Malman Law
Legal News

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Officer’s Negligence

Officer’s Negligence Led to Rape, Lawsuit Alleges

A lawsuit was filed by Chicago personal injury attorneys Tuesday on behalf of a victim identified as “Jane Doe” alleging negligence by the Village of Arlington Heights and a police officer, Mark Del Boccio.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times the girl was heavily intoxicated and unable to support her own weight, “but an Arlington Heights cop called to deal with the underage boozers let a 20-year-old felon and two drunk teenage boys carry the girl away without asking questions — and minutes later officers in neighboring Mount Prospect caught the males raping her in a laundry room.”

The victim’s Chicago personal injury attorneys allege that the police officer could have prevented the rape, which occurred in 2009, by asking the victim and the men for identification. One of the males was a 20-year old on probation for armed robbery and all the parties involved were under the legal drinking age.

The officer also did not offer the girl medical attention or a ride home and told a security guard who had dialed 911 that the young woman was being taken home by the young men, according to the girl’s Chicago personal injury lawyers.

The Village of Arlington Heights is also named in the lawsuit for failing to run a proper background check on Officer Del Boccio. If they had, it would have turned up a previous incident: the officer left the Chicago Police department after he ran over two kids while on duty in 2004. One of the boys was killed and one was permanently injured.

Additionally, “the family of the dead 8-year-old boy in that case, Gregory Jones, alleges in a pending lawsuit that Del Boccio lied when he told his bosses he was in hot pursuit of a gunman at the time.”

The 20-year-old male involved in the Arlington Heights rape incident is currently serving a sentence for criminal sexual assault as a result of being caught raping the girl by Mount Prospect police officers after they were not detained by Officer Del Boccio, according to court records. The teenage boys involved in the incident were not charged, according to the girl’s Chicago personal injury attorney Steven Gartski.

Chicago Injury Over Sexual Assault Crimes
Remember that as a victim of a sexual assault crime, you may be able to obtain Chicago injury compensation from your attacker with help from a Chicago personal injury lawyer. Also, if there were any other parties whose negligence contributed to your assault happening, you also may be able to claim damages from them even if they didn’t commit the actual crime.