Business & Tech

Teen & Dad Suing New Lenox Berkot's, Say Store Workers Roughed Up, Knocked Out Son

The Berkot's crew also lied to the police and the teen spent a weekend in juvenile jail, the lawsuit said.

Employees of the New Lenox Berkot's beat a teen until they knocked him out, then lied to the police and got him locked up in juvenile jail for a weekend, according to a lawsuit filed in Will County court.

The suit brought by Nicholas Brown and his father, David Brown, names Berkot's as the sole defendant.

According to the lawsuit, Nicholas Brown visited the 2141 Calistoga Drive Berkot's on March 9, 2012, and left the store without buying anything.

An employee followed Nicholas Brown and asked him to come back inside, the suit said. Nicholas Brown was escorted to a room and asked to sit down before five employees "pushed, shoved, punched, slapped, grabbed, suffocated, and otherwise battered" him until he "passed out and lost consciousness," the suit said.

To add insult to injury, according to the lawsuit, the Berkot's workers "made false allegations" to New Lenox police officers, telling the law Nicholas Brown "battered each of them in various ways."

Nicholas Brown was then "arrested by the New Lenox Police Department, fingerprinted and held in the custody of the New Lenox Police Department and the Will County Juvenile Detention Facility," and spent a weekend locked up before a prosecutor "dismissed all complaints pending against" him, the suit said.

The store workers allegedly held Nicholas Brown in the store against his will—and then beat him and lied to the police—even though they knew he "had not stolen or converted any merchandise belonging or in the possession" of Berkot's, the suit said.

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