DEPARTMENT OF LAW
Privileged and Confidential Attorney-Client Work Product
TO:
FROM:
RE:
HONORABLE EDWARD M. BURKE Chairman. Committee on Finance
Mara S. Georges Corporation Counsel
Pamela Pleasance, as Special Administrator oflhe Estate of Michael Pleasance, Deceased v. City of Chicago and Alvin Weems 10 L 8453
DATE:
March 1,2011
The Law Department recommends $3 million to resolve this case involving the fatal shooting of plaintiff s 23-year-old son, Michael Pleasance. This settlement occurred on the eve of a second trial, with the jury in the first trial awarding $12.5 million in damages.
On March 8,2003, at approximately 6:30 a.m., defendant Officer Alvin Weems shot Michael Pleasance at point-blank range in the head at the Red Line CTA station located at 95lh and the Dan Ryan. The shooting was captured on security camera video tape. Pleasance died instantly.
The shooting occurred during an arrest of the decedent's friend, Patrick Anderson, after Weems broke up a brawl at the CTA station involving 4-5 individuals. Weems was a patrol officer assigned to the Mass Transit Unit at the time ofthe occurrence. When he broke up the fight, Weems was not in uniform and was not wearing his duty belt because he had just arrived to work 17 minutes late. According to witnesses, they did not realize he was a police officer, but believed he was a gun-wielding thug. If Weems had been outfitted with his duty belt, he would have had access to other less lethal methods of control, including handcuffs and pepper spray. In violation of CPD protocol, however, Weems had his gun (the one he carried off-duty) drawn at the time he broke up the fight and while he was trying to arrest Anderson. The videotape indicated that while Pleasance repeatedly approached Weems as he was arresting Anderson, he did not appear to be threatening Weems or interfering in the arrest. He was right next to Weems when Weems shot him at point blank range below the right ear, a shooting that the medical examiner d...
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