By: Art Peterson, Staff Writer
The News Sun
September 25th, 2004

A wrongful death lawsuit, seeking more than $250,000 in damages, was filed Thursday in Lake County Circuit Court on behalf of the family of the late Albert Shlimon.

The victim, an immigrant from Iraq, was killed alongside his mailbox in Lake Villa by a motorist whose truck veered off Route 59.

The pickup truck driver, Ronald Schneider of Trevor, Wis., was driving under the influence of alcohol and “other drugs,” according to the lawsuit, filed by Waukegan attorney Patrick Salvi.

A separate criminal lawsuit, charging Schneider with reckless homicide and driving impaired by cocaine, has been filed by the Lake County state’s attorney’s office.

The accident which killed Shlimon, 39, occurred during the afternoon of July 22. Salvi said toxicology tests have determined Shlimon had no alcohol or drugs in his system.

Shlimon lived at the home with his parents and brother, Robert Hanna. Two sisters live in Michigan.

Robert Hanna and their mother, Sooad Hanna, told the The News Sun Albert was a lively, loving member of the close knit family. Amid tears, they said he is greatly missed.

The original family home in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. Several grandparents, along with aunts and uncles, moved to the United States in the 1970s.

“We are a Christian family born in a Muslim country,” said Robert Hanna. He added there were no religious problems, but “the country was going from bad to worse.”

Shlimon and a sister, Lilyan, immigrated to Michigan, near some relatives, in 1989. Robert Hanna joined them in 1993 before moving to Chicago, along with the company for which he drove semi-trailer trucks. Later, the family was reunited in Chicago when the parents immigrated.

During admission into the U.S., immigration officials misunderstood the Iraqi tradition for family names, and Shlimon ended up with the wrong last name, family members indicated. He was in the process of legally correcting that, as well as studying for the citizenship test, Hanna said.

Shlimon worked in construction, remodeling homes and offices.

“He loved nature and fishing, and often came to Fox Lake,” Hanna said, adding his brother talked the family into moving away from the “traffic, parking problems and tickets” of Chicago.

They found their home in Lake Villa, which had been vacant for three years. It needed work, but the family put their skills and energy to good use. They celebrated New Year’s Day 1998 in their “new” home.

Hanna bought a nearby liquor store within walking distance of home and made that his new career.

Both brothers were thinking it was time to get married and start raising their own families, Hanna said.

Albert “was a very good brother. He had a lot of very close friends everywhere. He often got phone calls from friends in Europe,” Hanna said. “He loved nature and was raising honey bees near the house.”

Shlimon had been tending his bee colony when he took the fatal walk to the mailbox.

Sooad said Shlimon “was beloved by everybody. He was fun and loved to party with relatives and friends. Now the house is quiet.”

Salvi said the family “is very concerned that justice is served, in both the criminal and civil proceedings.”

Schneider drove in “a negligent and reckless” manner, as well as having cocaine and alcohol in his system, Salvi said, “That explains why he drove well off the roadway.”

Shlimon “unfortunately was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Salvi said. “The devastation caused to his family is terrible.”

“I believe in justice in the U.S.,” Hanna said. “That was a main reason we moved here. I want a judge or jury to decide this as if they were in our position and had lost a loved one.”

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