DANVILLE – A wrongful death lawsuit filed against the city of Danville in 2006 was settled for $700,000, according to court documents filed earlier this week in Vermilion County Circuit Court.

The lawsuit was filed on April 11, 2006, by the father of Charles Christopher Gaston, 17, who was found the morning of April 5, 2006, in a collapsed stairwell at the city’s parking garage at the corner of North and Walnut streets. Mr. Gaston died of severe head injuries, according to a coroner’s report. The lawsuit alleged that the city knew or should have known that the stairwell needed repairs or replacement.

The court accepted the settlement between the city and the family on April 20, and the settlement documents were filed this week.

According to those documents, Mr. Gaston’s father, Charles Gaston Jr., will receive $100,000 of the settlement as will each of the other family members, including Mr. Gaston’s mother, Carol Barfel, and his two sisters, Monica Gaston and Mariah Gaston.

The settlement amount also includes a $256,370 attorney fee for the firm of Kupets and DeCaro in Chicago, which represented the family, and the settlement amount also includes $43,630 in costs and expenses advanced by the law firm.

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HANOVER PARK — There is little dispute that in the minutes before Eric Stetter died, he was pinned face down on a couch under several Hanover Park police officers and paramedics fighting to cuff his hands and legs.

What is in question is whether Stetter, diagnosed in 1994 with epilepsy, was suffering a seizure early last Oct. 9, or was lashing out in a bizarre rage in the basement of his parents’ home.

More important is whether excessive force was used to restrain him–a matter the DuPage County state’s attorney’s office is studying as it decides whether any’ of the eight police officers, including a state trooper, and five paramedics should be held criminally responsible for Stetter’s death.

Michael Wolfe, chief of criminal prosecutions for DuPage, refused Monday to discuss specifics of the case, which has been ruled a homicide by the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Wolfe, who has reviewed the case, said a decision likely will be made soon.

In making his decision, Wolfe will have to sort through glaring differences in the accounts of what happened that morning.

One version is found in notes obtained by the Tribune of police interviews with the officers and paramedics. They describe how Stetter’s parents pleaded for police and medical help to control their 26-year-old son, who was 6 foot 2 and weighed 235 pounds. The interviews describe a man acting wildly, shoving his mother and trying to gulp pennies from a cup as he paced nearly nude around the basement, wailing loudly.

The other version, told in a federal lawsuit filed by Stetter’s family, tells of an epileptic gripped by a seizure and tackled by police and paramedics who either disregarded his medical condition or lacked the training to recognize and handle it.

To bring criminal charges, prosecutors would have to find that the officers and paramedics intentionally, recklessly or negligently caused Stetter’s death or created a strong probability of great bodily harm or death. They would also have to prove the force used to restrain Stetter was excessive or unjustified.

David Kupets, a lawyer for the Stetters, said the state’s attorney’s decision will have no effect on the lawsuit. The burden of proof, he said, is much lower in a civil case.

“Either the police handled the situation wrong or they didn’t care, and just went in and decided they were going to do it their way,” he said. “And I would think that it might be both.”

Hanover Park Police Chief Ronald Moser on Monday defended his officers’ actions. “Clearly, I feel the officers acted absolutely appropriately, given the circumstances, that they had to take action to restrain Mr. Stetter.”

Moser declined to discuss whether his department believes Stetter was having a seizure, and if so, whether his officers were adequately trained to handle such a medical crisis.

But Russell Hartigan, the village’s attorney, raised the question in a court filing last month, saying the village would demand “strict proof’ of a seizure as the suit moves forward.

That may be impossible, said Steven Schachter, associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and chairman of the professional advisory board for the Epilepsy Foundation of America.

Cook County Chief Medical Examiner Edmund Donoghue, who did Stetter’s autopsy, said he was unaware at the time of the autopsy of allegations that Stetter was having a seizure when he died. Even if he had, Schachter said there are no tests that show conclusively whether a seizure occurred.

It would be especially difficult to confirm a complex partial seizure, the type Stetter’s parents say he suffered the day he died.

Unlike full seizures, which often involve convulsions, complex partial seizures–the most common but also the most misunderstood, experts say–often cause people to become confused and agitated, unable to interact meaningfully with people or their surroundings.

Stetter’s lawyers say this is exactly what happened Oct. 9, and they note that the police reports described Stetter as wild and disoriented. One report described his behavior as “that of a pinball after it struck a bumper.”

Tapes of the dispatches to police officers and paramedics also make mention of drugs as a possible explanation for Stetter’s behavior.

