Female Chicago Cop wins $150K in suit over mailbox porn

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

A federal jury has found that Chicago Police officers harassed a female colleague who dared to join an undercover unit that previously had been all men.

Ann McDermott's fellow officers put pornography in her mailbox every day and when she complained about it, they accused her of being a "beefer" -- an officer who reports fellow officers.

The jury awarded her $150,000 in damages Monday. The city also will be on the hook for around $500,000 in legal fees for her lawyers at Loevy & Loevy.

McDermott went back to work Tuesday night still feeling like a pariah among fellow officers for breaking what she called the officers' "Code of Silence," but she felt a measure of vindication.

"I told the jury exactly what happened and the Chicago Police Department, including one commander, one captain, two lieutenants and seven sergeants all tried to say I wasn't telling the truth and the jury saw through it," she said.

Based on the verdict, the Internal Affairs Department, which had dismissed most of the complaints McDermott brought, will take a second look, said police spokeswoman Monique Bond.

From a town that believes in the police having a monopoly on guns.