Activist punched in face by cop at 2020 protest to get payout, Illinois officials say
An 18-year-old activist documenting a protest surrounding the towering Christopher Columbus statue in Chicago had her tooth knocked out by a police officer, a lawsuit said.
Miracle Boyd will now be awarded a $280,000 settlement after the payment was approved by the city’s finance committee and then by the full city council on March 12.
McClatchy News reached out to the attorney representing the officers but did not immediately receive a response. The city declined to comment.
“I remember it like yesterday because for some reason I can’t get over the harm that was caused to me,” the now 23-year-old Miracle Boyd said during a finance committee meeting on March 10. “And I was only 18 at the time.”
Protests erupted across the city in summer 2020, calling for a reduction in taxpayer dollars allotted to the Chicago Police Department and to end brutality from police officers.
A July 17, 2020 protest in Grant Park turned violent as police retaliated after a small group of people threw frozen water bottles at them.
Miracle Boyd, a violence prevention activist working with GoodKids MadCity, started a Facebook livestream as protesters approached the statue, according to the lawsuit filed in July 2024.
She recorded police hitting protesters in the head with batons and one officer throwing a bike on a woman, the lawsuit said.
As she was documenting a protester’s arrest, she saw Officer Nicolas Janovich “aggressively” approach her, the complaint said.
She heard him say something, believed to have been the phrase “piece of (expletive).” Then, the officer struck Boyd in the face, causing her phone to fall out of her hand, the lawsuit said.
“Either his fist or her phone knocked her tooth out,” the lawsuit said.
Janovich then said “give me that (expletive) phone” as blood gushed from Boyd’s mouth, according to the lawsuit. The officer then took her phone.
A civilian oversight office run by the city deemed Janovich’s actions toward Boyd in 2020 were unjustified and recommended that he be removed from his role as an officer, according to court documents.
Janovich resigned in 2022 before any disciplinary action could progress, CBS reported.
“He quit his job to escape accountability,” Boyd said during the committee meeting.
Boyd’s injuries sustained during the 2020 protest still impact her today, according to the lawsuit. She’s had two root canals, had a veneer put in to replace her lost tooth and continues to endure pain from nerve damage, the complaint said.
