Wood River attorney Thomas Maag filed a lawsuit against Special Olympics Illinois, alleging an employee took a disabled athlete to his vehicle and inappropriately touched the minor.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of plaintiff Yang Kim, as parent and next friend of K, on Jan. 13 in the Madison County Circuit Court against Richard Henley and Special Olympics Illinois. The suit alleges violations of the Illinois Gender Violence Act.
Special Olympics Illinois has not responded to a request for comment.
According to the complaint, K is a disabled minor and was participating in an event sponsored by Special Olympics Illinois on Jan. 15, 2020. Henley was working at the event for Special Olympics.
Maag wrote that Henley made “unwanted and highly offensive contact with K, the minor, when he thought no-one (sic) would see him, based, at least in part, on K’s gender, by taking K out of the building and into a parked car.”
Maag alleges Special Olympics Illinois has received several complaints about Henley concerning inappropriately touching others like K. The suit states that Special Olympics knew or should have known that Henley had a “particular unfitness” for the position, creating danger of harm to others.
“That the particular unfitness of propensity for offensive battery of Henley proximately caused the plaintiff’s injury,” Maag wrote.
Kim seeks damages in excess of $50,000 under the Illinois Gender Violence Act, including injunctive relief, actual damages, damages for emotional distress, punitive damages, attorney’s fees and court costs.
Madison County Circuit Court case number 22-LA-43