Posted on 04/25/2014 2:01:28 PM PDT by rickmichaels
ALCONA - Still in the throes of agony from losing their son in a vehicle crash, the parents of young Brandon Majewski are now reeling after they learned the woman who struck and killed him is suing their dead child.
“I feel like someone kicked me in the stomach – I’m over the edge,” the dead boy’s father Derek Majewski said.
As he sits in his immaculate Alcona home sifting through piles of photographs of his son, the heartache shows on his face and he can hardly contain his tears as he speaks.
Just down the road, on the side of a quiet country stretch of Innisfil Beach Rd., is a memorial complete with a bicycle, flowers and photographs of his son Brandon.
The spunky, handsome, 17-year-old bike enthusiast was out with his two buddies on Oct. 28, 2012 when they hopped on their bicycles to go for hotdogs on a drizzly, dark night around 1:30 a.m.
Brandon was struck dead-on by an SUV and killed while his friend Richard McLean, 16, was seriously injured with broken bones and pelvis. His other pal Jake Roberts, 16, was hit but sustained only scratches.
Now the driver of the SUV, Sharlene Simon, a mother of three, is suing the dead boy for the emotional trauma it has caused her. She’s also suing the two other boys, as well as the dead boy’s parents, and even his brother, who has since died. She’s also suing the County of Simcoe for failing to maintain the road.
Even the family’s lawyer is in shock.
“In all of my years as a lawyer, I have never seen anyone ever sue a child that they killed,” Barrie lawyer Brian Cameron said. “It’s beyond the pale.”
In fact, he couldn’t even call the family to tell them the news this week.
“I just couldn’t bring myself to tell them on the phone.”
After a face-to-face meeting Tuesday, the parents and stepparents left his office almost staggering in disbelief.
“I’m devastated, I’m in shock,” said Brandon's mother, Venetta Mlynczyk, a dental assistant who is drowning in sorrow. “She killed my child and now she wants to profit from it? She says she’s in pain? Tell her to look inside my head and she will see pain, she will see panic, she will see nightmares.”
“It blows my mind,” Brandon’s stepmom, Lisa Tessier, said. “We are all devastated. This is so cruel.”
In a statement of claim filed with the courts, Simon is claiming $1.35-million in damages due to her psychological suffering, including depression, anxiety, irritability and post traumatic stress. She blames the boys for negligence.
“They did not apply their brakes properly,” the claim states. “They were incompetent bicyclists."
Simon's lawyer yet to return a call from the Toronto Sun.
Brandon’s father shakes his head.
“They’re kids!” he gasps. “And they have a right to make mistakes ... it was a wet, dark road – what about slowing down?”
He insists the reflectors on the bikes would have been visible.
A South Simcoe Police report shows Simon was driving at an estimated 90 km/h in an 80-km zone.
The report also states: “no breathalyzer was performed” – a point the lawyer intends to delve deeper into, he says.
Her husband, Jules Simon, a York Regional Police officer, was driving behind his wife that night, but little is mentioned about him as a witness in the police report. He pulled over when Brandon was struck, and shortly after both were allowed to go home. It was another witness who pulled over to tend to Brandon and called 911.
Two hours later, after Brandon lay dead in hospital from multiple traumatic injuries, police knocked on the door of his home.
The dogs began to bark. It was late.
“I knew,” says his father, and his voice breaks again. “I had a gut feeling.”
Therapy, medication, even booze, doesn’t dull the pain.
And then, six months after the funeral, he awoke to find his second son Devon, 23, who had just graduated as a paralegal, laying in his bed, blue and dead, after popping too many pills and drinking too many shots. Not an intended suicide, they are certain – he was just trying to stifle his grief.
“This has ripped our family apart,” says Majewski. “And now this woman has the gall to try to profit from our dead child she killed? Profit from another boy who was almost crippled?”
He flips again through the family photographs. Happy times of fishing, dirt biking, swimming, eating birthday cake, laughing. He chuckles for a moment when he remembers all the bikes his son rebuilt – sometimes he would sneak the parts right into his bedroom, and shine them till they gleamed. All another world away.
“This thing haunts us,” he says. “It will never stop haunting us.”
Cameron has launched a routine lawsuit against the driver, mainly for medical and funeral costs on behalf of the boys and their families. He alleges Simon was speeding and may have been intoxicated and talking on her cell phone.
“Sharlene Simon failed to take reasonable care to avoid a collision which she saw or should have seen was likely to occur,” his claim states. “She operated the motor vehicle while she was intoxicated.”
None of the allegations have been tested in court.
Brandon Majewski
Suing the taxpayers, in other words.
Despicable doesn’t even begin to cover it.
[fixing tagline]
Wow, that is like beating someone senseless then suing them for hurting your hand....
And there is a good chance that she had been drinking as also may have been the case with her policeman husband who was following. This is evil. The woman and her cop husband left the scene with no breathalyzer being taken and without calling 911.
In most places a 17-year old can be licensed to drive. So he was not quite a child. Were they wearing dark clothing and riding without lights? Suing seems beyond the pale, but that accident was terrible for the driver as well as the kid and his family.
This sounds to be like the woman knew she was going to get sued by the families, and took the offensive in the hope of getting them to drop their potential suit against her.
But it makes her look like an cruel moron.
Ah, her husband’s a cop, and was on the scene. Now we know why she wasn’t breathalyzed.
See post #6 for more of the back story.
Hopefully, the right judge will throw this out of court before costing the kid’ family much more money. The second choice is the killing driver will be so hounded and ridiculed online, affecting the jobs of both her and the husband, that the suit will be quickly withdrawn. Sort of like the Spoiled Nasty Suburban Princess who wanted to sue her parents for tuition.
Hopefully the Canadian legal system isn’t as whacked as ours.
She should include her father for siring her. Her Mother for conceiving and giving birth to her. And the doctor for delivering her. With her class and compassion, she has to be a Democrat.
yep, she was probably drunk and the cops on the scene let her go because she was a fellow cops wife.
I hope the judge fines her for wasting the court’s time after he trows the case out.
Looks like the fix is in.
Here’s an interesting tidbit. Somehow the family’s lawyer knew about the lawsuit before the family did.
I don’t know about Canada but in this country about the only way that could happen is if there was already a lawsuit underway — and this was a cross-complaint.
I’d be interested to know if the Majewskys had already sued the woman in question,
I’m not supporting the lawsuit, but the teens were showing pee-poor judgment:
“The teens were struck while riding on the eastbound lane of the two-lane stretch of IBR in a dimly lit area on a damp, drizzly night.”
“they hopped on their bicycles to go for hotdogs on a drizzly, dark night around 1:30 a.m....”
“Brandon’s father shakes his head.
“They’re kids!” he gasps. “And they have a right to make mistakes ... it was a wet, dark road – what about slowing down?””
This is also a counter-lawsuit:
“Cameron has launched a routine lawsuit against the driver, mainly for medical and funeral costs on behalf of the boys and their families. He alleges Simon was speeding and may have been intoxicated and talking on her cell phone. “Sharlene Simon failed to take reasonable care to avoid a collision which she saw or should have seen was likely to occur,” his claim states. “She operated the motor vehicle while she was intoxicated.” “
I honestly don’t see much justification for EITHER side to be suing the other.
Oh lookie! I found the reason no breathalyzer was performed on Mrs. Speedy.
They should countersue for wrongful death.
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