Pigeon Man's Family Sues for Wrongful Death

By Ali Trachta in News on Jun 18, 2008 2:38PM

The family of Joseph Zeman, better known as the Pigeon Man, filed a wrongful-death suit Tuesday against Isaac Fadida, the driver of the van that struck and killed the Lincoln Square icon late last year.

The suit comes on the heels of Fadida’s traffic court appearance on Friday in which he was found guilty on two charges: failure to exercise due care to avoid striking a pedestrian and driving an unsafe vehicle which, for the record, was a 16-year old Chevrolet van with defective brakes. Zeman was dragged down the street by the car until a witness flagged down the driver. He was pronounced dead two hours later at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston. On Friday, Fadida was ordered to pay $460 in fines.

After 47 years of running a newsstand in the Gold Coast, Zeman migrated to the corner of Western and Lawrence where he perched on a fire hydrant and befriended dozens of area pigeons. Zeman was known to be gentle with the birds and with his neighbors, and was a celebrated Chicago staple. [Trib, Sun-Times]