Jury Awards Over $185,000 to Two African American Victims of Hate Crime.

( BW)(IL-SIDLEY-&AUSTIN) Jury Awards Over $185,000 to Two African American Victims of Hate Crime

Business Editors/Legal Writers

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 16, 2000

A Cook County jury awarded $187,950 late Tuesday to two African American men who had sued a man whom they charged led a group of bar patrons to drive them out of a southwest side bar because of their race. Willie Leigh, 41, and Jeffrey Jones, 36, filed the hate crime civil suit against William Jones in Cook County Circuit Court after a February 1997 attack at Tina's Pizza, a bar and restaurant located at 5440 S. Narragansett in Chicago. Leigh is an award-winning karaoke performer and had been invited to Tina's Pizza.

Leigh and Jones testified Tuesday that William Jones confronted them shortly after they and their white and Latino friends arrived at the establishment, and said words to the effect of &uot;Go back to your own club. I work around you (racial slur) all day, and I don't want you in my club.&uot;

Leigh and Jones further testified that a group of patrons surrounded them as William Jones and others shouted racial slurs. Leigh and Jones described in court how William Jones threatened to injure them and attempted to strike them, and how they were forced to flee the bar in fear of their safety. After hearing this testimony, a jury awarded $187,950 to Leigh and Jones.

&uot;We are very pleased by the jury's award of compensatory damages for the emotional harm suffered by Mr. Leigh and Mr. Jones, as well as by the verdict for punitive damages to punish the defendant and deter others from committing like offenses,&uot; said attorney Lisa Meyer of Sidley &Austin.

&uot;This judgment demonstrates a condemnation by the community of hate crimes, and clearly shows that those who perpetrate them will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,&uot; stated Betsy Shuman-Moore, director of the Bias Violence Project of the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc.

Willie Leigh and Jeffrey Jones are represented by volunteer attorneys Lisa Meyer, Lisa Cipriano, and Courtney Rosen of Sidley &Austin and Betsy Shuman-Moore, director of the Bias Violence Project at the Chicago Lawyers' Committee.

In 1998, Leigh and Jones negotiated a settlement with the owner of Tina's Pizza through an action they had filed at the Chicago Commission on Human Relations, under which the owner agreed to institute policies and practices to prevent such an incident from occurring again.

The Chicago Lawyers' Committee's Bias Violence Project provides free legal representation to victims of hate crime, both in criminal prosecutions of offenders and in civil suits such as this. The Project also works to prevent bias violence through community forums and training of law enforcement professionals.

Sidley &Austin is an international law firm with 900 lawyers on three continents. Founded in 1866 in Chicago, the firm also has U.S. offices in Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Washington D.C., and Dallas, as well as offices in Hong Kong, London, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo.