The family of a 20-year-old Joliet woman left for dead on the side of McDonough Street has offered to settle a wrongful death lawsuit for $250,000.
The settlement deal calls for attorneys representing the estate of University of Illinois student Melissa Lech to get $84,325.09 of the settlement. Half of the remaining $165,674.91 will go to Lech's mother, Maria Lech. Melissa Lech's two sisters, Monica and Michelle Lech, would get $82,837.45 each, according to court papers.
Melissa Lech, a Plainfield South High School graduate, was run down on McDonough Street in August 2008. On the night of her death, she drank on the way up to a White Sox game, continued drinking at the game and on the way back to Joliet, and then headed to the Jefferson Street bar City of Champions, a source close to the case said.
Lech, under the influence and underage, was denied service at City of Champions, the source said. She was apparently on foot when she was run over about a half-mile away on McDonough Street.
The identity of the driver who hit Lech remained a mystery for three and a half years. In 2009, with the case still unsolved, her mother filed suit in Cook County Court against City of Champions, the White Sox, At Your Service LLC, Chisox Corp. and various others. The lawsuit was still pending when David McCarthy IV, a 28-year-old son of Naperville attorney David McCarthy III, was arrested in February 2012 and charged with the deadly wreck.
McCarthy reportedly turned up on the doorstep of Lech's sister Michelle and confessed to the hit-and-run accident. McCarthy remains in custody at the Will County jail on a $1 million bond and faces two felony charges in connection with the alleged hit-and-run accident.
The Cook County lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed soon after McCarthy's arrest, according to court records.
Neither the attorney for Lech's family, Frank Cservenyak, nor McCarthy's father, who is listed as the lawyer representing him in the civil matter, could be immediately reached for comment.
The next hearing on the civil case was set for Feb. 25.