A south suburban family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Yorkville Police Department, saying they are at fault in the January death of a teenage girl who crashed her car while fleeing a Yorkville police officer in a residential subdivision.
Nichelle Hill, 17, of Dolton, died after she crashed the stolen car she was driving during a pursuit through the city’s Heartland subdivision, where she was accused of stealing packages that were later found in the car, police said.
Through private attorneys, Luther Hill, Nichelle’s father, filed a complaint this week in Kendall County Circuit Court against the police department, asking for in excess of $50,000 – the minimum jurisdictional amount for this type of suit – and other relief the court deems appropriate.
“This unjustifiable chase, which flagrantly violated Yorkville Police Department’s policies and procedures, proximately caused the untimely and unfortunate death of a minor child,” the complaint alleges.
Yorkville Police Deputy Chief Terry Klingel declined to comment on the case. City Administrator Bart Olson did not immediately return a voice mail about the litigation.
Nichelle Hill, a junior at Thornridge High School, loved to write, draw and listen to music, according to the complaint, which states that her parents and eight siblings “loved her dearly and grieve her loss.”
While police received a phone call about someone – allegedly Hill – taking packages from the porch of a home, there was no mention the suspect was armed or that she actually went inside the residence, according to the complaint.
When the responding officer attempted a traffic stop on the car Hill was driving, her decision to briefly stop, then drive away, was unfortunate, the complaint states.
But she was “immediately, aggressively and recklessly” pursued at an “extremely high rate of speed,” especially considering they were in a residential area at a time when many families normally commute, the complaint argues.
The officer in reports said the teen’s car was exceeding the speed limit and driving erratically, as if the driver was unsure where to turn to get out of the subdivision.
As the cars approached Heartland and Farmstead Drive, the teen lost control, her vehicle went off the roadway and struck a tree, according to the officer’s report. The driver was ejected from the car, according to police. The car landed upright on its wheels, and the tree ended up in the yard of a home on the block.
The complaint filed by Hill’s father claims the officer carelessly and negligently failed to do a list of 20 things, including maintain proper control over his squad car and weighing the seriousness of the crime against the duration and distance the pursuit could encompass.
As a result of the pursuit, Hill lost control of her car, causing it to smash into a tree, causing her death that day, the complaint alleges.
The complaint references the pursuing officer’s dash cam video, which the Beacon-News previously obtained from the police department and published.
“The video demonstrates that the Yorkville police officer never terminated his pursuit,” the complaint reads. “He stopped his vehicle only after (Hill) tragically lost control of her vehicle, crashing violently into a tree at a high rate of speed, causing the tree to fall (and) the vehicle to flip over, at which point she was ejected and laid dying on a freezing patch of grass in front of a single-family home on a Thursday morning.”
Twitter @hannahmleone
