Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
- A jury awarded a husband and wife $9.75 million in damages Thursday for a smear and terror campaign aimed at them after they accused a police officer of corruption while working as federal agents.
Jurors leaving the court scoffed at city officials' claim that they conducted an 18-month investigation of Miedzianowski but never interviewed Klipfel and Casali, and were unable to uncover evidence of corruption at the time.
The jury awarded Klipfel $7.75 million for violation of her rights by both Miedzianowski and the city. It awarded her $1 million for defamation of character by Miedzianowski while acting in his role as a city employee.
It also awarded Casali $1 million for Miedzianowski's violation of his rights while acting as a city employee.
Saltzberg said the city would have to pay the entire $9.75 million because Miedzianowski is believed to have no money. She said the couple's attorneys would ask the court to award them fees in the $1 million range.
- Jurors deliberated for almost two days before reaching the decision Thursday afternoon. They listened to testimony from current police Superintendent Phil Cline and from the former head of internal affairs Ray Risley.
The couple accused Risley and the department of covering up Miedzianowski's illegal activity. And jurors believed them.
"It gets down to, Were we dealing with a crooked Chicago police officer? And was the system protecting him? It sure seemed like it," said Joe Karl, juror.
Labels: scandals
posted by SCC at 12:03 AM
31 Comments:
Cline and Ray Risley looked pretty shameful on the stand in this case.
Especially Risley. He had alot of nerve, filing his "The City treated me bad" lawsuit a few years ago (which was thrown flat out on its ass!). My best guess is, Cline will leave soon. He and another high ranking gold badge were supervisors in the old Gang unit for Miedz and his thieving partner Galligan, along with a host of other goofs who were not as infamous as those two. If one could get close enough to look at the old gang files hanging around OCD....
scc makes good points in the original post, but, how many people who were on the dept. and connected with the case are still around? And, how many citizens and/or CPD members know much, if anything, about that case (I would think not much, if asked); so...the plaintiffs are happy, they got their money, those folks who are retired are already part of history; Cline, for whatever his part, will be retiring soon....the public has a very short memory, about anything.....
I've been saying it for years: IAD is just as legit as any other unit in this farce of a Department. I welcome a Consent Decree! Clean this toilet from the inside out, TOP to bottom!
Good to see how things work: they protect their own. So who are the current regime protecting? Pretty well known they are ignoring ADS MT's role in the SOS scandal while the blue shrts drop like flies.
Shame shame. 10 years from now, will I be paying extra taxes for the eventual lawsuits from that soon to be uncovered scandal?
At least cline, in his own cowardly way, tried to get rid of Miedzianowski. However, there is no excuse for Miedzianowski's partners, his supervisors, and most of all, Ray Risley. The central issue here is Miedzianowski's search warrant for the gang banger's safety deposit box at the bank. The official reason for the search warrant was, "to recover a gun used in a murder", the real reason was theft of money, plain and simple. This started the chain of events that culminated in the firing of the ATF Agents. While Risley and the "others" retired with their fat pensions, we the people, via our taxes, have to pay the price again.
9+ million? Middle class whites(fed agents mind u) are now in on the looting of this city. If they thought that Madgapolock was so corrupt, they should have gone to the FBI in the 1st place! So why cant Coppers sue the feds after being investigated?
Hope those 2 feds choke on their money!The broad, who obviously couldnt take the heat,can use some of the doe for some make-up.F*kn parasites!!!!!
COUGH UP THE CASH!!! When you cops screw up they should make YOU pay! Take your house and car! If you don't know the job, QUIT!! Go back to your mall job.
It is known that several people who are now big bosses, and were big bosses who are now retired covered for Miedzianowski. Some of the same people covered for Finnigan. Please Mr. Fitzgerald investigate this Department.
the settlement should come out of the coffers of the narco-terrorists the copper was working with! the clearly beneifitted from their relationship
Anonymous said...
COUGH UP THE CASH!!! When you cops screw up they should make YOU pay! Take your house and car! If you don't know the job, QUIT!! Go back to your mall job.
2/23/2007 07:18:00 AM
HHAHHAHAHHAHA
Take my house! I don't have one!!! Maybe if I sue the City I can finally buy a broken down ranch in Edison Park ...
Ray Risley is an evil man. This was not the only investigation he initiated to further his desire to become the Superintendent of Police and to punish individuals who stood in his way or to discredit them. He investigated people like John Townsend, Michael Malone, Michael Hoke and George Ruckrich claiming that they were creatures of organized crime. When he left the IAD and the CPD he took all of the files with him. He should be required to pay every penny of this judgement himself.
Everyone in Interal Affairs should be looking at 30 days pending for looking the other way during this investigation.
