CHICAGO (March 18, 2026) – On Wednesday, March 18, 2026, the Chicago City Council approved a proposed $27 million settlement for the family of a beloved mother of six who was killed in a tragic 2017 collision resulting from an unauthorized Chicago Police pursuit through a South Side residential neighborhood.
The case involves the wrongful death of 47-year-old Stacy Vaughn-Harrell, who was killed on June 24, 2017, when Chicago Police officers violated their training and CPD general orders by pursuing a vehicle in an unmarked SUV – without activating their siren to warn others of the oncoming danger. The officers initiated the chase despite having no articulatable basis to believe the vehicle’s occupants had committed a crime. During the pursuit, the officers reached speeds of at least 56 mph as the fleeing car ran through four stop signs in a residential neighborhood. The pursuit ended when the fleeing Kia sped through a stop sign at an intersection and slammed into Stacy’s vehicle. Her daughter, Kimberlyn Myers, a passenger, suffered serious and permanent injuries.
Video evidence from the scene shows Kimberlyn crawling over the body of her dying mother to extricate herself from the car, as officers callously stood by and tried to deny their involvement in the pursuit over police radios. Stacy was pronounced dead, and Kimberlyn suffered a fractured clavicle and lacerated liver. Despite the presence of multiple officers on the scene, the driver of the fleeing vehicle escaped on foot and has never been apprehended to this day.
“My mom was a law-abiding citizen. She would have done anything for anyone. She left behind six kids and a husband who feel the pain of her loss every day. We didn’t just lose her that day, we all lost a part of ourselves on June 24, 2017. There have been so many moments over the past eight years we wish she could have shared with us. I went through two pregnancies without having my mom there; and she would have been there if that traffic stop had been conducted differently,” Kimberlyn Myers said of her mother.
A wrongful death lawsuit was originally filed by a different law firm in 2018, claiming Defendants engaged in willful and wanton conduct in their traffic stop and subsequent vehicle pursuit. The case proceeded to trial in May of 2023 with limited evidence and no expert medical testimony presented. Additionally, the jury only heard from one of Stacy’s six children. The trial resulted in a $10,153,000 jury verdict. Following trial, the trial judge granted the City’s motion for a new trial, citing issues during motions in limine and closing arguments. The appellate court affirmed the trial judge’s decision, at which time the previous firm was replaced with the Chicago law firm Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard. New information and evidence came to light through Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard’s investigation that resulted in a $27 million settlement as the parties were about to begin the second trial, where attorneys planned to call all six of Stacy’s children, as well as her husband, to testify.
“There are no winners here. A precious life was lost. When our firm took over representation of the Harrell family following appeal, our singular focus was directing every resource at our disposal to the task of reinvestigating this tragedy in painstaking detail,” Lance D. Northcutt of the Illinois law firm Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard said following the City Council’s approval of the settlement. “The information we discovered ultimately changed the case dramatically.”
The $27 million settlement was unanimously approved by the City’s Finance Committee after a short discussion on Friday, March 13, 2026, and the full City Council voted to approve the settlement during their weekly meeting on Wednesday, March 18. $7 million of the settlement will be paid by the city’s insurer.
The Harrell family is represented by Lance D. Northcutt, Eirene N. Salvi, Tara R. Devine, Aaron D. Boeder, and Jaclyn J. Kurth of Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard, P.C.
For more information, please contact Marcie Mangan at (312) 372-1227 or mmangan@salvilaw.com.
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