The household of an Ohio woman killed by a registered intercourse offender in 2017 acquired a $1 million authorized settlement after suing the town of Cleveland and different entities.
A Cuyahoga County Probate Court docket authorised the $1 million settlement after the dad and mom of 14-year-old Alianna DeFreeze sued for wrongful loss of life.
As CrimeOnline beforehand reported, convicted intercourse offender Christopher Whittaker was convicted in 2018 and sentenced to loss of life for torturing, raping, and Alianna. He approached her at a bus cease and lured her to an deserted house, the place she was later discovered useless. She by no means made it to highschool that day.
Damon DeFreeze and Donnesha Cooper later sued the college district, the town of Cleveland, E Prep and Village Prep Woodland Hills, Lynesha Richardson, and Buddies of Breakthrough Colleges within the swimsuit — together with the person behind bars for killing their daughter.
In 2019, the dad and mom’ lawyer launched an announcement explaining why the swimsuit was filed within the Cuyahoga County Court docket of Widespread Pleas this week.
“Sadly when these circumstances occur, you need to maintain each single individual accountable,” stated Allen Boseman. “You’ll be able to’t let anybody off the hook right here, everybody performed a task.”
Particularly, the dad and mom argued that the employees at Alianna’s college, E Prep, didn’t inform them that Alianna failed to point out up in school on the day of her disappearance. This was regardless of a brand new program designed to ship textual content messages with such details about college students.
Cooper stated she turned involved about her daughter at about 4 p.m. on January 26, 2017, and contacted college employees, who in the end confirmed the unexcused absence.
The dad and mom are stated the failure of college directors to inform them ended up losing time throughout which DeFreeze may need been rescued. As an alternative, Alianna was tortured and raped earlier than she was brutally killed.
Along with the college, the swimsuit claimed that the town was not correctly monitoring the realm the place the sufferer’s physique was discovered. Extra particularly, the dad and mom sued the deserted house’s house owners for improper upkeep and monitoring.
DeFreeze’s loss of life led to motion on the state legislative stage with the passage of Alianna’s Alert, which requires all colleges to ship a message to oldsters inside two hours of studying a pupil is absent with out excuse.
In line with Fox 8, a court docket listening to for the proposed settlement is scheduled for subsequent month.
For the most recent true crime and justice information, subscribe to the ‘Crime Tales with Nancy Grace’ podcast. Here’s a earlier episode on the case.
[Feature Photo: Alianna DeFreeze/Handout]
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