In what appears to be a record civil judgment under the Illinois Domestic Violence Act, a jury Thursday awarded the family of a woman strangled on the West Side in 2015 $3 million, according to the attorney for the woman’s estate.
“Horrific, just horrific facts,” attorney Richard Dvorak said Friday of the homicide that left 49-year-old Vanessa Taylor, a mother of five, dead allegedly at the hands of her live-in boyfriend.
It took a Daley Center jury about two hours to come back with a verdict in the case, which contended Chicago police officers violated the Illinois Domestic Violence Act of 1986 by not fully investigating the abuse of Taylor, who had visible injuries the day before James E. Thomas allegedly strangled her with a USB cord, said Dvorak.
“Had the officers just done their duties under the Illinois Domestic Violence Act, she’d be alive today,” Dvorak said.
The case unfolded on the night of June 28, 2015, when Taylor and one of her sons called police just before 9 p.m., saying Thomas was acting erratically.
Officers who responded to Taylor’s apartment in the 4300 block of West Flournoy Street in the Lawndale neighborhood observed Thomas making Molotov cocktails. Thomas later severed the gas lines in the kitchen, forcing police to evacuate the building, Cook County prosecutors said at the time.
Thomas wielded a sword and a knife when officers confronted him but police used a Taser to subdue him, and he was taken to Stroger Hospital for a mental evaluation, according to the lawsuit and Dvorak.
The lawsuit also alleged Thomas battered Taylor sometime before the first confrontation with police, giving her a visible black eye that one officer inquired about.
The bruise happened two days earlier when Thomas was also engaged in making Molotov cocktails and when Taylor tried to stop him, he punched her in the eye, Dvorak said.
“The officers took Thomas to Stroger, and they don’t just leave Vanessa with her son, instead they have her come to Stroger,” said Dvorak.
Police then left the hospital — where a doctor and three other staffers saw the bruise — and never followed up.
The doctor said he had incomplete information because the cops didn’t stick around to tell them what happened, Dvorak said.
A few hours later, Thomas was released with Taylor but at 1:11 a.m. on June 30, other 911 call came in with Taylor “just screaming,” Dvorak said.
It lasted about a minute but dispatchers couldn’t find out where she was. Then, about 45 minutes later, another son started getting “disturbing” notifications on his mom’s Facebook page.
“Basically, Thomas went on the victim’s Facebook page, and put in messages like: ‘I had to kill her’ and that she was ‘part of the Chicago mob,'” Dvorak said.
Officers then found Taylor inside the apartment, strangled. The Cook County medical examiner’s office ruled she died from asphyxiation and ligature strangulation. Thomas was later arrested and charged with murder and aggravated assault to a police officer, and in 2016 a lawsuit was filed. He was never found fit to stand trial, according to Dvorak.
Dvorak said police had “mandatory duties” under the Illinois Domestic Violence Act that they failed to fulfill that night.
“They seized the knives and Samurai sword but that was the only thing they did.”
The police had many options, Dvorak said, including arresting Thomas and making sure an order of protection was filed.
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Taking him to a mental health evaluation doesn’t get them off the hook, Dvorak said.
“They didn’t arrest him. They didn’t get an order of protection. They didn’t do anything to protect her. As a result she died,” Dvorak said. “They didn’t do their job and she died.”
Taylor was an “amazing woman,” Dvorak said. She grew up in Chicago, earned a bachelor’s degree and had five children.
“We are satisfied the jury agreed” with that, said Dvorak. The family can have “some sort of justice.”
Late Friday afternoon, Kristen Cabanban, a spokeswoman for the city’s legal department, said they had no comment.