By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
A trial in federal court ended abruptly Wednesday after a family suing an FBI agent for allegedly framing the late, ex-cop Gary Engel in a 1984 kidnapping plot, dropped the lawsuit.
The son of Engel dismissed the suit against retired FBI Agent Robert Buchan on what would have been the third day of the civil trial, the Chicago Tribune reports.
The decision to drop the suit came after lawyers for the agent said that Engel’s brother was willing to sign an affidavit, saying he had implicated his sibling in the kidnapping.
The brother, Rick, said Engel came home from a trip to Missouri in 1984 and made the admission.
The family, however, reached a $3 million settlement this week with the village of Buffalo Grove, which also was a defendant in the suit. An attorney for the family said the suit was “sufficient justice.”
Engel was sentenced to 90 years for the 1984 case and served 20 years before he was released after it came to light that a key witness against him, Missouri mobster Anthony Mammolito, had been paid $500 by Buffalo Grove police.
The Tribune reported that Engel’s lawsuit against the FBI was pending in October 2012 when he was arrested as part of a plot to kidnap a suburban businessman.
A few days after that arrest, Engel was found hanged in his jail cell.
