Peoria County is paying its half of a $1.5 million settlement, bringing the Cleve Heidelberg legal matter to a close.
The county board approved the $625,000 payout to the Heidelberg family and estate with 16 "yes" votes Thursday night. Board member Brian Elsasser cast a "no" vote, and Daniel Kelch was absent.
There was no discussion from the board before voting on the settlement to end the estate's $100 million civil rights lawsuit.
The vote, following a similar approval measure from the Peoria City Council, closes the book on a decades-long legal battle.
Heidelberg was convicted in 1970 of killing Peoria County Sheriff’s Sgt. Raymond Espinoza. Heidelberg maintained his innocence and almost immediately began litigation to overturn his conviction.
Heidelberg was released in 2017 after his original conviction was vacated. He was free on home monitoring and awaiting a possible new trial when he died in 2018.
Wendy Hibser is the daughter of Paul Hibser, a lieutenant with the Peoria Police Department at the time of the Heidelberg case. She joined Phyllis Espinoza, Raymond Espinoza’s daughter, to speak against the settlement.
Hibser referenced the latest lawsuit from the Heidelberg family that was dismissed in federal court in Peoria last year.
“A federal judge threw out the case, saying, ‘you sued once and you got paid you cannot or any of your agents,’ meaning the family cannot sue on the same issue again,” she said. “This should be a non-issue. The lawsuit is dismissed. Why would the government pay $625,000 on a lawsuit that's been thrown out?”
The decision from U.S. District Chief Judge Sara Darrow was open to appeal. The settlement will end the matter.
Earlier this week, Peoria City Attorney Patrick Hayes warned the city council that appellate courts had called Darrow’s decision a “close one” and it could be costly if litigation continued on a decision reversed on appeal.
“I just want to look at everybody who’s about to vote that it’s okay to give the family and this lawyer in Chicago a large amount of money just to hurry up and be done with this and get it out underneath the rug and just move on with your lives,” said Espinoza. “But I can’t.”
