The city of Chicago agreed today to pay a record $22.5 million to a woman who was released from police custody in 2006 and instead of being taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, she was released into a high crime area where she was gang raped and plummeted seven stories.
Christina Eilman, was 21-years-old when the crime occurred and she suffered permanent brain damage from the fall and has needed constant medical care ever since.
Eilman, who is bipolar, was taken into police custody at Midway Airport after suffering a mental breakdown on her flight from California.
Rather than bring Eilman to a hospital, police released her after 29 hours in custody, despite her parents calling at least nine times to warn them about her mental health status and that she was having an episode.
Police later testified at a deposition hearing that she was visibly agitated and should have been taken to the hospital. Witnesses said she was throwing herself against the bars in her jail cell.
Eilman, a former UCLA student, was released near a housing project in a crime-ridden neighborhood on the city’s notorious South Side when she encountered the sex fiends who attacked her.
She was dressed in just short shorts, a cutoff top and boots and was without her cellphone.
After being gang raped at knifepoint, she either fell or was pushed from a seven-story window, she suffered severe brain trauma and the 27-year-old will not recover.
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