EVANSTON, IL — Lawyers for the city of Evanston and the former Northwestern University graduate student who was violently arrested in 2015 on suspicion of stealing his own car agreed on a tentative $1.25 million settlement last week, just before a jury was due to be selected. If approved next week by aldermen, the settlement will end a civil lawsuit filed more than two years ago accusing the city and four of its officers of wrongful arrest, battery, malicious prosecution and conspiracy to cover up an excessive and unwarranted use of force.
Lawrence Crosby, 28, was pursuing his doctorate in engineering at Northwestern at the time of his arrest on Oct. 10, 2015. He had been working on fixing the molding on his car around 7 p.m. when a woman mistook him for a car thief and called 911. When she began honking her horn at him, Crosby got into his car and drove away. The woman began following him and relaying his location to police, according to audio of the call.
“Somebody’s trying to break into a car…It looked like he was breaking into the car,” she told dispatchers. “I don’t know if I’m, like, racial profiling. Just like, I feel bad.”
Crosby, who had his own dashcam recording of the incident and had noticed the woman following him, was soon pulled over in the 1500 block of Ridge Road by about six officers. He stepped out of the car, raised his hands in the air and identified himself as the owner of the car. The dispatch audio shows the 911 caller had provided a license plate of the car, a 2012 Chevrolet, which was indeed registered to Crosby.
As Crosby steps out with his hands in the air, several officers begin yelling at him to get on the ground. Within about 10 seconds, they surround him and tackled him to the pavement. Officers can be seen striking Crosby repeatedly while on the ground. One reported he “utilized two knee strikes to Crosby’s lower back.” Police later described the beating as “empty-handed strikes to the heavy muscle region.”
Four officers were named in the suit in their individual capacity, Sean O’Brien, Brian Hicks, Anthony Correa and Ivan Reza. Sgt. Correa is seen in the video striking Crosby at least seven times, according to Crosby’s attorney, Tim Touhy.
“I’m cooperating,” Crosby said, before notifying police they ware on tape. He provides them with the registration information of the vehicle and asks why he is being handcuffed.
“My name is Lawrence A. Crosby. I’m a PhD student at Northwestern University in the department of material contract engineering. I purchased this vehicle January 23, 2015 from Libertyville Chevrolet. I have all the evidence,” he told police.
“I don’t know if I’m ever going to get over that in my lifetime,” Crosby said at a press conference Sunday. He said he still suffered from the affects of the stop, including post-traumatic stress and fear of police.
“At that moment in time I did not know whether I would make it to the end of the night, facing however many weapons pointed at me,” Crosby told reporters. He said he hoped to use his experience as an example for change.
“Change that leads to a society where what happened to me is less likely to happen again to anyone,” he said, according to the Daily Northwestern. “I have just completed a three-year journey to clear my name. But my journey is not finished. Today I am starting on the next leg of that journey.”
Crosby’s suit said several comments made by police at the scene showed they intended to manufacture a criminal prosecution against him.
“You’re going to be charged with disobedience of police because if you’re going to put us on trial, we’re going to put you on trial,” one says. The woman who initially called police spoke with officers on scene.
“I feel really, like, I didn’t mean to like racially profile,” she said. “It’s just like–”
“No, no, no, no” an officer says, interrupting her. “Ma’am, calm down. He got a different issue going on right now.” Officers assure her she did the right thing.
“If it is his car, will you let him know I say, ‘Sorry’?” she says.
Police are heard hatching a plan to charge Crosby with “whatever ordinance stuff we need to do with him,” according to the suit.
“After we confirmed that the vehicle belonged to Crosby, he was transported to the station and charged with disobedience to police and resisting arrest, both local ordinances” Reza wrote in his report.
In court filings, a lawyer for the officers argued the officers “acted in self-defense and were provoked by the actions of Crosby.” Lawyer William Oberts also argued that Crosby should be unable to receive any damages in the case because he “was guilty to comparative fault, negligence and/or willful and wanton conduct in excess of 50 percent which proximately caused his own injuries and/or his criminal prosecution.”
Oberts said a “reasonably competent police officer” in the same situation would not have found that there was insufficient probable cause to arrest Crosby or that they used excessive force.
“I didn’t shoot you, motherf—–, you should feel lucky for that,” one officer recalled telling Crosby, in a candid moment caught on the video.
Evanston City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz said in a statement the settlement must be approved by the City Council in open session.
“The settlement is a compromise of disputed claims and the parties have not admitted any liability or the validity of any defense in the litigation,” it said.
Bobkiewicz declined to answer questions about the incident or offer any further comment. However, nearly two years ago former Police Chief Richard Eddington told a community forum that the case would be settled, according to the Evanston Review. Bobkiewicz said at the time the city had attempted to contact Crosby’s attorneys regarding a settlement but had not heard back.
Evanston police referred all questions about the case, including whether the department changed any of its internal procedures or whether any officer was disciplined, to the city’s law department, which has not responded to a request for comment. But police in 2017 said the department no longer requires people it pulls over in such circumstances to lie prone on the ground.
The settlement accounts for the cost of repairing Crosby’s online reputation, which was estimated at around $1 million. Touhy said Evanston police contributed to harming his reputation by posting a video with a statement from Sgt. Dennis Leaks that suggests Crosby was resisting arrest, even though Judge Paul Pavlus found he was not guilty of that specific charge 10 months earlier.
Crosby recounted the impact of the incident in an opinion piece published by the Washington Post last June. He noted that Evanston considers itself a progressive and forward-thinking community and had even hired outside trainers to give lessons on racial sensitivity.
[T]his shouldn’t happen to anyone. I was minding my own business and driving my own car, my accuser was aware of her racial preconceptions, and the police should have known better. And still I ended up face down for a crime I didn’t commit, fearing for my life. Now I must face consequences that are not of my own making.
There’s an arrest on my record, even though a Cook County judge found me not guilty once he heard the evidence. There’s news coverage and the dash-cam video on the Internet, available for any future employer or colleague who might choose to question me or my motives. …
I’ve done everything in my power to defy the odds. Yet I feel as though I’m forever going to have to explain myself. As for the arresting officers, are they doing any explaining? Will they have to answer for the rest of their lives for their decision to wrestle me to the ground, pummel me and charge me with a crime?
A fellow student’s impulsive action and her hasty decision to call the police have put all of my hard work in jeopardy. The arrest, the charges and the trial — a scarlet letter to go with the dark brown skin that I will wear for the rest of my life.
After a delay, Crosby completed his PhD last June and is now working as an engineer in Arizona, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. He said he hopes to put the traumatic experience to use to “reverse the flow of the river of implicit bias that is running through this country.”
Read Full Complaint: Lawrence Crosby vs City of Evanston, Sean O’Brien, Brian Hicks, Anthony Correa and Ivan Reza