How Bad Can a Worker Get? University of Nebraska Knows

OMAHA, Neb. (CN) — That didn’t work out too well. The University of Nebraska sued a window-cleaning company, claiming it hired a recidivist felon who spent 45 minutes throwing rocks at a cancer center’s windows, breaking $51,315 worth of them.

The Board of Regents sued Crystal Clear Inc. dba the Squeegee Squad, a South Dakota corporation, in Douglas County Court.

For starters, according to the Sept. 7 lawsuit, neither Crystal Clear nor the Squeege Squad is licensed to work in Nebraska, though they have an office in Omaha.

Worse, the university says, the defendants hired a man to clean “the exterior glazed surfaces at the Buffett Cancer Center.”

For reasons uncertain, the worker threw rocks at the windows for 45 minutes on May 2, doing $51,315.09 worth of damage to them, and another $24,910 in damages to a Jan Kaneko sculpture on the Cancer Center grounds, according to the complaint.

Nebraska filed criminal charges against the worker, who is not a defendant to the university’s complaint.

The school’s complaint lists 17 crimes to which the worker pleaded guilty, or no contest, or for which he was convicted before his rock-throwing spree, including seven felonies — two of them drug charges, plus burglary, assault, two charges of arson, and felony unlawful use of a vehicle.

It seeks $76,225.09 in damages, plus interest, for negligence.

It is represented by John A. McWilliams, with Cassem, Tierney, Adams, Gotch & Douglas.

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