Attorneys for girl killed during police pursuit argue against Lightfoot's proposed protective order

CHICAGO - Attorneys representing the family of a 10-year-old girl, who was killed during a police pursuit, argued against a proposed protective order sought by former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the city's law department on Friday.

The attorneys assert that the protective order would prevent the public release of her deposition transcript and videotaped testimony. Additionally, it would prohibit any words spoken by Lightfoot during her deposition from being disclosed in public filings with the court.

On September 2, 2020, Da'Karia Spicer was in the backseat of a vehicle driven by her father. She was en route to school to pick up a laptop with her five-year-old brother when a Chicago police officer initiated an alleged unauthorized motor vehicle pursuit of a car that had purportedly committed a traffic violation.

Spicer was killed when the fleeing vehicle collided with the vehicle she was in.

"Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot was not the least bit bashful about offering her opinions about the facts of this case the day after it happened.  For Lightfoot and the City’s Law Department to try and prevent her words from appearing in any public record when those words are highly relevant to the claims that will be litigated at trial is an outrage," said attorney Lance D. Northcutt of Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard, P.C. "This eleventh-hour request to scrub any mention of her testimony from future official court filings is legally baseless and flies in the face of public pledges of transparency that Lightfoot and Mayor Johnson have made."

A hearing on this matter was scheduled for Friday, and the judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. The family's attorneys said they plan to call Lightfoot as a witness.