entry in Wikipedia. In early 2018, Thaddeus Brooks filed a federal lawsuit claiming his rights were violated. He was in jail for more than three months. A state court later said police lacked probable cause in the case.

The incident in question happened during the early morning hours of March 5, 2017, in the driveway at Darius Brooks' house in the 400 block of South Hampshire Avenue. The defendants in the lawsuit were the city and officers Zachary Carney and Jacob Beltran.

Police said they saw the van's driver's side door open. The car was running and the keys were in the ignition, police said. Brooks was described as unconscious and holding a lit cigarette in his hand. Officers said they clearly saw a bag containing pills in the console.

According to the lawsuit, Brooks woke up when the police knocked on the van's front windows and directed their flashlight in the van. He told the officers he was at his brother's house and that he was tired from a long day, the lawsuit said.

The police said Brooks walked with extreme difficulty, but the lawsuit countered he was having mobility issues because of surgery.

Both sides indicated Brooks complied with the officers' requests, although he did not allow a search of the van because he said it was his brother's.

The lawsuit said the officers persisted in interrogating and detaining Brooks, even though he was on private property. It said the police had received no reports of criminal activity in the area before their dealings with Brooks, a fact the city acknowledged. The police, however, said they were performing their "community caretaker" role, then became aware of possible crimes.

The officers asked Brooks if he had been drinking, and he said he did not drink. He submitted to a breath test, which indicated he had no alcohol in his system. But the police said Brooks' pupils appeared to be constricted and pinpoint in size. And they said Brooks failed a test in which he was supposed to follow the movements of an officer's pen. The police also said he failed other field sobriety tests, failing to put one foot in front of the other and losing his balance when standing on one leg.

Police arrested him, saying he was under the influence of drugs while the key was in the ignition and the car was running. After that, they searched his van and later found the pills to be positive for heroin. Brooks was in jail from March 5, 2017, to June 13, 2017.

A couple weeks after Brooks' release, the state dismissed the charges. This followed a trial court's determination that police lacked probable cause.

Last October, a federal judge dismissed Brooks' lawsuit, saying no reasonable jury could find for him because video contradicts his account. Brooks then filed an appeal.

Attorneys for the two sides did not return calls for comment. Brooks is represented by Melvin Brooks of the Chicago branch of The Cochran Firm. Brooks is not related to his client. The city was represented by Andrew Acker of the Rosemont-based Storino, Ramello & Durkin, which is the city's usual law firm.

At the time of the 2017 incident, Brooks was a maintenance supervisor for the Broadview Park District, the lawsuit said.