The Oak Lawn Village Board voted Tuesday to settle two lawsuits, one involving the July 2022 violent arrest of a then 17-year-old Bridgeview teen that led to criminal charges against a village police officer.
The village agreed to pay $825,000 to the teen who was allegedly struck more than 10 times in the face and head as he was lying face down in the street during his arrest, captured on video.
Officer Patrick O’Donnell was indicted in February 2023 and pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated battery and official misconduct during the arrest.
The charges were dropped in December 2024, after Eileen O’Neill Burke took over as Cook County state’s attorney, leading to protests from members of the Arab American community.
A separate federal lawsuit against Oak Lawn police was put on pause while O’Donnell’s criminal case proceeded but aimed to hold him, Officers Mark Hollingsworth and Brandon Collins, and the village accountable for claims of excessive force and failure to intervene along with state law claims of battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and willful and wanton conduct.
The Village Board voted 6-0 to approve the $825,000 settlement due to pressure from its insurance carrier, “not because of the merits of the case,” the village said in a news release Tuesday. The village will pay $250,000 out-of-pocket, with the insurance carrier covering the remainder, the village said.
“Although no member of the board wanted to settle, the reality is that we’re operating in a climate where certain elected officials are openly criticizing law enforcement and pursuing criminal charges against our officers,” Mayor Terry Vorderer said in the release. “We had to consider the broader consequences and act accordingly. This settlement puts the entire matter behind us and finds no fault in the actions of the police department.”
The village described the 2022 arrest of the teen as having resulted from a traffic stop “on a vehicle that was emanating a strong odor of burnt cannabis, had a cracked windshield and that was missing a front license plate,” according to the release.
Instead of following lawful orders, the village said, the teen fled the scene while concealing a loaded handgun, leading the officers involved to tackle him while he continued to resist arrest until he was subdued and the gun was recovered.
“This is what happens when people treat offenders like victims and police like perpetrators,” 6th District Trustee Ralph Soch said. “Unless we recognize the consequences of that approach and correct course, we will continue to see more situations like this.”
According to a statement on behalf of the attorneys from Romanucci and Blandin and Abdallah Law, representing the plaintiff, the settlement serves as “important accountability” for the Oak Lawn officers’ handling of the former teenager’s arrest.
“Three white officers using closed fist blows to the head to this Palestinian-American teenager was wholly unreasonable and should never have been used when other tactics were readily available,” the attorneys said. “This egregious behavior was unreasonable and over-the-top, and it is our hope that the Oak Lawn Police are more mindful going forward of their responsibility of reasonable conduct when engaging with all members of the community.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which filed the original lawsuit alongside Abdallah Law, said in a statement Monday the three officers who apprehended the teen “engaged in extreme and outrageous conduct” and the village created a false narrative to justify their actions.
“We are deeply concerned that a settlement may allow the officers and the village to evade meaningful accountability,” CAIR communications coordinator Jordan Esparza-Kelley said. “This is not just about justice … it is about preserving public trust and ensuring that taxpayer dollars are not used to shield law enforcement from consequences.”
Cook County prosecutors who brought the criminal case against O’Donnell said after pulling over the sedan with three juveniles he said smelled of burnt cannabis, O’Donnell searched the vehicle and asked a passenger who was sitting in the rear seat behind the driver to step out. The passenger ran off as he was being searched by the officer, prosecutors said.
O’Donnell chased him, ordering him to stop, while a second officer, Brandon Collins, arrived and took the teen to the ground, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors say O’Donnell began hitting the teen on the 9500 block of South McVicker Avenue in Oak Lawn, while Collins pulled at his arms. At one point, O’Donnell used his left hand to hold the teen by his head and hair as he “repeatedly” used his left hand to punch the youth in the face and head, prosecutors said.
A third officer, Mark Hollingsworth, arrived and “applied a pressure point” behind the teen’s ear while O’Donnell continued to punch him, prosecutors said.
O’Donnell punched the teen more than 10 times, prosecutors alleged.
Collins then applied a Taser to the teen’s back, and he was placed into handcuffs. A pistol was recovered from his bag, prosecutors said in court.
The teen was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn and treated for a broken nose, cuts and bruises and subdural bleeding.
Employee vehicle collision
The Village Board also approved the settlement of a second lawsuit alleging a village employee caused a vehicle collision in January 2022.
Damond Storey said he was driving a Ford SUV west on West 95th Street near its intersection with South Natoma Avenue when village employee Robert Odenbach, driving a commercial truck, attempted a U-turn across oncoming traffic at the intersection, according to the lawsuit.
Odenbach allegedly failed to yield the right of way when attempting the U-turn, leading to a collision with Storey’s SUV.
Storey allegedly “sustained serious and permanent injuries” as a result of the crash and his vehicle was heavily damaged.
The village agreed to pay, on behalf of itself and Odenbach, $52,500 to Storey in exchange for the lawsuit’s dismissal.
ostevens@chicagotribune.com
