Judge rules strip club must stay part of fatal crash suit

The owners of a West Chicago-area strip club will remain co-defendants in a pair of civil lawsuits filed on behalf of three victims of a drunken-driving crash, a Kane County judge ruled.

Judge F. Keith Brown, in a 13-page decision, rejected a request to dismiss Diamonds Gentlemen's Club from lawsuits aimed at John Homatas, who's serving a 12-year sentence for his role in the fiery Jan. 4, 2006, wreck on Route 25.

Brown, in his ruling Thursday, wrote Diamonds would be obligated to pay the families, if it loses the lawsuit.

Homatas, 26, of Wayne was convicted over the summer of drunken driving and killing a passenger, John A. Chiariello of St. Charles, and another motorist, April M. Simmons of Yorkville, and the woman's 8-month-old fetus.

The families sued Homatas and Diamonds, and argue the club also is liable because its workers let Homatas drive after he drank so much that he vomited in the bathroom, court papers show.

Attorneys for the all-nude club said that because it does not have a liquor license and patrons must bring their own alcohol, the establishment is exempt from legal responsibility in the crash.