CHICAGO — Chicago taxpayers could be on the hook for another $24 million to settle lawsuits alleging police misconduct.

The city’s Law Department is recommending a series of settlements in three wrongful conviction cases tied to infamous Chicago Police Department members. The City Council’s Finance Committee will vote on the settlements Monday, setting them up for a final vote Wednesday.

If approved, the settlements will continue to hike the soaring cost of police lawsuit payouts. Chicago taxpayers have already approved $145.3 million to settle police lawsuits this year, a record amount far above the city’s $82.6 million budget that through May already towers above such spending in past years.

That figure for the city’s steep lawsuit spending also leaves out a $120 million payout ordered by a judge for two wrongful conviction cases and the slew of cases aldermen will consider later this year. City attorneys recommend settlements in an effort to avoid more costly court verdicts.

The June batch of settlements is highlighted by a $14.75 million deal for James Gibson, who was convicted for the 1989 killings of Lloyd Benjamin and Hunter Wash. Gibson has alleged the disgraced police Cmdr. Jon Burge beat him into falsely confessing to the killings.

Special prosecutor Robert Milan dropped the charges in 2019, citing a key witness’s death, a lack of cooperation from remaining witnesses and the “passage of time” when he determined he could no longer prove Gibson’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Milan maintained that “this was not a wrongful conviction” at the time.

City attorneys are also recommending a $7.5 million payout for Bernard Williams. Williams was given a 60-year sentence when he was convicted for a 1996 West Garfield Park shooting that killed a man and injured bystanders.

He maintained his innocence for decades, alleging former Detective Kriston Kato, accused in an array of cases of torturing and intimidating confessions out of defendants, fabricated his confession. Williams was found not guilty in a 2023 retrial.

And aldermen will also vote on a $2.1 million deal for William Carter, who spent four years in prison from three separate narcotics convictions tied to Sgt. Ronald Watts before his convictions were tossed. Carter’s case is one in a flood of lawsuits heading toward the City Council tied to Watts, a former public housing officer notorious for shaking down drug dealers for protection money and pinning false cases on those who wouldn’t play ball.

He and another officer, Kallatt Mohammed, were arrested by the FBI in 2012 and later pleaded guilty to stealing money from a federal informant. Watts was sentenced to 22 months in prison. Mohammed received an 18-month term on the same charge. Around 175 other Watts-related cases are yet to be resolved in federal court.

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