Family Says City Left Body Parts in Road

CHICAGO (CN) - After a suburban police officer hit and killed a pedestrian, the suburb left large pieces of the dead man's body to decompose on the street, the family claims in court.

Oscar Morales sued the Village of Wheeling on Monday in Cook County Court, on behalf of his late brother, Fredi Morales.

Early Sunday morning, Fredi Morales was crossing McHenry Road and Cedar Run Drive in Wheeling, pop. 38,000, a northern suburb of Chicago, Oscar Morales says.

"The location where the plaintiff's decedent was crossing McHenry Road is the entrance to the Sams Club parking lot and used as a de facto cross-walk," according to the complaint. The shopping center also includes a Walmart Supercenter.

"On September 14, 2014, at approximately 5:45 a.m., the aforementioned police vehicle, while traveling at an unreasonably high rate of speed, struck the plaintiff's decedent, Fredi Morales.

"Immediately prior to the aforementioned impact between a Village of Wheeling police vehicle and the plaintiff's decedent, Fredi Morales, the police vehicle was being operated without its mars/emergency lights and/or sirens."

Fredi would have turned 21 on Friday, according to the Chicago Tribune. He was born in the United States, moved to Oaxaca, Mexico as a young boy, and moved back to the states two years ago to earn money to support his family.

The Wheeling police department did not identify the officer involved, but said he was a 22-year veteran of the force, and had been trying to turn around to catch a traffic violator when he hit Morales, the Tribune reported.

After the accident, the Village's major traffic incident investigation team collected Morales' body and body parts scattered about the sidewalk and roadway, and sprayed down the scene with water, according to the complaint.

But they did not do a thorough job, Oscar says.

"It was reasonable to expect the family of Fredi Morales, including his brother, plaintiff Oscar Morales, to come to the scene of said tragedy to grieve and attempt to comprehend the death.

"Over 24 hours after the death of his brother, Fredi Morales, plaintiff Oscar Morales came to the scene to grieve and mourn his brother.

"At said time and place, the plaintiff Oscar Morales was subjected to viewing various pieces of his brother's body that were left to decompose on the roadway and parkway, including portions as large as 3 inches by 1 inch that were circled and left after the major traffic investigation concluded.

"The act of leaving portions of human remains scattered about the roadway, parkway and sidewalk, to decompose in the open, by the Village of Wheeling, after concluding the investigation and leaving the scene is of such extreme nature that no reasonable person, subjected to viewing them, should be expected to bear it," Oscar says.

Police officers later returned, collected the remaining pieces of Fredi's body and delivered them to the River Woods Funeral Chapel, according to the complaint.

Morales seeks damages for willful and wanton misconduct, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

He is represented by Erron Fisher with Fisher & LaMonica.

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