Lawsuits over fatal police shootings continue in courts

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Updated: March 3, 2012 8:15AM

Two “wrongful death” lawsuits in response to shootings by area police continue to wind their way through Cook County Circuit Court.

The first was filed against Franklin Park by Patricia Mojziszek in 2010 after police shot and killed her former husband Dan Mojziszek on Jan. 11, 2010.

According to reports at the time, police spotted 52-year-old Dan Mojziszek of Lombard driving a Buick erratically on Mannheim Road. Franklin Park police followed his vehicle through parts of Melrose Park, Stone Park and into Northlake. During the low-speed chase, several other police departments joined in pursuit.

Police managed to push Dan Mojziszek’s vehicle to the side of the road at 61 E. Lake St. Franklin Park Police Chief Mike Witz said at the time that, “Officers surrounded the vehicle. The vehicle continued to move back and forth. At which time, officers believed they were in danger of the driver using the vehicle to run them over (and) officers discharged their weapons.”

Dan Mojziszek was taken to Elmhurst Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Witz said the Illinois State Police integrity unit investigated the shooting and Franklin Park police were found to have acted lawfully.

Patricia Mojziszek disagrees. In the lawsuit, her attorney argues that Dan Mojziszek’s “vehicle was stopped by one or more police officers by curbing the vehicle making it impossible for (Mojziszek) to drive away, harm or pose a threat of death or great bodily harm to others.”

The court papers also say that Dan Mojziszek was not armed with a weapon, stayed in the vehicle when stopped and that “police knowingly employed deadly force before allowing (Mojziszek) to surrender to police.”

Attorneys for Franklin Park police argue that officers were justified “because they were acting in self-defense, in the defense of others and to prevent Dan Mojziszek from injuring persons on the scene.”

Dan Mojziszek had a history of driving drunk, according to a press release at the time from Franklin Park police. According the DuPage County Coroner’s Office, however, Mojziszek was not intoxicated.

In the other case, Northlake police shot and killed Sean Coe, 40, of Chicago, the morning of Aug. 19, 2010. Police said at the time that they caught Coe burglarizing a house on the first block of Armitage Avenue. Police cornered Coe on the 400 block of Haber Court, where, they said, he pulled a knife and stabbed two officers.

Coe had been convicted of three burglaries in Cook County since 1997.

Joyce Coe-Beckham, his mother, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Northlake in 2011 on behalf of Sean’s son. In court papers, her attorneys argue Northlake police “used force that was greater than reasonably necessary to attempt to arrest the plaintiff.”

Northlake Police Chief Dennis Koletsos did not respond to requests for comment on this article.

Neither case has gone to trial yet.