City To Pay $100k To Settle Accused Shooter's Suit Against Police

EVANSTON, IL — The Evanston City Council unanimously approved a $100,000 payment Monday to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by a jailed Evanston man against two of its police officers over an unconstitutional search.

The vote comes one year shy of the day authorities say Elijah Murphy pulled up alongside another car and opened fire, wounding a 28-year-old woman in its passenger seat.

Murphy, 25, has been held without bond at Cook County Jail since his May 2020 arrest on charges stemming from that shooting, which took place shortly before noon near Howard Street and Chicago Avenue. He faces 17 felonies, including nine counts of attempted murder, in connection with the incident.

His uncle was charged with arson after investigators determined he had set fire to the car used in the shooting, prosecutors said.

But the cash settlement on Monday's agenda is not connected with the Howard Street shooting of April 27, 2020. Rather, it resolves a federal civil suit arising from Murphy's May 2018 arrest on gun and parole violation charges.

Though Murphy was initially charged by the Cook County state's attorney, federal prosecutors took over the case. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2018 on one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Mike Leonard, Murphy's court-appointed attorney, successfully argued Evanston police detectives Lou Velez and Ryan Kleinpaste lacked probable cause for their warrantless search of Murphy and a rental car he had exited shortly before his arrest.

"It appears that the Government/Officers will attempt to claim that they had probable cause to search the car because [Velez and Kleinpaste] allegedly smelled marijuana from across the parking lot," Leonard argued. "That is belied by the testimony of Mr. Murphy, defies logic, and is not corroborated by objective evidence."

The officers were cross-examined at an April 2019 evidentiary hearing before U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly. After the judge ruled the search was illegal — and the gun found inside the car could not be used as evidence — prosecutors dropped the case.

In June 2020, Velez was involved in another controversial arrest after he chased and tackled Trent Hunt as he recorded them with a cell phone in the 1300 block of Church Street.

Hunt's video of the incident was widely circulated on social media, and Patch later published bodycam footage of the arrest.

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Murphy filed the civil suit against the city, Kleinpaste and Velez in July 2020, more than two months after he was arrested on charges stemming from the Howard Street shooting. He was released on bail in August 2020.

City attorneys filed their answer in September 2020. Instead of going to discovery, the case went straight to settlement conferences with a federal magistrate judge.

In February, while on electronic monitoring, Chicago police arrested Murphy in the Chatham neighborhood on new gun charges. He was ordered held without bond.

Last month, prosecutors filed additional charges of armed habitual criminal, escape from electronic monitoring with a weapon and two counts of felon in possession of a weapon with prior gun convictions.

This month, attorneys for Evanston and Murphy came to a settlement agreement with the help of a federal judge. Approved without comment by the City Council, it is due the case dismissed by the end of next month.

"We were pleased that the city of Evanston recognized that this was a difficult case to defend," Leonard told Patch, "particularly after a federal court judge already found that the arrest was improper."

City Attorney Nick Cummings said settling with Murphy in light of his pending charges did not sit especially well with him, but the settlement payment negotiated with the magistrate judge is the most fair and reasonable outcome for the city.

Had the city continued to fight the case, the cost of attorney fees alone would be expected to exceed the $100,000 settlement price tag.

"Based upon the facts that we were given with the civil case," Cummings told Patch, "this is probably the best outcome that we could get for Evanston taxpayers."