Judge refuses to seal wrongful death file

A Lake County judge on Friday refused to seal the records of a wrongful death lawsuit settled earlier this week by the relatives of a woman murdered in a Lindenhurst restaurant.

An attorney for the survivors of Mary Hutchison, who was strangled Nov. 27, 2006 at the former Burger King restaurant on Grand Avenue, asked Circuit Judge Raymond to prevent the public from looking at the record of the suit because of a confidentiality agreement between the parties.

But an attorney for a group of restaurant management companies denied there was any confidentiality agreement covering the $1.3 million they agreed to pay Hutchison's family on Wednesday.

Hutchison, 45, of Trevor, Wis., was murdered as she was preparing the restaurant for opening.

Police have charged James Ealy, a former employee of the restaurant, with killing Hutchison during the course of a robbery.

Ealy, who faces the death penalty if convicted, had an extensive criminal background when he was hired to work at the Burger King, including a conviction for killing four people in Chicago that was overturned on appeal.

The lawsuit accused Burger King, Fox Lake Family Dining, Spence Group Service Inc., Northern Illinois Family Dining and William Spence of failing to protect Hutchison by not doing a background check on Ealy.

Doug Johnson, an attorney for Hutchison's family, told McKoski he neglected to include the confidentiality agreement in the order settling the case on Wednesday.

But Mark Galasso, an attorney representing everyone but Burger King in the suit, said that he did not agree to keep the resolution of the suit a secret and would object to sealing the file.

McKoski said he would not seal the file because of the dispute over the confidentiality agreement and because none of the legal requirements for sealing a public record had been met.