A Romeoville man claims his lying lady friend whipped her daughter and three of her pals into such a frenzy that they pulled him out of his home, beat him senseless and cracked his skull with a golf club.
The allegedly wronged man, Thomas Lerch, laid out his grievances in a lawsuit filed this week at the Will County Courthouse.
Lerch said his girlfriend at the time, Lana Richards, 44, was taken to the Romeoville police station in September after a "domestic altercation" at the Dalhart Avenue home they were sharing.
While at the station, Richards called her daughter, Melissa Richards, 25, and "falsely told" her she "had been beaten by Thomas Lerch," the lawsuit said. She also asked for a ride.
When the daughter took the call, the lawsuit said, she was "partying" with three Lockport men—Kurt Hodges, 27, Gregory Kijek, 26, and Johnathan Bolisenga, 29. Melissa Richards and the three men "had become intoxicated," the lawsuit said, "and were still in a state of intoxication."
But that didn't stop them from heading over to the police station to pick up Lana Richards, the suit said, and from there they made the trip to Lerch's house "in order to 'teach him a lesson' and avenge Lana."
Once there, the younger of the two women "lured" Lerch to the door, the suit said. As Lerch was talking to her through the screen door, "Hodges approached stealthily from behind the door and abruptly jerked the door open thereby pulling (Lerch) through the doorway and out into the open," where Hodges knocked him to the ground and started working him over.
Melissa Richards jumped in, the suit said, and Bolisenga "encouraged" the two of them in their efforts.
While Richards and Hodges were giving Lerch the business—with Bolisenga's encouragement—Kijek and Lana Richards went into the house where they grabbed some things and broke others, including telephones, a laptop computer and other electronic equipment, the lawsuit said.
Somewhere along the way Kijek came across a golf club, the suit said, which he decided to "use as a bludgeon" on Lerch, who ended up with a fractured skull and broken nose, not to mention broken facial bones, a brain contusion, and other serious injuries.
Kijek, Hodges, Bolisenga and the two Richards all were arrested in the wake of the alleged attack. Kijek, Hodges, Lana Richards and Melissa Richards were charged with aggravated battery and criminal trespass to a residence. Bolisenga was charged with obstructing justice. Their cases are still pending.