Duran v. Town of Cicero, No. 08-2467 (7th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CaseResponding to complaints about a party, officers arrived and attempted to quiet and disperse the crowd of nearly 100 attendees, mostly of Mexican descent. Tension escalated. A full-blown melee ensued. Officers and civilian were injured and seven people were arrested. Party-goers filed suit against 17 officers and the town under 42 U.S.C. 1983 for use of excessive force, false arrest, and deprivation of equal protection, and under state law for battery, malicious prosecution, hate crimes, and evidence spoliation. The 78 plaintiffs pursued different claims against various combinations of individual named officers, unidentified officers, and the town. After a six-week trial, the jury returned sizable verdicts in favor of 23 plaintiffs against six individual officers and the town. The Seventh Circuit vacated and remanded, noting that the judgment appeared to permit 13 plaintiffs to recover twice for the same injury on state-law claims, once from the individual officer and again from the town. As a result of confusing jury instructions and an improper special verdict form, the judgment did not reflect that the town's liability for the state-law claims against its officers was based on respondeat superior and was joint and several. The court rejected plaintiffs' challenges to evidentiary rulings.
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