Drugs, however, were a question early on. In a tape of the 911 call Stetter’s mother, Gisela, made about 6 a.m., she first explained to the dispatcher that her son was an epileptic, but quickly added that he was acting “wild,” and may have taken drugs.

Noting that toxicology tests found no traces of substance abuse, Kupets said, “If it wasn’t a seizure, What are they saying was happening there?”

Dennis DeCaro, another lawyer for the family, said whether or not the family thought drugs were ” involved initially should not have mattered. The fact they may have mistaken Stetter’s behavior, he added, speaks to ill-preparedness of the police and paramedics to handle the situation.

In the suit, the lawyers accuse the village of having no policy for its police and fire officials to deal with, people suffering seizures. Without one, they claim, the village has a “de facto” policy of treating people in the throes of seizure much the same as criminals acting disorderly or violently.

The issue of training may have little bearing on Wolfe’s decision, but it is an area in which police departments across the country have fallen short, according to epilepsy experts and advocates.

Such training is a small part of the police academy. Individual departments may also provide in-service training.

The Epilepsy Foundation, which put out a short training program several years ago with a national police group, monitors cases like Stetter’s and has been pushing for more training by the nation’s police departments.

“On a general basis, police departments are poorly equipped to deal with this sort of situation,” said EFA spokesman Peter Van Haverbeke.

The foundation’s Chicago chapter is working with Lorenzo Clemons, director of governmental affairs for the Cook County Sheriffs Department, to gauge Lorenzo Clemons, director of governmental affairs for the Cook County Sheriffs Department, to gauge police training in the area and help them more easily spot and handle people suffering seizures.

Visit the firms Epilepsy Civil Rights Site

A Cook County jury awarded John and Debra Krall of Des Plaines $5 million on Wednesday, but John Krall said the money won’t take away the “six years of pure hell” caused when a Des Plaines police car crashed into his wife’s van.

Des Plaines city officials said they were disappointed in the jury’s decision that ended a two-week trial in Cook County Circuit Court. They’re considering an appeal.

“I’m glad it’s over,” John Krall said. “We’ve had six years of pure hell, actually. The money payment will never take away the mental anguish I’ve had.”

Krall said he was left to raise twin daughters essentially on his own after the September 1995 crash left his wife disabled. Krall’s attorney, David Kupets, said Debra Krall still has trouble getting around and has no memory of life before the crash.

The Kralls filed suit shortly after the crash, while Debra was still in a coma. The lawsuit charged that Des Plaines police officer Lori Neubauer was driving recklessly when she was traveling west on Oakton Street. The car struck Krall’s 1985 Dodge Caravan as it came from the opposite direction and was making a left turn into a parking lot.

The Kralls claimed that the emergency lights weren’t on and that Neubauer was driving too fast.

City officials contend that the squad’s lights were activated because Neubauer was responding to a call from another police officer. Neubauer has since left the force.

An independent report issued by the Northwestern University Traffic Institute backed up police assertions that the car was in the correct lane of traffic and had its lights on just before the crash.

Police also said Krall’s blood alcohol was .159 percent, higher than the .10 percent that was the legal limit at the time.

“The fact of the matter is she was drunk,” City Attorney David Wiltse said. “It just seems to be another page from the book of a lack of personal responsibility. ”

Kupets disputes that Krall was intoxicated, saying the blood serum test gave a misleading result.  He said Krall, who was driving with a coworker, Susan James, had only two drinks after finishing their shifts as waitresses at Romano’s Restaurant & Lounge, 1396 E. Oakton St.

Krall was never given any tickets in connection with the crash.

James earlier settled her lawsuit out of court.

Wiltse said the city is covered by a risk management pool of money to which several communities contribute.

“It will be one of the more significant hits (to the pool),” Wiltse said. “Taxpayers will end up paying for this. ”

Wiltse said he plans to meet with Chicago attorney Greg Rogus, who defended the city in the lawsuit, to talk about a possible appeal.

A Wakegan woman is charging that a manufacturer of household cleaning products exposed her late husband and other employees to cancer-causing agents without providing any protection.

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, Josefina Aguilar charges that starting in 1989, Hexagon Packaging Corporation, which makes the tarnish remover Tarn-X and the lime remover CLR in Grayslake, did not provide workers with protective air masks, work clothes, ventilation, decontamination facilities or any training on the potential effects of the chemical handled.

The chemicals would leak onto the worker’s exposed skin and clothes and be inhaled and absorbed, the lawsuit says.

“I want justice and hope that my husband’s death isn’t in vain,” Aguilar, 25, said at a Wednesday’s press conference to announce the lawsuit.

