Melissa Lech’s mother waits for justice

JOLIET – It has been almost six years since Melissa Lech was fatally run down on McDonough Street.

It has been over two years since David H. McCarthy, allegedly overwhelmed by guilt, admitted to the Lech family that he was the driver who struck her.

It’s been a frustrating wait for Melissa’s mother, Maria.

“I’m a forgiving person. Accidents happen. But the fact that he left her to die ... ran away, I can’t forgive,” Maria Lech said before McCarthy appeared in court Tuesday.

“If he’d stopped ... I’d be in there crying with him,” she added.

During Tuesday’s court appearance, the judge scheduled the trial for McCarthy, 29, of Naperville, to start June 23. He’s being tried for failing to report an accident involving an injury or death, and is being held in the county jail on $1 million bond.

Maria Lech has attended all of McCarthy’s hearings and had many questions for Assistant Will County State’s Attorney Chris Koch, who was recently assigned to the case.

“I haven’t been informed about [prosecutor] changes. They’ve made me feel like a nobody, while everyone acknowledges [McCarthy],” she said.

State’s Attorney spokesman Charles B. Pelkie said several assistant state’s attorneys recently were reassigned and the office is taking steps to inform all victims and families in cases being prosecuted.

“We are reaching out as each case comes up and having our victims’ advocate contact them,” Pelkie said.

About 12:20 a.m. Aug, 7, 2008, Melissa Lech, 20, was found bleeding on the road in front of the Illinois Youth Center Correctional Facility.

At the time of her death Lech, a graduate of Plainfield South High School, was about to return for her junior year at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she was studying political science. She had worked at the Abercrombie & Fitch and Coach stores in Oakbrook Terrace, and was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority.

The search for the driver that struck Lech included a unique entry in a televised race at Chicagoland Speedway in 2011, when one car was posted with decals of her picture and requests for information.

On Feb. 26, 2012, McCarthy reportedly knocked on the door of Michelle Lech, Melissa’s older sister, to tell her that he thought about what happened every time the case was mentioned in the news. Michelle Lech gave McCarthy’s license plate number to Joliet police and he was arrested later that day.

In the three-and-a-half years between Melissa’s death and the arrest, McCarthy was also charged with DUI and assaulting a family member.

The Lech family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against McCarthy a few months after his arrest that was settled last summer with $150,000 from Lech’s insurance company and $100,000 from McCarthy’s, Maria Lech said Tuesday.

“There were comments on the Internet that I was all about the money and didn’t care about Melissa,” Maria Lech said. “I can’t believe they would say that. This was my daughter.”