Chicago Will Pay $22.5 Million To Woman Who Sustained Permanent Brain Damage From Alleged Police Negligence

Chicago, IL – The lawsuit began in June 2006, initially seeking $100 million in damages for pain and suffering and unending medical bills. It alleged in May, then 21-year-old Christina Eilman, was abducted, sexually assaulted, and then fell from a seven-story apartment window. The high-rise fall paralyzed Christina from the waist down, and she has since not regained full consciousness due to the brain damage she suffered. All of this transpired a block from the police station where she’d been previously detained on a misdemeanor arrest.

The former UCLA student was taken into police custody at Midway Airport after suffering a manic episode on her flight from California. Christina’s family alleges the police failed to take proper precautions and care. They claim the police were aware of Christina’s bipolar state and ignored the family’s multiple requests not to release her but take her to a mental hospital for a psychiatric examination. Her parents were in northern California making calls to the police department at the time.

Instead Christina was release (29 hours post arrest) in a dense crime area without her cellphone, gang raped at knife-point, and subsequently plummeted from a seventh floor window. Authorities can’t say for certain if she fell or was pushed. A gang member, Marvin Powell, was later convicted of abducting Christina, reports the Chicago Tribune.

Witnesses and authorities admitted during deposition that Christina was visibly agitated at the time of her arrest and should have been retained for a psychiatric evaluation in lieu of being released in the city’s South Side.

Christina, now 27, requires around the clock medical attention for her irrecoverable condition.

The $22.5 million settlement is the largest in Chicago history, according to the Daily Mail.

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