McCormack victims to get $ 4.5M settlements
Three victims of defrocked priest Daniel McCormack will get $ 4.5 million in settlements from the Archdiocese of Chicago.
John Q. Doe, who sued the Archdiocese in March 2016, alleged he was abused by McCormack on multiple occasions in 2004 and 2005, when he was an 11- year- old participating in a basketball program at St. Agatha’s Catholic Church and Our Lady of the Westside Catholic School, according to a statement from Doe’s attorneys, Mark A. Brown of Lane & Lane LLC.
The $ 1.75 million settlement was reached late last week, according to the attorneys.
Two brothers also agreed to a settlement of their suit, which alleged they were sexually assaulted in 2004 and 2005 when they were participants in an after- school program and summer camp at the parish called “S. A. F. E.”
The “John Doe” brothers received $ 1.55 million and $ 1.15 million in the settlement, reached before the case went to trial.
McCormack taught classes and coached the basketball team during his assignment at the West Side school. The lawsuit alleged the Archdiocese allowed McCormack to be ordained as a priest and placed in a church and school setting, despite having knowledge of prior sexual misconduct allegations.
McCormack was removed from the priesthood in November 2007 and pleaded guilty to abusing five children at St. Agatha’s. He was sentenced to five years in prison and has been held at a state- run mental health facility since his release from prison in 2009. McCormack is currently awaiting trial on whether he is a sexually violent person.
So far in 2017, the Archdiocese has settled with at least four other alleged McCormack victims for a total of $ 5.45 million. Another settled for $ 1.25 million in May 2015, and a third reached a $ 3.2 settlement in January 2014.
A spokeswoman for the Archdiocese did not immediately return a message seeking comment on the latest settlements Wednesday.
Jordan Owen
Ex- CPD dispatcher gets 3 years for jail- smuggle plot
A former Chicago Police dispatcher was doing more than just passing along information to officers; she was using private information to help her boyfriend in a scheme to smuggle contraband into Cook County Jail.
Stephanie Lewis, 43, of Chicago, was sentenced Wednesday, after earlier pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit extortion, according to the U. S. Attorney’s Office. A judge ordered her to serve 41 months in federal prison.
Lewis admitted using her position as a dispatch supervisor in the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications to access police databases to find personal information for a correctional officer at the jail, according to federal prosecutors.
The information was passed along to Prince Johnson, Lewis’ boyfriend, and an inmate being held at the jail, prosecutors said. They used it to threaten an officer with physical harm unless he continued to help smuggle contraband into the facility.
Lewis was one of five people convicted in the smuggling case.
Matthew Hendrickson
Man found dead at scene of HazMat in Hyde Park
A man was found dead at the scene of a hazardous materials situation in a Hyde Park neighborhood apartment building early Wednesday on the South Side.
Paramedics responded about 2: 30 a. m. to a report of a man unconscious and not breathing in a room in the three- story building in the 1200 block of East 53rd Street, Fire Media Affairs Chief Juan Hernandez said.
The 25- year- old, identified as Zackary D. Padove, was dead at the scene, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He lived on the same block.
About 4: 15 a. m., while police were investigating, they notified the fire department of a “funny smell” coming from inside the building, Hernandez said.
Fire officials upgraded the scene to a Level Two HazMat situation and at least six residents were evacuated, he said.
The scene was secured about 10 a. m. and there was no environmental danger, according to Fire Media Affairs.
Tom Schuba, Jordan Owen