February 23, 2008

Chief Ledbetter:

I, Fred Nance Jr., am writing this letter in response to how Officer Dee Cross #1937 handled an accident report on August 14, 2007. In addition, my daughter went to your police station to talk to Officer Cross and my daughter reports Officer Cross kept interrupting her when she was attempting to explain the auto accident to her.

I asked my daughter to get Officer Cross’ badge number, and it appears every time she requested it she was given the runaround. When my daughter asked your representatives for Officer Cross’ badge number, they have told her it is the Carbondale Police Department’s policy not to give out officers badge numbers. Officer Cross has even told my daughter she was too busy to talk to her and when she briefly did talk to her, Officer Cross told my daughter she was not going to change anything about her report, even though there are errors on her report.

On August 14, 2007, at approximately 3:34 pm in Schnucks Grocery store parking lot, at 915 West Main Street, Carbondale, Illinois 62901, my car was hit by another car. My car was backing out from a parking space when another car was speeding around the corner in the parking lot and hit my car.

My daughter, Randi Nance who was driving the car at the time, told this story to Officer Cross upon Officer Cross’ arrival to the scene of the accident. My daughter reports “I got in my car and looked both ways. I didn’t see anyone. As I continued to back out the rear of my car was half way out the parking spot. I paused, and unit 2’s car came speeding around the corner and hit me on his driver’s rear door, my driver’s rear bumper.”

Officer Cross wrote the following. “Information obtained at the scene: Driver of unit #1 stated she was backing out of a parking stall and did not see unit #2 traveling south behind her. She struck unit 2 in the rear driver’s door/rear quarter panel with the bumper of unit 1. Driver of unit 2 stated he was traveling south through the lot when unit 1 backed out of a parking stall and struck unit 2 with the bumper of unit 1.” Officer Cross did not issue any tickets.

I am questioning Officer Cross’ Illinois Crash Report and her statement above. Officer Cross identifies the color of unit 1 as Maroon. Unit 1’s color is Plum, almost purple. Officer Cross identifies unit 2’s color as “lite purple.” Unit 2’s color is silver. Officer Cross’ Illinois Crash Report states as a contributory cause(s): Primary #30 (improper backing) and Secondary #18 (unable to determine). There was no “improper backing” from unit 1. Unit 1 informed Officer Cross “…I got in my car and looked both ways. I didn’t see anyone….”

On the Illinois Crash Report where it requires a diagram, Officer Cross wrote “not required.” Why didn’t Officer Cross draw a diagram of how my car was “improperly backing” out of a parking space or how my car hit the other car or how the other car came speeding around the corner and hit my car. Officer Cross’ Illinois Crash Report has her badge number on it, which is 1937. Why didn’t Officer Cross provide my daughter with her badge number when she asked for it in the police station? What was there to hide? This number is not on Officer Cross’ Illinois Motorist Report given to my daughter at the scene of the accident nor is Officer Cross’ analysis of the situation written on the Illinois Motorist Report.

Officer Cross’ report was transmitted to AAA/Members Select, my auto insurance company, who paid out a claim against me in the amount of $2,190.00. This claim against me drives my auto rates up. This claim against me should not have been paid by my insurance company. This claim against me is “charge ability” with my insurance company and any other insurance company, suggesting my car was at fault in this accident when it was unit 2 who caused the accident by speeding in a parking lot.

I have talked the claim’s manager of my insurance company, Mr. Ryan Elarton. Mr. Elarton reports they paid this claim out because of Officer Cross’ report. Of course, I challenged the payout because I requested of the claims adjuster, Ms. Mary Linda McCall, to inform me of the documentation she received before making a final decision in this matter. I also challenged the payout because of the lack of investigation. I gave AAA a lot of documentation to substantiated my innocence in this matter.

Nevertheless, because of Officer Cross’ biased and prejudiced decision-making in this report, I have suffered injury. Officer Cross’ report must be rescinded. Please respond to this writing.

