Joliet's Eric Lurry Federal Lawsuit: Will City Council Settle Lawsuit Or Head To Trial?

JOLIET, IL — At Tuesday night's meeting — behind a locked door in closed session, —the Joliet City Council is expected to meet with their attorneys to decide whether to reach a settlement with Nicole Lurry to resolve her 5-year-long federal lawsuit surrounding the death of her husband Eric Lurry in the presence of the Joliet police.

On May 7, Joliet Patch revealed that the city of Joliet and Joliet Police Department received news that their efforts to convince federal judge Jeffrey Cummings to dismiss Nicole Lurry's August 2020 federal lawsuit for the death of her husband, Eric Lurry, in Joliet police custody, did not succeed.

The federal judge issued his ruling of 68 pages, and while some of plaintiff Nicole Lurry's claims were thrown out by the judge, several others stayed. The four defendant Joliet police officers in the Lurry lawsuit are: Lieutenant Jeremy Harrison, now-retired Sergeant Doug May, Officer Jose Tellez and now-former Officer Andrew McCue.

"The next Council meeting is June 3, 2025. The Defendants request that the deadline be extended to June 5, 2025. This will allow the Council members to continue discussing their next steps with the City’s Corporation Counsel, and for the undersigned counsel to appear at the June 3, 2025 Council meeting and seek direction on whether to seek a settlement conference, and, if so, whether to do that through the Magistrate Judge or a private mediator," indicated attorney David Mathues, one of Joliet's outside counsel, with the Itasca law firm of Hervas, Condon & Bersani. "Moreover, this extension will allow the parties to consult with their many experts to see their experts’ availability for trial in January or February of 2026. Undersigned counsel has spoken to Ms. Bakos, counsel for Plaintiff, regarding this motion. Plaintiff does not oppose this motion."

In March, Joliet Patch reported that Joliet Police Officer Cassie Socha and her lawyer Hall Adams of Chicago settled their federal civil rights lawsuit for a grand total of $287,000 to resolve the revenge porn lawsuit against her employer, the Joliet Police Department, and the City of Joliet, but that was only part of the story. Patch later learned that the city's outside expense legal costs during the past seven years of federal litigation on Socha's case totaled nearly $677,000.

According to Joliet Patch's tallies of the city's lawsuit expenses, the $287,000 settlement for Socha plus the $677,000 in outside legal expenses to defend and prolong the litigation, ended up costing the city $964,000.

This year's city of Joliet budget, approved by Mayor Terry D'Arcy and the City Council, included a property tax increase for the first time in several years. One of the major spending increases contained within the 2025 budget was the doubling of funds available for lawsuit settlements.

The city legal department's 2024 budget set aside $1 million for claims. The amount of money requested for the 2025 budget was $2 million.

Related Joliet Patch coverage:

• Death In Joliet Police Custody: No Answers, 5 Months Later
• Joliet Officer Turned Off Car's Video System As Eric Lurry Died
• Joliet's Missing Eric Lurry Video 'Did Have Evidentiary Value'
• Retired Joliet Police Sergeant Vindicated, 4 Charges To Be Dismissed