IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

EASTERN DIVISION

BRIAN OTERO, individually and on behalf of 

all others similarly situated,

Plaintiff,

v.

THOMAS J. DART, SHERIFF OF COOK 

COUNTY and COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS,

Defendants.

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Case No. 1:12-cv-3148

Hon. Amy J. St. Eve

RESPONSE TO MOTION TO ENFORCE SETTLEMENT PAYMENT

For his response to the Motion to Enforce Settlement Payment (Doc. 331), Plaintiff states 

as follows:

This case settled in 2016 and, after the appropriate notice and opt-out period, settlement 

payments were disbursed to those class members who submitted a valid and timely claim. To 

administer the settlement, the parties retained – and the Court approved – KCC, LLC, a reputable 

third-party settlement administrator. Pursuant to the notice plan approved by the Court, the 

settlement administrator received the addresses of class members that the Sheriff’s Office had in 

its records and updated those addresses using the National Change of Address database maintained 

by the U.S. Postal Service.

The notice and the claim form were thereafter mailed to class members. Mailings that were 

returned with forwarding addresses were re-mailed to the updated addresses. With respect to 

mailings returned without forwarding addresses, the settlement administrator conducted address 

searches using credit and other public source databases to attempt to locate new addresses to which 

the notice and claim form were re-mailed. The settlement administrator also established a website 
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and toll-free telephone number that provided information about the settlement. Defendants also 

posted a summary of the notice at the Department of Corrections in areas where male detainees 

are housed or frequently held. In other words, the settlement administrator used all commercially

reasonable means necessary to notify class members of the settlement, all of which was done in

accordance with the Court-ordered notice plan.

On August 11, 2016, this Court granted final approval of the settlement. Among other 

things, the Court found that the notice program outlined above “adequately informed Class 

Members of the terms of the Settlement Agreement” and “satisfied the requirements of Rule 

23(c)(2)(B) and Rule 23(e)(1).” See August 11, 2016 Order at 2 (Doc. 286).

Under the terms of the settlement agreement and Court-approved schedule, the deadline 

for class members to submit a claim was June 20, 2016. As is clear from his own statements and 

correspondence in his Motion to Enforce Settlement Payment, Cortillas Harris did not contact the 

settlement administrator until July of 2016 – after the deadline for submitting a claim had expired. 

Since that time, Mr. Harris sent a number of letters to Class Counsel requesting that he receive a

settlement payment. Class Counsel responded to each of Mr. Harris’s inquiries and explained to 

him that he did not submit a timely claim and, therefore, was not eligible for a settlement payment. 

It should also be noted that, like Mr. Harris, other class members submitted untimely claims

as well (to the best of undersigned counsel’s recollection, there were less than 200 untimely

claims). Class Counsel attempted to persuade Defendants to accept those late claims – largely for

the very reason we are again back before the Court – but Defendants declined to accept any late 

claims. Thus, there is not much more, if anything, the parties can now do with respect to Mr.

Cortillas request to honor his untimely claim.
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Dated: October 5, 2017

Respectfully Submitted,

BRIAN OTERO, individually and on behalf 

of all others similarly situated,

By: ______/s/ Jacie C. Zolna_______

One of the Attorneys for Plaintiff

and the Class

Myron M. Cherry

Jacie C. Zolna

MYRON M. CHERRY & ASSOCIATES, LLC

30 North LaSalle Street, Suite 2300

Chicago, Illinois 60602

Phone: (312) 372-2100

Robert M. Foote

Kathleen Currie Chavez

Peter Lawrence Currie

Craig S. Mielke

Matthew J. Herman

FOOTE, MIELKE, CHAVEZ & O’NEIL LLC

10 West State Street, Suite 200

Geneva, Illinois 60134

Phone: (630) 232-7450

Attorneys for Plaintiff and the Class
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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

The undersigned hereby certifies that he served the foregoing Response to Motion to 

Enforce Settlement Payment upon:

Anthony Zecchin

anthony.zecchin@cookcountyil.gov

Andrea Lynn Huff

andrea.huff@cookcountyil.gov

John M. Power

john.power@cookcountyil.gov

Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office

50 West Washington Street, Room 500

Chicago, Illinois 60602

via the electronic filing system on this 5th day of October, 2017, and

Cortillas Harris

IDOC#: B-73808

P.O. Box 999

Canton, Illinois 61520

via the U.S. Mail on this 5th day of October, 2017.

_______/s/ Jacie C. Zolna_________