Plain and simple.
why were they fired from ATF?
F*kn parasites!!!!!
Geez Risley that testilying really made you angry huh?
Hey clown, Majigoof was as rotten as they come and was rewarded for years for his criminal activity. Keep letting criminals on the job, the lawsuits will keep coming. I hope they live a wonderful long life on the citys' dime.
The deserve it,GOOD FOR THEM!!
The bottom line is this administration refuses to address the corruption caused by connected thief's. costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars while those in power ignore wrong doing.Let me enlightening those who did not know Miedzianowsli I was a young officer in the dist when He came in to do a search warrant , He pulled what he always did, I went to the W/C, the W/C said be careful walk away leave it alone if not you will be the one they throw under the bus. For the officer that said Cline attempted to fire him thats a lie Cline gave him a rating card via 98 and stated he was his best officer? Responsibility is on this dept to do the right thing. I hope the agents enjoy every penny. You other officers needed to understand we work for a criminal interprise
IAD is an arm of the department. if you don't know that SHAME on you.
This city is like a huge lotto machine giving away millions upon millions as they don't have a law office that is compentant to present a case that they can win what a disgrace thanks to daley again! FITZGERALD FOR MAYOR! When oh when is daley going to be indicted?
You goof! they did go to the FBI> 15 years ago
To 2/23/2007 10:05:00 AM,
So you're saying that they were'nt? Well, even a blind hog can find an acorn once and a while...
they don't have a law office that is compentant to present a case that they can win
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As long as there are jury trials the city will lose no matter how good they defend it. The jury is picked from civilians whos opinion of the police come from watching the shield and what the biased news put out on the tv and the paper when some "poor misguided youth" gets blasted while commiting a crime or some jaggoff dirty cop gets busted. Get used to it because the public is not pro police and never will be.
I wonder how long it would be till they all came crying for our help if we all got tired of the BS and quit at the same time.
ever wonder why the specialized units are management picks only? wanna make a change with a little morale boost OPEN SOME OF THOSE SPOTS FOR BID.
to 7:43pm
Yea so what, that they eventually went to the G. They still dont deserve almost 10 million.
Ive been told by someone that's close to the "inner circle" that daley considers us non-connected patrolmen crap and he's using some of the money that he's stealing from the pension to pay off these lawsuits.
Keep up the good work out there,just forget about the pension,CHUMP!!
How about the way Kirby is protecting Teflon Tobias in all this SOS nonsense. I'm getting old, but my memory isn’t so bad that I’ll forget it was Tobias in charge during the vast percentage of the alleged offenses. As Mr. Rogers use to say "can anyone say culpability.”
I've heard (on good authority) from several ATF agents that the reason the female agent was fired/resigned before the pink slip was levied had nothing to do with the Miedzianowski case. I heard she made very racist views with regard to black agents known, complaints were filed, proof was evident she had some issues, and that she resigned before the agency could lower the boom. Interesting, how this never surfaced during the reporting of this trial.
Is it no wonder that Richie cuts our bebefits to pay for shit like this.
9+ million? Middle class whites(fed agents mind u) are now in on the looting of this city. If they thought that Madgapolock was so corrupt, they should have gone to the FBI in the 1st place! So why cant Coppers sue the feds after being investigated?
Hope those 2 feds choke on their money!The broad, who obviously couldnt take the heat,can use some of the doe for some make-up.F*kn parasites!!!!!
Big Deal! They deserve it for all the shit this Dept. put them through. Maybe if these bone-heads started firing these corrupt cops instead of covering for them, they wouldn't have to pay out. I hope they buy an island & enjoy life compliments of our crooked Department.
3 million to the lawyers for the ATF agents hurt by the city-love those fees and costs!!!!!!!
lets see we get a day for almost anything these bosses cost the city and us multi-millions what is their penalty? nothing as usual!
Two doofus paracites.
Ray Risley is an evil man. This was not the only investigation he initiated to further his desire to become the Superintendent of Police and to punish individuals who stood in his way or to discredit them. He investigated people like John Townsend, Michael Malone, Michael Hoke and George Ruckrich claiming that they were creatures of organized crime. When he left the IAD and the CPD he took all of the files with him. He should be required to pay every penny of this judgement himself.
2/23/2007 10:05:00 AM
You sir are a complete moron. You are probably one of the shitbag criminals being investigated by Ray Risley.
Keep up the good work out there,just forget about the pension,CHUMP!!
You are a bitter non-cop. The pension is protected by the US Congress if need be.
You are a bitter non-cop. The pension is protected by the US Congress if need be.
2/26/2007 03:22:00 AM
???
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