Dolton board urges residents to attend meetings as plaintiffs seek enforcement of $33 million judgment

An unnamed member of the Dolton village board urged residents to attend a Tuesday board meeting and to join village representatives at a Thursday court hearing after plaintiffs obtained a $33,000,000 judgment against the village.

The speaker said the plaintiffs are seeking enforcement of a judgment bond that, if imposed, "would immediately go to higher property taxes," and urged community members to attend the meeting at Village Hall where the village attorney will outline possible responses and the board's direction.

The speaker described the legal background: the underlying incident dates to a 2016 car chase in which, according to the speaker, an officer stopped a vehicle on Sibley, the vehicle fled, turned onto Greenwood and struck a pole, resulting in one death and one person permanently injured. The speaker said dash-cam footage was not retained and that the court relied on that gap in evidence when ruling for the plaintiffs.

According to the speaker, plaintiffs initially sought an $8,000,000 settlement; the village said it authorized the insurer to settle, the insurer refused and the case went to judgment for $33,000,000. The speaker said the village's insurance limits were $10,000,000 and that the village is pursuing a "bad faith" lawsuit against the insurer to require it to pay the remainder of the judgment.

The speaker called on residents to "come out this Tuesday to our board meeting" for a "special presentation" by the village lawyer and said the board plans to "show up in numbers at the courtroom on Thursday." The transcript lists the board meeting time as "06:30"; AM/PM is not specified in the record.

No vote or formal motion was recorded in the transcript. The board member characterized the village's next steps as legal and public-engagement measures: presenting options at the board meeting, pursuing litigation against the insurer, and opposing a judgment bond in court.