Elmhurst Settles 'Case We Already Won': Mayor

ELMHURST, IL – Elmhurst fought a woman's lawsuit against the police department to the point where a jury found for the city, the mayor said Monday.

But the woman, Amanda Reid, appealed the verdict. Her lawyers made a demand of "nominal nuisance value," so the city settled the litigation, Mayor Scott Levin said.

On Monday, the City Council unanimously voted for the settlement, which was filed in October 2021 in Cook County Circuit Court. No one revealed the amount of the settlement.

No one commented on the issue before the vote, but Levin spoke about it later. He referred to a Patch story about the coming vote on the settlement.

"The press on this one is a little bit misleading," the mayor said. "We defended the lawsuit to the point with some very large settlement demands. The council stood behind our police department."

Despite the favorable verdict, Reid appealed.

"It got to the point where the amount of the demand was what I would call nominal nuisance value," Levin said. "It would be far less than the cost to proceed before the Court of Appeals and once again, win. I say that so people understand that when we're right and we know we're right, we will defend, and we did."

He concluded, "We are settling, but we are settling a case that we already won."

According to the city's resolution on the settlement, the lawsuit arose from a background investigation for a city police officer's position.

Other defendants in the lawsuit were the Burbank Police Department, the Grundy County 911 Center and Bud Hicks, who has been the center's director.

Reid has been represented by the Chicago-based Disparti Law Group, headed by Larry Disparti, whose slogan is "Larry Wins." The law firm did not return a message for comment Friday.

Also on Friday, Patch filed a public records request for the settlement agreement, the lawsuit, and the city's response.

Patch emailed Levin on Tuesday morning, asking for the settlement amount and the amounts of Reid's demands.