Senior Managing Partner
Today, after losing faith in the city’s ability to do its job, the surviving family of Mattheis Johnson have filed a lawsuit for nuisance and abatement of the climbing structures at Gas Works Park.
Mattheis Johnson, age 15, was the third and youngest person to die from a fall at the Gas Works Park. Where its crackling towers complete with ladders, catwalks and platforms, call to children and young people like the pied piper.
The city has classified this as an emergency situation. It has set aside all the funds needed to fix the emergency situation. Yet city departments are at a stalemate. Playing chicken and waiting for someone to blink. While the city dithers around, the Johnson family can’t bear the thought of the next child plunging from the edifice.
“The city’s internal squabbling is an embarrassment to this city, a slap in the face to this grieving family, and shows reckless disregard to the safety of our community,” says Karen Koehler their attorney whose firm, Stritmatter Law, is handling this case pro bono.
The nuisance and abetment lawsuit is brought by Adam, Carrie, and Emmett Johnson, the parents and brother of Mattheis Johnson, who fell to his death at Gas Works Park.
Note: This lawsuit is not a wrongful death negligence lawsuit. No determination has been made whether such a suit will be brought. Stritmatter Law brings this as a pro bono lawsuit on behalf of the grieving members of Mattheis’ family. To force the City to do its job in protecting the public from the nuisance it has created and fostered at Gas Works Park.