WAUKEGAN, Ill. (AP) — A deal to settle a lawsuit by a man who spent 15 years in prison for a murder he was later exonerated of has cleared its last hurdle.
Libertyville Village Administrator Chris Clark told the town’s board Tuesday its insurance cooperative has agreed to a $9 million settlement with Jason Strong.
Strong, who now lives in Tennessee, was convicted in 2000 of killing Carpentersville resident Mary Kate Sunderlin. Her badly beaten body was found in a forest preserve near North Chicago in 1999.
Lake County prosecutors dropped charges in 2015, citing evidence contradicting trial testimony.
Strong gets $6 million from the city of Waukegan. The remaining $3 million will be divided between nine other agencies that were part of the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force, which investigated the killing.
