Lawsuit Filed In Fox River Drownings

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Nov 20, 2008 5:20PM

Virginia Choice, the mother of Melvin Choice III, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit in the drowning death of her son. Melvin was one of three teens who drowned at an area camp last week when they sneaked out of their cabin and took a paddle boat on the river which then sank. The suit names VisionQuest (the leadership camp the boys were attending), YMCA of McHenry County (who runs Camp Algonquin where the drownings occurred), and North Lawndale College Preparatory High School (the school the boys attended) as defendants. The suit claims "the defendants failed to secure paddle boats or warn that the plugs on the bottom of the boats had been removed." The plug removals were part of the camps winterizing of the boats.