Romeoville woman sues village, police for wrongful imprisonment

ROMEOVILLE – A Romeoville woman who spent almost a decade in prison after being convicted of killing an infant she was watching in day care has filed suit against those she said suppressed evidence to put her behind bars.

According to the lawsuit, Jennifer Del Prete, 46, had just begun working at a day care center in the fall of 2002, but had almost 10 years of previous child care experience, when an infant in her care, named I.Z. in the case, stopped
breathing.

Del Prete called 911 and attempted to revive the child until paramedics arrived, but the child eventually died from her injuries, the suit states.

Del Prete’s attorneys said the Romeoville Police Department, Plainfield Police Department and a group of medical experts framed their client.

“ … without conducting any physical examination of I.Z., [a physician] authored a report with fabricated scientific findings the [sic] I.Z.’s injuries were unequivocally the result of child abuse, specifically shaking, and that those injuries must have occurred while I.Z. was in [Del Prete’s] care,” the suit states.

In a news release about the lawsuit, Del Prete’s attorneys said Romeoville police withheld evidence of other medical professionals’ opinions on the alleged abuse, citing the infant’s previous medical issues as the cause of death.

Del Prete is suing for the financial, reputational and emotional injuries she suffered after being convicted of murder in 2005 and sentenced to serve 20 years in prison.

She had two children, a 7-year-old and a 15-year-old, at the time of her imprisonment.

According to release, Del Prete did not serve her full prison term because journalism students from Northwestern University’s Medill Justice Project filed a Freedom of Information Act that revealed enough evidence to warrant a new trial in 2016.

Del Prete is holding a news conference with her attorneys to discuss the lawsuit at 2:30 p.m., Thursday.