Swimmer's death costs hotel $3.1 million

The heated, indoor pool is the first service featured on the Web site for the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel in Schiller Park, and the last thing Demarco Alexander saw before he died.

Now his mother, Roseanne Moten, is the recipient of what her attorney says is the largest cash settlement in Illinois history for a case involving the drowning of a minor.

Moten will receive $3.1 million from the lawsuit she filed against the hotel following her Bensenville son's death in 2003.

The 14-year-old, 5'9" Alexander was swimming in the pool during a birthday party for his cousin. Moten was employed as a supervisor on the hotel's housekeeping staff at the time.

Her attorney, Craig Tobin, said Alexander never should have been in the pool. No one should've been in it. Hotel pool inspection logs by the hotel staff showed the water was so murky the pool drain wasn't visible to anyone looking into the water. By state law, that means management should've closed the pool and cleaned it.

"It says right on the form, if you can't see the drain, close the pool," Tobin said.

But a dirty, yet open, pool wasn't unusual for the hotel, Tobin said. The logs just for 2003 showed the pool was too dirty to open at least a dozen times, including the night before Alexander drowned.

A steep drop in the pool from 5 to 9 feet took Alexander from waist-deep water to depths over his head in seconds. There was no safety rope to mark the drop or gradual slope as required in modern pool design.

The opaque water made it difficult for would-be rescuers to find Alexander as they jumped in to save him. Hotel staff flipped the switch to drain the pool, but the resulting suction pulled Alexander to the bottom where he died.

An attorney for the hotel did not immediately respond to interview requests Thursday.