Her husband, Alejandro, died last year of stomach cancer at the age of 30. He had worked at Hexagon Packaging for five years. Their 3-year-old son Emmanuel Aguilar, has acute leukemia, which he caught through contact with his father, claims David Kupets, Aguilar’s attorney.

Sylvia Barrera, who worked at Hexagon for 3 ½ years, died of cancer last May at age 24. Mario Ramirez, another former employee from 1989 to 1994, is also undergoing chemotherapy.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Hexagon $5,700 in November 1998 after an inspection found seven violations involving the exposure of employees to unknown levels of morpholine and ammonia hydroxide without respiratory protection.

The commercials were long a staple of late night Chicago TV.

A woman easily removing heavy tarnish from a sliver tray with a swipe of Tarn-X or clearing calcium deposits from her cloudy coffee pot with a swirl of CLR.

Such miracle cleaning came with warnings, however. Bottles of Tarn-X clearly told consumers that they contained a chemical suspected of causing cancer. And CLR recommended it be used only by people wearing rubber gloves.

But those same warnings were never given to the largely Hispanic workforce that manufactured those products in far north suburban Garyslake, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday.

The civil lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, alleges Hexagon Packaging Corp., the maker of Tarn-X and CLR, routinely exposed its workers to dangerous chemicals, causing at least four of them to develop cancer.

Those claims of failing to shield workers are buttressed by the findings of an Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation at Hexagon last year.

OSHA, the government agency charged with enforcing workplace safety, found 10 “serious” violations at Hexagon during inspections from July through November 1998. Those infractions included failing to perform a hazzard assessment to determine whether workers should be using protective equipment while they were blending chemicals. Hexagon also failed to train employees about working with hazardous chemicals, OSHA found.

Those oversights were deadly, according to the suit, which alleges Hexagon worker Alejandro Aguilar died of stomach cancer as a result of mixing cancer-causing chemicals by hand at Hexagon.

Aguilar was given no protective clothing nor was he warned about the chemicals he was coming in contact with, the suit alleges. There was little or no ventilation in the room where the chemicals were mixed. And when the workers complained that their skin was being irritated by the chemicals and asked for gloves, they were told to get back to work, the suit says.

Hexagon executives were not available for comment Wednesday.

Aguilar would also return home in contaminated clothing because Hexagon did not provide uniforms or shower facilities, said Chicago personal injury attorney David Kupets, who filed the suit. Aguilar’s two oldest children often greeted him with hugs before he could get out of his dirty clothes, which allegedly exposed them to hazardous chemicals as well.

Kupets is representing Aguilar’s widow, Josefina Aguilar, and her 3-year-old son, Emmanuel Aguilar, who has been diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia. Other plaintiffs include Mario Ramirez, a former Hexagon employee who has cancer, and his wife, Elvia Ramirez.

At a news conference Wednesday, Kupets said there may be many other Hexagon workers who have developed cancer as a result of their jobs at the plant, and he hopes they will come forward after hearing about the suit.

Sonia Silva, a state representative for Chicago’s Pilsen and Little Village neighborhoods who attended the Loop news conference, said Hexagon’s alleged conduct was “downright criminal” because the company knew about the dangers workers were being exposed to and chose to ignore them.

At Hexagon, workers regularly came into contact with thiourea, a chemical in Tarn-X that the State of California has determined to be cancer causing. They also handled morpholine, which Kupets said is a recognized carcinogen.

But while the lawsuit describes both chemicals as “known carcinogens,” the strong scientific consensus to support that assertion is lacking.

A 1996 report from the World Health Organization said that morpholine, a chemical that is widely used in the rubber industry, “is not highly toxic under conditions of acute exposure” and that a review of research found no evidence that it caused either cancer or birth defects.

Thiourea, a chemical that removes silver tarnish, has been shown to cause cancer in rats and fish when ingested, according to a report on carcinogens issued by the National Institutes of Health. But the report said there is inadequate information available to evaluate thiourea’s cancer threat to humans.

The wrongful death allegations against Hexagon are eerily similar to those made against BP Amoco PLC, where six workers developed brain cancer after working in the company’s Naperville research facility. The company is now facing at least 15 lawsuits.

But in the BP Amoco case, the company brought in university medical experts who conducted a lengthy investigation to pinpoint a cause; they were unable to isolate chemicals that could have caused the rare brain tumors, however.

The Hexagon suit is also reminiscent of Film Recovery Systems Inc., an Elk Grove Village-based company where a worker died in 1983 after being exposed to cyanide.

That case resulted in unprecedented prosecutions of corporate executives for knowingly exposing workers to hazardous chemicals. Two Film Recovery Systems executives went to prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

What makes Hexagon’s conduct particularly egregious, Kupets said, is that the chemical company targeted recent Hispanic immigrants for its workforce.

