Cook County Board Approves $1.5 Million Settlement in Jail Beating Case

Cook County Board Approves $1.5 Million Settlement in Jail Beating Case

Cook County Commissioners approved a $1.5 million settlement in a lawsuit brought against the county over a 2013 jail beating.  The lawsuit stemmed from a 2010 arrest in which a woman diagnosed with bipolar disorder returned to what had once been her family home in Wilmette.  The woman forgot her parents had sold the home, entered the house and drank a bottle of wine. The owners came home, called the police and she was arrested. 

The woman initially was deemed unfit to stand trial but in September 2013 was sent to Cook County Jail. There she was categorized as someone who should be housed in the psychiatric unit, but instead, she was switched to the general population. Another inmate, who had a history of violence and was off her bipolar medication, assaulted her because she was talking to herself.  The woman developed a brain bleed and was in a coma for a month.  Cook County Jail should not have placed a nonviolent psychiatric patient in the same cell with a bipolar violent offender who was off her medication.  Brad Schulman represented the woman.