Retired Illinois State Police investigator Michale
Callahan last week agreed to accept $150,000 in punitive damages from two
of his former superior officers in hopes of resolving the federal
civil-rights lawsuit he won in April. Callahan, who charged three officers
in his chain of command with retaliating against him after he sought to
reopen a double-murder investigation [see “Badge of Honor,”
Aug. 25], says that he accepted the reduced amount — less than a
third of the $472,300 the jury awarded him — because he wants the
focus to remain on police misconduct. “I didn’t want this to become an issue
about money. That’s not the reason I did this,” he says. U.S. District Judge Harold Baker upheld the
jury’s $210,000 compensatory-damages award but reduced the punitive
damages to coincide with the salaries of defendants Capt. Steve Fermon and
Lt. Col. Diane Carper. Baker offered Callahan the option of having a second
trial just on damages, but Callahan assumed that the judge would reduce any
award that might result from that trial. “A jury made a decision the first time and it
did not matter, so I felt that there was a good chance it wouldn’t
matter what a jury said the second time,” Callahan says. However, an order issued by the judge last week
suggests that Baker has a keen interest in the jury’s opinion. In
answer to a motion filed by ISP deputy director Chuck Brueggemann —
the one prevailing defendant in the case — Baker for the second time
denied Brueggemann’s motion to recover $7,500 his attorneys spent on
transcripts. The first footnote in Baker’s Nov. 2 order refers to an Illinois Times article
about the case. “Rarely does the public learn the specifics of a jury
deliberation. This is one of those rare cases.” Baker wrote. He then cited the words of a juror quoted in the
story: “There was no doubt in our minds that Brueggemann was also
guilty. We just didn’t have the proof,” the juror said.
“He’s obviously a diplomat who knows how to cover his
ass.”
This article appears in Nov 10-16, 2005.
