Jury awards former Chicago officer $2M in retaliation case

CHICAGO (AP) - A former Chicago police officer has been awarded nearly $2 million in her lawsuit alleging that the city retaliated against her for reporting a co-worker's misconduct.

A Cook County jury awarded Laura Kubiak more than $1.4 million in damages Thursday for emotional distress and $400,000 in lost wages.

Chicago Law Department spokesman Bill McCaffrey says city officials are "disappointed" and weighing their options.

Kubiak was a veteran officer in the Chicago Police Department's Office of News Affairs in 2012 when she informed supervisors a fellow officer had yelled and threatened her at work.

Kubiak's suit alleged she was transferred in retaliation to a midnight shift patrolling "an unsafe neighborhood."

It accused Chicago of systematically retaliating against employees who break the department's so-called "code of silence" by reporting fellow officers' misconduct.