Family of Crystal Lake man paralyzed when car crashed into home says cost of his care has ‘grown heavier’
The family of a Crystal Lake man paralyzed after a car crashed into his home said that although the driver received a 10-year prison term, Angelo Pleotis got “a life sentence of his own in his wheelchair.”
The family has launched phase two of a GoFundMe campaign for Pleotis, 67, in hopes of raising at least $100,000 to help pay for the rising monthly cost of his care, Alyssa Pleotis, Pleotis’ daughter-in-law, said on the crowdsourcing site named Angelo’s Road to Recovery.
Last week, Connor Kirkpatrick, 30, was sentenced in an unrelated residential arson conviction. Charges related to Kirkpatrick crashing his car into Pleotis’ home — including aggravated reckless driving and reckless conduct — were dismissed.
However, during the sentencing, prosecutors focused their arguments on details of the crash. Assistant State’s Attorney Ashley Romito said that prosecutors were able to get a harsher sentence in the arson case, and that dismissing the other case saved Pleotis and his family from having to go through another trial.
On July 27, 2022, Kirkpatrick drove his vehicle naked at almost 100 mph and crashed into Pleotis’ home. From his motorized chair, Pleotis said at Kirkpatrick’s sentencing hearing Aug. 21 that his last memory is stepping out of the shower; being thrown through a wall, a washer and dryer; and landing in another room. His next memory was waking up in the hospital with a broken spine, he said.
While Kirkpatrick was on pretrial release in that case, he was living in his father’s Lakewood home. During the early-morning hours of May 20, 2023, while his father was away on vacation, Kirkpatrick set a fire inside the home. He said he lit the fire in a suicide attempt to end the pain he felt from crashing his vehicle into Pleotis’ home. He said the pain was “excruciating.”
Pleotis’ family said they are grateful for the “blessing” of the money already raised after the crash. However, those funds have been depleted, and “the costs of care have not slowed” and have “grown heavier,” Alyssa Pleotis wrote on the site.
It costs more than $7,000 a month for housing and skilled nursing support, ongoing therapy, medical bills, adaptive equipment, and maintenance of his wheelchair-accessible van, she said.
Daily care is needed “to ensure Dad’s safety, comfort and dignity,” according to the GoFundMe page. “The funds we raised before were a blessing, but they are now depleted. Social Security and retirement income cover only a fraction of his needs. Without help, we cannot keep up with the mounting expenses of long-term care.
“Every donation — no matter the size — helps us give Dad stability, comfort and a chance to enjoy his retirement years with his children and granddaughters.”
During Kirkpatrick’s sentencing, Angelo Pleotis told the judge that after retirement, he had planned on buying a boat and a house on some land and spending his retirement fishing. But, he told the judge, that was all taken away when Kirkpatrick crashed into his home.