Respectfully submitted,

Fred Nance Jr., ABD, MA, CADC, NCRS

cc:        Ryan Elarton, Claims Manager AAA/Member Select Auto Insurance

            http://click.townhall.com/

            http://clickforjusticeandequality.blogspot.com/

February 11, 2008

Mr. Miquel del Valle, City Clerk

Office of the City Clerk

121 North LaSalle Street, Room 107

Chicago, Illinois 60602-1295

Re:       Potholes in the Chicago Area

Mr. Valle:

I, Fred L Nance Jr., am writing this letter accompanying my complaint to the Office of the City Clerk because I was informed by Mr. Kevin on February 11, 2008 I had 1-year from the date of the pothole damage to my car or occurrence to file this claim with your office. I filed this claim in a timely fashion but to the wrong entity. The entity filed was the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT). I was never informed of a jurisdictional issue. I have attached the complaint filed with IDOT, and its attachments, with the City of Chicago’s complaint.

I am filing this with your office because of the recent news releases by the I-Team of ABC. I informed the I-Team of my complaint with IDOT, and posted it to them on their website. I am posting this letter on my blogs also.

My incident occurred on 95^th Street and Stony Island on January 10, 2006 at approximately 10:30 pm as I was going home from church. As I drove south on Stony Island, crossing 95^th Street, my car engaged a tremendous pothole where my tire was blown out. I replaced the tire at Pepboys. The replacement tire cost me $64.30. I reported this to IDOT on their claims form. IDOT never told me about Chicago’s jurisdiction.

IDOT denied my claim. IDOT’s denial of my claim makes no sense. I received a letter from IDOT on January 31, 2006 stating, in part, “…The Illinois Department of Transportation discovered the pothole on Stony Island south of 95^th Street at 8:28 pm on Tuesday, January 10, 2006. The Emergency Traffic Patrol driver that observed the pothole determined at that time that the pothole was not a hazard and the repair was scheduled for the next day. The pothole was repaired by the maintenance yard by 6:39 am on Wednesday, January 11, 2006….”

On May 1, 2006 I received a letter from Ms. Christine Ridge of IDOT stating, in part, “…The Department maintains over 45,000 lane miles of highway within the State with over 10,000 lane miles in District One alone. In consideration of this, the courts have consistently recognized it is not possible for the Department to have notice of every defect immediately upon its occurrence. Liability, therefore, must be determined based on our notice of a defect and lack of expedience in repairing said defect. Since in this case repairs were made within a reasonable amount of time after notification of the defect, the State of Illinois, Department of Transportation is not legally liable for your loss….”

In response to another letter written by me to Governor Blagojevich on May 7, 2006 after receipt of the May 1, 2006 correspondence from Ms. Ridge, Secretary Timothy W. Martin assigned James Sterr, Bureau Chief of Claims, to conduct an independent investigation of my claim.

On June 27, 2006 IDOT’s Mr. Sterr “further” denied my claim stating, in part, “…The Department is permitted to pay claims where it is deemed negligent and a legal liability exists. The amount of the claim is not a determining factor as to liability or compensability…Ms. Ridge’s letter explained the legal reasons why a denial was proper…That office reviewed highway incident reports for thirty (30) days prior to the alleged incident. There were no prior reports of potholes or any other defects at 95^th and Stoney Island….”

It appears IDOT found various reasons to deny my claim. They did not attempt to find way to honor it.

Therefore, since there have been many claims with the City of Chicago in past days; and since I-Team’s Chuck Goudie has had his encounter with potholes in Chicago and reported it Nationally; and knowing how “quickly” your office has come to the “aid” of your constituents no matter the length of time in reporting a claim, I request to know how you view my situation. The public would also like to know to how you view my issue, because how you view my issue will impact their claims against Chicago’s pothole problem.

I will post this letter on my blogs at http://clickforjusticeandequality.blogspot.com/ and http://click.townhall.com/. I will also post this letter on the I-Team’s website for review. I hope to hear from your office soon.

In addition, the consumer/public should be well aware of how our judicial system and the others who are appointed to office, to which we elect. The ones appointing these people into office are generally supporters of their candidacies. It appears on its face from my experience, that the ones elected into office and appointing those to other offices within their departments do not have their constituents in mind when making decisions.

Consumers you better beware of those you elect into offices because of their promises. Their promises become “empty” real quick. Some of these appointments to judicial positions are lifetime appointments.

Respectfully submitted,

Fred Nance Jr., ABD, MA, CADC, NCRS

cc:        http://clickforjusticeandequality.blogspot.com/

            http://click.townhall.com/