Fox River Grove wins lawsuit over family's lack of sewer service
Fox River Grove officials can breathe easy after a McHenry County judge last week dismissed the village from one of the more odorous lawsuits to hit the county courthouse in recent memory.
The suit, which remains against other defendants, alleged that for seven years, the village billed a family for sewer service that they, in fact, never received.
Instead, the home of Earl, Robert and Crystle Medansky, according to the suit, was connected to a septic system. As it turns out, it was a faulty septic system, as the Medanskys learned in the worst way imaginable last year.
According to the suit, raw sewage from the failed septic system poured into the family's basement in April 2006, causing property damage -- not to mention a horrific stench.
In their lawsuit, the Medanskys claimed the village knew, or should have known, the house was not connected to the sewer system and should have alerted them to the fact. Instead, the suit contends, the village went on billing the family for more than $1,200 in services.
The suit sought at least $50,000 in actual damages, and another $500,000 in punitive damages from the village.
However, last week Judge Maureen McIntrye released Fox River Grove from the suit, siding with village lawyers who argued that the town was not responsible for the Medanskys being unaware of their sewage situation.
The village agreed to discount the family's fee for getting connected to the town's sewer system in the amount they paid for services since 1999, making them even on that issue, the court ruled.
Despite last week's ruling, large portions of the lawsuit remain.
Besides the village, the Medanskys sued the home's previous owners, Eric and Amanda Anderson, a home inspector service and the sellers' broker, EDS Relocation Businesses Services. A second inspection company was dismissed from the case last week along with the village.
The suit contends the Andersons and their broker knew the home was on a septic system, but told the Medanskys it was connected to the village sewer.
Rare jury trial set to begin: Jury selection is scheduled to begin today in what's believed to be a first-of-its-kind trial in McHenry County, over whether a man locked up since 1962 for the sexual assault and murder of a small child should stay behind bars even though his sentence is complete.
The Illinois Attorney General and McHenry County State's Attorney will ask a jury this week to declare Gary Welsh a sexually violent person, a ruling that would allow state authorities to keep him incarcerated until they believe he is not a threat to society.
Welsh, 67, has been in state custody since his September 1962 arrest for killing a 3-year-old girl he had been babysitting in her Harvard home.
He was set to be released from prison in December 2005, but state officials moved in and filed a petition to have him ruled a sexually violent person, a filing that sets up the trial set to begin today.
In order to prove Welsh a sexually violent person, authorities will have to show he suffers from a mental illness that makes it likely he would commit another sex crime if allowed free.
If they succeed, Welsh will be sent to a special state prison where he will stay indefinitely while undergoing treatment. He then could be released only if state doctors and a judge believe he no longer is a threat to re-offend.
Although Welsh's is not the first case of this kind to go to trial in McHenry County, it would be the first to be decided by a jury instead of a judge.