JACKSON CO., Ill.—The wrongful death suit filed by a grieving family over their son’s death in February has now been filed at the Jackson County Courthouse in Murphysboro, Illinois.
The family of Pravin Varughese drove down from Chicago today to join their attorney, Charles Stegmeyer, at the courthouse to file the case, which lists as respondents Gaege Bethune (originally of Eldorado, although he may be residing in West Frankfort at this time), The City of Carbondale, and Carbondale police chief Jody O’Guinn.
The suit seeks to hold responsible for Pravin’s death the above-named individuals or entities.
Like all wrongful death suits, when it’s filed, it has to be styled under certain guidelines. Most wrongful death cases are styled under “L” (Legal), a general case type that covers court actions not described as small claims, chancery, miscellaneous remedy, etc. “L” cases require a statement of money demand; in this case, Stegmeyer listed a demand in excess of $50,000. However, that monetary demand is NOT a “price” for someone’s death; it’s merely a technicality of the styling per court directives….so any detractors believing that the Varughese family is “after money” couldn’t be further from the truth on that assertion.
Ang spoke with Lovely Varughese this morning, who thanked us for our ongoing coverage of the situation. Ang told her that we are always happy to cover such outrages as what’s occurred with this case, which includes public officials obscuring facts, an intensified effort on the part of authorities to NOT do anything resembling an investigation, demeaning of the family (who all have medical backgrounds) when they had their own autopsy and toxicology done on Pravin’s body, and other attacks on the Varughese’s integrity and character. She also apologized for our sometimes brutal delivery of the facts. However, brutal is what we do here, for those who aren’t familiar with it. When our public officials are either so inept or corrupt that a citizen has to take matters into his or her own hands, that’s when the gloves come off. There are no excuses for it. We pay these people with our tax money which is taken from us regularly, by force of threat of losing everything we have; the least we can expect back is their all-out effort to resolve the death of a young person, regardless of the circumstances surrounding it…and in Carbondale, we’re not getting it.
More to come as the case develops; please mark your RSS feeds and visit us on our many social networking sites, including Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Tumblr and of course, the ever-fading Facebook page for updates. We try to bring them to you first, and if we don’t get them first, we get them better…since we’re not afraid of the powers-that-be, nor of corrupt public officials who have threatened us, and others trying to get to the truth, over this and other cases we’ve covered through the years. Thanks for reading; be sure to listen to Ang’s NewsCap tonight in case updates come in between now and then.
Monica Zukas, who has been instrumental in helping the Varughese family in their fight for the truth, stands at center with attorney Charles Stegmeyer and surrounded by the Varughese family upon filing of the lawsuit earlier today.