Story by 89 WLS reporter Bill Cameron
At City Hall, the aldermen recommended the payment of about $33 million to settle two lawsuits charging police misconduct, but there was a racial uproar over the case of Christina Eilman.

The infamous case went racial when Alderman Ed Burke read into the record the appellate court opinion of Chicago police releasing a mentally ill person into a high crime area where she was subsequently raped and sustained massive brain damage after falling out of a 7th floor window of the Robert Taylor Homes, "They might as well have released her into lion's den of Brookfield Zoo."

South Side Alderman Pat Dowell was offended, "Comparing a community to animals is inappropriate."

And Hyde Park Alderman Leslie Hairston said, "We know we are talking about African-American people. I just think that that kind of commentary is extremely racially insensitive."
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CHICAGO (AP) - A Chicago City Council committee has approved settling a pair of lawsuits against police for more than $32 million.

City attorneys say one of the sums, $10.25 million, would be the largest settlement so far involving former police Lt. John Burge. That money would go to Alton Logan, who spent 26 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit. The rest of the money, $22.5 million, would go to a California woman. Police arrested Christina Eilman in 2006 and held her overnight before releasing her into a high-crime area of Chicago. Eilman was abducted, sexually assaulted and fell from a public housing building, which left her severely injured.

The committee approved the sums on Tuesday. The full Chicago City Council will consider them on Thursday.

Copyright © 2013 Associated Press