Woman Suing Joliet Mayor

Falana Turner is suing Joliet Mayor Bob O’Dekirk for $50,000 in damages after a car accident that occurred a year ago. On February 5 of 2018, O’Dekirk and Turner collided after O’Dekirk made an improper left turn on the intersection of North Center Street and Charlotte Avenue. According to The Herald News, O’Dekirk received court three months of court supervision and was fined $250 for the crash. Turner was taken to Presence Saint Joseph Medical Center complaining of head pain.

According to the lawsuit filed on Tuesday January 29, Turner claims “O’Dekirk negligently and carelessly failed to keep a proper lookout ahead of his car so as to be able to stop before striking Turner’s vehicle.” The lawsuit also claims that O’Dekirk was “negligent and careless” in several other ways in the incident, such as failing to reduce his speed to avoid a collision. Per Patch.com, Turner's lawyer wrote that her client suffered significant "bodily injury of a personal and pecuniary nature .... Falana Turner ... has been caused to suffer pain and disability, has suffered a loss of a normal life, and has lost and will continue to lose profit earnings and wages she otherwise would have acquired."

That accident was the fourth accident that Mayor O’Dekirk has been in and the third that involved a city car. The first reported accident with a city vehicle was on March 13, 2018. O’Dekirk was in a nine vehicle crash at the McDonough Street Bridge. The second was unreported but the Mayor claims that it too was “weather related” and no one was injured. Mayor O’Dekirk cites his misfortune beginning last year when he and his wife were driving to Minnesota. According to Patch.com, while driving to the Mayo Clinic located in Minnesota he struck a deer crossing the road.