A Chicago police detective was awarded $200,000 Thursday by a federal jury after he sued his own department for false arrest and other civil rights violations, according to court records and his lawyer.
Vincent Humphrey, 48, was arrested in October 2009 after tactical officers approached him and others on a West Side street where Humphrey lives and asked if there was a gang meeting going on, according to testimony at the trial.
Humphrey testified that he identified himself as a police officer but did not produce his identification immediately because he thought his wallet was inside his home. Humphrey said he objected when officers wanted to go inside his home for his identification. When he closed his front door, officers handcuffed him, Humphrey said.
One of the officers testified that she could see Humphrey had a holster but thought he might be a police impersonator because he couldn't produce an ID. He was also combative, she said.
During a patdown, officers found his wallet and ID, which Humphrey said he had forgotten were in his pocket. A supervisor eventually ordered him brought to the Harrison District, the same building where Humphrey works. He was brought in in handcuffs. The jury determined that was a false arrest and ordered six officers to pay punitive damages of up to $15,000 each.
It was a difficult decision for Humphrey to sue the department, said his attorney, Thomas Crooks, but "a public vindication was important to him to clear his name."
During the trial, Humphrey testified about the emotional toll the arrest took on him, particularly to later bump into the same officers at his workplace.
"It just depresses me, and it just stresses me out," he told jurors. "... It doesn't make work a good place to be."
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
