Chicago to offer woman $2.9M over bungled police raid: report

Chicago is expected to pay a woman a $2.9 million settlement after her home was wrongfully raided by police in 2019, the Chicago Tribune reported. 

In February 2019, Anjanette Young was getting ready for bed when police raided her home after receiving a bad tip. Now, the City Council’s Finance Committee is scheduled to discuss a settlement in her case Monday before the full council considers it later this week.

At the time of the incident, officers forced Young to stand handcuffed and naked while they searched her home. The search later became national news in December 2020 after Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) tried to prohibit CBS-2, a local news station, from broadcasting video footage from the raid, the Tribune added.

At first, city lawyers sought sanctions against Young for providing video of the raid to the press. But later, they said they only wanted such sanctions against her lawyer. However, that request was later dropped completely, the newspaper noted. 

The mayor initially said she “had no knowledge” of the raid or refusal to provide the video footage. But Lightfoot later acknowledged that she received emails about the situation, though she said she had no recollection of the messages.

Former Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Susan Lee wrote an email to Lightfoot on Nov. 11, 2019, saying “Please see below for a pretty bad wrongful raid coming out tomorrow.” Lee then provided a summary of the raid that said Young was handcuffed by police, and officers “allegedly left her standing for 40 minutes handcuffed and naked while all-male police officers search her apartment,” according to the Tribune. 

About 30 minutes later, Lightfoot replied saying, “I have a lot of questions about this one.” 

“Can we do a quick call about it? Is 10:00, ie 10 minutes from now possible?” she asked. 

Lightfoot has personally apologized to Young for the raid and said she would resolve her lawsuit against the city, though her officials have been criticized for downplaying elements of the incident, including how long Young was exposed. 

The Hill has reached out to the City of Chicago for comment.