A Chicago police officer filed suit on Friday against the estate of a teenager he killed during a December police stop, alleging he suffered emotional damages after 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier threatened his life with a baseball bat.

The suit comes weeks after LeGrier’s father, Antonio LeGrier, filed a wrongful-death suit against the city and Officer Robert Rialmo over the same incident.

On Dec. 26, Rialmo shot and killed a bat-wielding LeGrier, who police allege had become combative after they arrived to answer a domestic disturbance call at his West Side home.

The gunfire also struck and killed LeGrier’s neighbor, 55-year-old Bettie Ruth Jones, in what police say was an accident. Jones’ estate also filed a wrongful-death suit against Rialmo and the city.

Rialmo’s attorney, Joel A. Brodsky, said his client’s counterclaim is based on the same operative facts as the LeGrier estate’s lawsuit. If he didn’t file it now, Brodsky said — before the wrongful-death suit is litigated — he may be barred from doing so in the future.

“My client is very traumatized, as any normal person would be,” Brodsky said in an interview. “He’s not a monster.

Anybody but a monster would be traumatized by taking a human life, even LeGrier’s, who was trying to kill him.”

Rialmo’s complaint, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, seeks $10 million in punitive and exemplary damages.
The attorneys for the LeGrier and Jones estates were very critical of the counterclaim’s filing when speaking with reporters following a Monday status hearing in the case. Basielio J. Foutris, of Foutis Law Office, indicated his disgust by calling the counterclaim a new low for the Chicago Police Department: “First you shoot them, now you sue them?”

Despite the criticism, Foutris — the attorney for the LeGrier estate – said he has not decided how he will respond to the counterclaim’s filing yet.

The deaths of LeGrier and Jones marked the first officer-involved shooting deaths to occur since the release of the Laquan McDonald video in late November.

That video’s release — showing a Chicago police officer shooting 17-year-old McDonald 16 times in 2014 — came the same day as murder charges were filed against the officer involved and started a political firestorm that has enveloped city hall, the police department, the Independent Police Review Authority and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office.

Brodsky said he is not aware of how often police officers file lawsuits against the estates of people they have killed in the line of duty.

He speculated officers involved in shootings may not realize they can file such claims or perhaps believe they would not receive any money from the estate, he said.

But, Brodsky explained, the potentially unprecedented nature of the claim should not prevent Rialmo from pursuing damages.

“[Rialmo] has a legitimate cause of action and he has legitimate damages,” Brodsky said. “Why shouldn’t he file a claim?”

But Foutris said police officers are expected to deal with traumatizing events like this, and should not be able to sue for emotional damages while serving as one.

“If he is such a delicate flower, maybe he shouldn’t be in the police department,” he said. “You should be prepared to handle a situation like this, and if you’re not prepared for something like this, then get off the police force.”

Brodsky was dismissive of the public perception framing the case as a police officer’s suit against the estate of a man he shot and killed. He said the headline of such a news story should read: “Police officer sues estate of man who tried to kill him.”

He compared Rialmo’s counterclaim to the kind of lawsuit a driver could file if he is rear-ended while stopped at a red light; no one would fault him for suing the driver that hit him.

Brodsky also shot down speculation Rialmo’s suit would be used to induce settlement talks with the LeGrier estate.

Such a settlement would result in some kind of payout for the LeGrier estate — which Brodsky said is not owed anything.

The complaint details Rialmo’s actions responding to the 4:20 a.m. domestic disturbance call at 4710 W. Erie St.

According to Rialmo, LeGrier swung at him three times with a bat before he unholstered his weapon and fired eight times.

“Officer Rialmo feared that LeGrier would strike him in the head with the baseball bat so hard that it would kill him,” the counterclaim said.

By contrast, the LeGrier estate’s Dec. 28, 2015, claim alleges LeGrier “did not present an danger or threat of harm to anyone.”

Foutris took issue with the complaint’s description of where LeGrier was standing when Rialmo shot him. The countercomplaint said LeGrier was on the top step of the building’s porch, mere feet away from Rialmo.

“Nothing at all substantiates anything that is in that counterclaim,” said Foutris, who is representing the LeGrier estate. “Everything we’ve seen, Quintonio was inside the building and the police officer was out by the sidewalk, a parkway area, when he shot Quintonio.”

“What you see in the counterclaim is pure fantasy,” he added.

Rialmo’s account alleges one of the bullets passed through LeGrier and struck Jones, who was standing behind LeGrier when Rialmo opened fire.

Rialmo alleges he did not know Jones was standing there.

“Bettie Jones’ death is clearly 100 percent Quintonio LeGrier’s fault,” Brodsky said. “There’s no way my client would not or could not have seen Bettie Jones standing where she was because of the position of him and LeGrier in the doorway. There’s no way he thought she would be standing in the doorway.”

But the Jones estate is not sympathetic to Rialmo’s counterclaim.

Larry R. Rogers Jr., of Power, Rogers & Smith PC, said it was unprecedented for a police officer to file a counterclaim alleging assault, and it pours salt into the wound of the Jones family.

“They called me in a panic what is this about. I told them that in my 20-plus years of practicing law I have never seen an officer file such a counterclaim,” Rogers said.

Separately, Cook County Circuit Judge James N. O’Hara held a hearing at the Daley Center this afternoon to decide whether Rialmo’s private text messages are subject to discovery in the LeGrier and Jones estates’ respective wrongful-death suits.

O’Hara said at the Daley Center hearing he needed more information about the messages before making his ruling.

The next status hearing is set for Feb. 26; Rogers said he hopes the judge has all the information he needs by then to decide whether to allow those private messages to be discoverable.

However, Brodsky said he plans to block the entry of those messages through a protective order.

Rialmo is also represented by Christopher R. Brockman, the owner of the Law Office of Chris R. Brockman.

The case is Antonio LeGrier, et al., v. The City of Chicago, et al., 15 L 12964.