EAST ST. LOUIS – Sauget police left the body of crash victim Toshorn Napper Jr. in the rain for hours and didn’t contact his family or visit their home, his mother Terri Coleman-Napper alleged at U.S. district court on Feb. 7.
Her counsel Allison Stenger of Richmond Heights, Mo. wrote, “Decedent’s’ body was not handled with respect or care.”
Stenger opposed a motion from Sauget to dismiss Coleman-Napper’s complaint seeking damages for emotional distress.
“Reasonable jurors could conclude that defendant Sauget’s conduct was extreme and outrageous,” she wrote.
The action against Sauget amounts to a distinct dispute within a wrongful death suit against three other municipalities and two taverns.
Napper died on Nov. 14, 2020, when off duty Alton police officer Ashley Roever drove into the rear of his car at a railroad crossing on Route 3 in Sauget.
Grand jurors indicted Roever on charges of aggravated driving under the influence causing accidental death.
Coleman-Napper sued Alton in November as estate administrator, claiming Roever acted under color of law in the scope of her employment.
She sued Tiny’s Pub and Good Times Saloon, claiming Roever consumed numerous beverages at Tiny’s and additional beverages at Good Times.
She sued East Carondelet and Dupo, claiming police stopped Roever but let her continue driving.
Finally she sued Sauget, claiming police recklessly disregarded a probability that failure to handle the body reverently would cause distress to next of kin.
Sauget retained Thomas Ysursa of Belleville, who moved to dismiss the village from the complaint in January.
He claimed Coleman-Napper didn’t allege any outrageous conduct.
“A defendant’s conduct must be so extreme as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency and to be regarded as intolerable in a civilized community,” Ysursa wrote.
“Illinois law is clear that the coroner’s office has the sole duty and responsibility to secure the bodies of deceased persons.”
He quoted from the Coroner’s Act that no body shall be handled or removed unless necessary to prevent damage or to protect life and safety.
He claimed that when a vehicle accident results in a fatality, Illinois law requires a response from the state police accident reconstruction team.
“Allowing the Illinois state police to undertake their work does not constitute extreme and outrageous conduct,” he wrote.
He claimed Coleman-Napper didn’t allege that Sauget knew who the next of kin were or had a duty to find them.
“The mere suffering of emotional distress alone is not sufficient to give rise to a cause of action,” he wrote.
“Fright, horror, grief, shame, humiliation, worry, and other such mental conditions alone are not actionable.”
He also asserted general immunity of local government from tort liability.
In response for the estate, Stenger claimed state law didn’t immunize any of Sauget’s actions.
“Eyewitnesses state decedent’s body was left out in the rain for over four hours instead of being transported to the coroner’s office for proper care and examination,” she wrote.
“None of the family members who lived at the address on decedent’s license were contacted and police did not go to the address to notify his family as is customary.”
She claimed officers looked at a social media profile and notified a family member not in the immediate family.
Chief District Judge Nancy Rosenstengel set trial in April 2023.
She plans a scheduling conference in April.