CHICAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson is proposing a staggering $260.8 million settlement to resolve 16 lawsuits alleging police misconduct by disgraced former Chicago Detective Reynaldo Guevara.

The mass deal pitched by Johnson’s Law Department appears to be the largest single police misconduct settlement in U.S. history. And it will leave a deep and costly mark on the city’s finances as City Hall faces the daunting challenge of crafting a 2027 budget.

And as expensive as it is, it covers roughly half of the outstanding Guevara-tied police misconduct lawsuits. Chicago taxpayers will almost certainly be on the hook for more huge payouts in the not-too-distant future to people suing on the grounds Guevara victimized them.

The Tribune first reported the impending deal in mid-September, citing court records that marked an incoming “global settlement” involving Guevara, who has been accused of manipulating lineups, threatening witnesses and beating suspects into confessions.

Spokespeople in Johnson’s office and the city Law Department declined to comment Thursday afternoon, after the agenda for an upcoming City Council committee meeting uncovered the cost and scope of the deal. The proposal was negotiated under the direction of former corporation counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry, who retired from her post as the city’s top attorney Thursday.

Finance Committee aldermen are set to first vote on the package of settlements Monday. If approved in committee, the full City Council could approve the deals on Oct. 14.

Aldermen will face a momentous task: in just a matter of days, assess a mass deal larger than the budget of many city departments with no apparent rival in size in Chicago or American history, save a $90 million mass deal crafted by Johnson’s administration and enthusiastically passed by the City Council last year.

Signs pointing to the mass settlement grew unmissable in recent weeks.

In addition to U.S. District Judge LaShonda Hunt’s notice, Johnson himself hinted at the likelihood of such a deal by projecting an unprecedented $401 million price tag for settlement and judgements next year.

The mayor and administration spokespeople had declined to say whether a Guevara mass settlement was in the works, but Johnson himself alluded to the likelihood while detailing his budget forecast. He promised “the absolute maximum level of transparency” as the city deals with towering lawsuit liabilities, many set in motion long before he took office and tied to alleged forced confessions by detectives in decades-old murders.

“This has just been a long time coming,” Johnson told reporters while unveiling the budget deficit earlier this month. “Half of the people that work in my administration weren’t even born, and the rest of us were children.”

But despite Johnson’s promises, his administration shared no information about the deals as they became public.

The mass settlement would resolve 16 lawsuits brought by 17 plaintiffs, all represented by the law firm Loevy & Loevy. A spokesperson for the company declined to comment on the deal.

“Unfortunately, it is Loevy policy not to comment on any possible settlements until they are approved by the full city council,” spokesperson Michael McDunnah wrote in an email.

The deal would easily make Guevara the costliest single police scandal in Chicago history, outstripping the around $210 million spent so far on cases against former Cmdr. Jon Burge, whose “midnight crew” of detectives was accused of beating and torturing dozens of suspects into murder confessions beginning in the 1970s.

Guevara, who retired a decade ago and is still collecting a handsome city pension, has denied any wrongdoing. Still, in case after case, dozens of mostly Latino men previously convicted of murder have had their cases reversed and won certificates of innocence while accusing the 82-year-old retired homicide detective of manipulating lineups, threatening witnesses and beating them into murder confessions.

Guevara repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, putting the city on the financial hook for the collective centuries they spent in prison.

Even before any global settlement, Guevara cases have already cost nearly $150 million in verdicts and settlements, including $43 million for six settlements approved by aldermen this year.

The move marks the Johnson administration’s second attempt at such a sprawling settlement. Last year, aldermen approved Johnson’s plan to settle for $90 million almost 180 cases involving former Sgt. Ronald Watts, accused of planting evidence to frame hundreds of men.

Aldermen, civic leaders and financial ratings agencies praised Watts deal as an effective way to reduce taxpayer costs by avoiding legal bills for long-running cases and the towering liability of court losses. Still, many criticized Johnson’s decision to use debt to pay for the cost, a move his budget forecast this year signals he will not repeat.

Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th, a member of the Finance Committee, said he had not been briefed on the deal, although he added that he supported the administration’s past global settlement as a cost-cutting move.

“I am very disappointed that the City Council is only learning about this through the media,” said Lopez, a frequent critic of Johnson’s settlement efforts. “If we could put as many of these things behind us, yes I voted for it, but there should be no reason for this level of secrecy, particularly on something this monumental.”

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