A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed by the father of a four-year-old boy who drowned in a Glenview pool last year.
The father filed the lawsuit against Wesley Child Care Center, the Village of Glenview and Glenview Park District, on behalf of his son, Vicente Emanuel Cardenas. The five-count lawsuit claims that camp counselors knew or should have known that the boy was not an experienced swimmer when they brought him to the pool.
Cardenas died on June 15, 2012, just five days shy of his fifth birthday. He drowned at Glenview’s Roosevelt Outdoor Aquatic Pool while he was on a field trip with a camp group of 19 children run by Wesley Child Care, based in Glenview. The boy slipped away from the larger group and drowned in the deep end of the pool. The Glenview Police Department conducted a two-month investigation of the drowning and did not file any criminal charges. The Department of Children and Family Services conducted its own investigation, which did not result in the child care center losing its license or any employees being disciplined.
The complaint, filed May 30, accuses the defendants of negligence. An attorney representing the family said that they have suffered tremendous emotional trauma and are seeking damages of more than $10 million. According to the attorney, Vicente was a special-needs child who had a developmental disability.