CITY PAYS $ 1.5M IN DEATH OF GANG MEMBER

Justin Cook was being investigated as part of federal case against the Four Corner Hustlers when he died after asthma attack in CPD custody

The City of Chicago has paid $ 1.5 million to the family of a West Side street gang member who was under federal investigation as part of a major racketeering case at the time that he died of an asthma attack after being taken into police custody in a separate case.

Justin Cook, 29, a member of the Four Corner Hustlers, was on the radar of federal investigators as they sought to bring racketeering charges against the brutal West Side gang. He died in September 2014 after police picked him up after a traffic stop but allegedly refused to give him his inhaler while he was having an asthma attack.

Cook was one of three unindicted co- conspirators — all dead — named in a major racketeering indictment against the Four Corner Hustlers, records show.

The case that the feds eventual- ly brought involves a wide- ranging conspiracy that ties 11 members of the Four Corner Hustlers, including Labar “Bro Man” Spann, to six murders between 2000 and 2003, as well as a host of robberies, batteries and drug- related offenses. The case is to go to trial in 2019.

In another court matter, the mother of the late Juwan Williams alleged that Cook was behind her son’s May 2014 murder. No one has ever been charged in that slaying, and the lawsuit was eventually dropped.

Williams, 18, was fatally shot on May 19, 2014 in the 3900 block of West Polk — the same block in which Cook was arrested and suffered his asthma attack. Police said at the time that two people walked up to Williams and shot him in the head, chest and arm, before running away.

Williams’ mother, though, gave a different account, alleging Williams and Cook knew each other before the shooting, and Cook shot him.

Williams’ mother dropped her lawsuit in 2016. Neither she nor her attorney could be reached.

Cook’s family and their attorney also did not respond to requests for comment.

Cook had a history of run- ins with police. Court records show Cook was arrested for heroin possession in May 2003. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years of probation. He also faced gun charges but was never convicted.

Cook’s estate filed a federal lawsuit against the city and three Chicago Police officers in December 2014.

The attorney for Cook’s estate wrote to the city that two rookie police officers, Leonard Jagla and Timothy Whitmer, tried to pull over Cook after they saw him blow a stop sign at Arthington and Springfield on Sept. 20, 2014. They drove after him for a few blocks before he stopped near a basketball court at Polk at Lexington.

Cook — also known as “Big J” — and another person who was in the car ran off. Cook eventually surrendered in the gangway at the rear of 3937 W. Lexington, less than two blocks from the basketball courts and in a portion of the West Side controlled by the Four Corner Hustlers.

Jagla and Whitmer found $ 1,200 on Cook and requested a supervisor. Sgt. Jeff Truhlar arrived a few minutes later. Cook’s asthma attack began shortly after he was handcuffed.

The lawsuit alleged the officers deliberately ignored Cook’s pleas for his inhaler. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he died less than a day later.

Stephen Patton, then City Hall’s chief attorney, said at the time that the settlement was approved that six witnesses were prepared to testify that they heard Cook telling the officers he could not breathe, and that officers still denied to give him the medication he needed to stay alive.

One witness claimed to have seen one of the officers spray the inhaler into the air and say, “You should have thought about that before you ran.” Another claimed to have heard an officer joke about Cook’s desperate condition, saying, “Is this what you need? Well, you’re not going to get it.” Yet another witness claimed to have seen an officer spray the inhaler into the back of the squad car where Cook was seated.

The City Council Finance Committee, chaired by Ald. Ed Burke ( 14th), authorized the payment on April 13, 2016, records show. It’s unclear if Burke — who did not return messages seeking comment — was aware that Cook was under scrutiny by the feds.

Three months later, the Independent Police Review Authority found allegations of misconduct against the arresting officers were “not sustained,” according to Mia Sissac, spokeswoman for the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the agency that replaced IPRA last year.

Bill McCaffrey, a spokesman for the city’s Law Department, said of the settlement:

“The Law Department only proposes to settle lawsuits when it is in the best interest of taxpayers. In this case, the Law Department concluded that there was a significant chance that the defendants would have been found liable and the verdict amount would have exceeded the proposed settlement amount.”