Da’Karia Spicer

A Cook County jury has awarded a $79.8 million verdict to the family of a 10-year-old girl who died following a 2020 Chicago police pursuit accident.

The accident occurred in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood on the city’s South Side.

The nearly $80 million verdict is believed to be the highest police pursuit crash award in Illinois history.

On Sept. 2, 2020, 10-year-old Da’Karia Spicer was a backseat passenger in her father, Kevin’s vehicle. Da’Karia was on her way to school to pick up a laptop with her 5-year-old brother when two Chicago police officers initiated an unauthorized motor vehicle pursuit of a car that had allegedly committed a traffic violation. The pursued vehicle then crashed into another car before hitting the vehicle in which Da’Karia was a passenger.

Just before a trial began on Dec. 5 in Cook County Circuit Court before Judge Preston Jones, the city of Chicago admitted liability for the fatal crash. At that time, the city offered a settlement that represented the extent of their self-insured retention. From there, it was the responsibility of the city’s insurance companies to resolve the case for an amount that would “appropriately compensate” the Spicer family for what they had endured.

“The city of Chicago did what was in their power to step up and resolve this case, but their insurance carrier gambled with taxpayers’ money and gambled that a jury would not recognize the Spicer family’s incalculable loss,” said Lance Northcutt, a partner at Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard, the law firm that represented the Spicer family. “They put profits over humanity. We never should have gotten to the point where a jury had to listen to the excruciating evidence involved in this case.”

On Wednesday, a Cook County jury awarded the Spicer family $79.8 million for their collective pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of society, among other damages.

“The impact of this incident was catastrophic, and the Spicer family lost a bright, talented, and smart 10-year-old girl who was the absolute light of their lives,” said Patrick Salvi II, managing partner of Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard. “We very deeply thank this jury for their service and for recognizing the magnitude of the family’s loss.”

Attorneys for the family plan to file a separate cause of action against the insurance carriers who failed to settle the case prior to trial.

“A second act is coming, and it is coming soon,” attorney Northcutt said following the verdict.