“This is a community that doesn’t assert their rights for fear of retribution or retaliation,” he said. “They targeted the Latino immigrant community because they could use these workers in ways they couldn’t use others.”

Josefina Aguilar said she first became worried about her husband in spring 1998 when she noticed his eyes had a yellowish tinge. Within weeks, he was unable to get off the sofa and had to go to the hospital, where his cancer was diagnosed.

He died five months later on Oct. 30 at age 30. The next month her son was diagnosed with leukemia.

The thing she regrets the most is chastising Alejandro for pushing the boys away when they wanted to hug him.

“This bothered me, and I’d say to him, “The kids don’t know if you’re dirty. What they need to know is that you’re their father.” So he would hug them when he got home, even though he hated to do it and he always worried about it.”

Tarn-X is no longer made at Hexagon’s plant in Grayslake, Kupets said.

Little is known about Hexagon, which is privately held. The company is owned by Robert Edison, who also holds the post of chief executive, Kupets said.

Chicago Tribune reporter Doug Holt and Jorge Luis Mota of Excito!, the Spanish-language weekly published by the Chicago Tribune, contributed to this report.

According to the complaint filed in the Illinois Circuit Court for Cook County, ethnic people were intentionally hired because, due to their background, education and primary language, they could not understand the dangers associated with chemical exposure. (Text of Complaint in Section B. Mealey’s Document #15-991103-103.)

Josefina Aguilar and other workers and their family members have been diagnose with different forms of cancer, including leukemia and stomach cancer. The plaintiff’s maintain that their cancer was caused by chemical exposure.

Defendant Hexagon Packaging Corp. formulates, manufactures and packages finished goods such as household waxes, polishes and cleaners. Other named defendants include Robert G. Edison, Manny Gutterman & Associates Inc., Jelmar, Blidco Inc., Better Day, d/b/a Better Day Co. Inc., and Joseph Ruth.

According to the complaint, thiourea is the primary chemical used in the blending of one or more compounds at Hexagon and is a known carcinogen. The carcinogenic chemical morpholine was also used at Hexagon, the complaint says.

No Protection

Aguilar maintains that Hexagon workers dealt with both dry and liquid chemicals and were not given protection from exposure or inhalation of the chemicals. Aguilar maintains that the liquid chemicals would often spill or leak onto the worker’s skin and clothing. Aguilar says that after the dry chemicals became airborne, the chemicals were inhaled and coated the workers’s skin and clothes.

According to the complaint, workers were not provided protective clothes, locker rooms or showers so that they could wash and change after chemical exposure. Likewise, the complaint alleges that the workers did not receive information, training or warnings regarding the hazardous chemicals and the possible effects on their health.

“Defendants Hexagon, Edison, Ruth and Day, intentionally and systematically hired, or directed the hiring of, individuals for the factory floor who because of their ethnic background, education and/or primary language, could not and would not understand the dangers associated with the chemical compounds they were exposed to,” Aguilar argues. “The Defendants intentionally failed to inform their factory workers about the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) and intentionally failed to provide access to the MSDS to workers, and failed to provide them in Spanish, which they knew was the primary language of their work force. The Defendants intentionally failed to provide its primarily Spanish speaking workers with a translation.”

The complaint also alleges that Hexagon and other defendants deceived certain workers by promising to pay their full wages, rather than pay them less wages on a workers’ compensation claim, until the statute of limitations allegedly expired, at which time the workers were fired.

Claims asserted include survival act, wrongful death, negligence and loss of consortium.

The complaint was filed by David J. Kupets of Kupets and DeCaro in Chicago.

November ‘09
$110,000.00 Settlement
Passenger of car injured when driver lost control of car.

October ‘09
$465,000.00 Settlement
Non-death motor vehicle accident.

July ‘09
$250,000.00 Settlement
Paramedics contributing to death of young man having an epileptic seizure.

July ‘09
$162,500.00 Settlement
Bus driver injured when he tripped on snow-covered rebar while accessing a portable toilet at construction site.

May ‘09
$395,000.00 Trial
Woman fell at O’Hare airport injuring herself.

April ‘09
$3,700,000.00 Settlement at Trial
Construction worker injured by semi-truck.  Case settled on fourth day of trial.  Semi-truck company’s last offer before trial was $2,000,000.00.

August ‘08
$2,750,000.00 Settlement
Woman’s death caused by failure to diagnose diabetes.

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The best way to ensure that your rights are protected is through a prompt legal consultation with an attorney who concentrates their practice in this area of the law.  Our initial consultations are free of charge and are always confidential.

-DAVID J. KUPETS