Hinsdale Responds To Richards Family's Criticism

HINSDALE, IL – Hinsdale's police chief has responded to a statement from the mother of a boy who was killed in a crash outside Fuller's Car Wash last year.

At a Village Board meeting last month, Kristine Richards, mother of the late 14-year-old Sean Patrick Richards, said the village could not find a police report from a 2007 crash at Fuller's in response to a public records request and a subpoena.

She said she obtained the report through another source. She said it somehow disappeared from the police station's files.

"There are only two possible explanations for this – incompetence or corruption. Which one is it?" she said.

In a statement last week, though, Police Chief Brian King said the document produced by Richards was an "exchange of information" on a state Department of Transportation form. He said it was not a police department accident report.

"Mrs. Richards has been made aware of the difference between the two documents," the chief said. "We have never said that there was no accident in 2007. We have simply stated that we do not have a copy of the report, which is not surprising given that the state only requires the document to be retained for seven years. We are ten years beyond that time frame."

In the July 25, 2007, crash, the 25-year-old driver was believed to be a Fuller's employee. The employee exited the car wash at a high speed, crossed the sidewalk and totaled a car owned by Diana Newlin in front of Fontano's, Kristine Richards said.

At a May board meeting, the village detailed four crashes involving Fuller's that have occurred over the 16 years before Sean Patrick Richards' death. The one involving Newlin's car was not included.

One of the crashes that the police department listed was a day before the one involving Newlin's car. It only involved minor damage; no one was injured.

In the July 25, 2007, crash, the employee, a Mount Prospect resident, had never been issued a driver's license, according to DuPage County Court records. He was charged with driving without a license and failing to reduce his speed to avoid an accident, the records state.

In a text message to Patch this week, Brian Richards, Sean Patrick Richards' father, said the chief explained to the family the difference between the exchange-of-information form and a police report.

"It is unclear to us why the officer who prepared the (Illinois Department of Transportation) report would not have also prepared and filed a police report," Brian Richards said. "This is the first that we are hearing of the 7-year record retention requirement. Our understanding is that the police department does have records from 2007 and even earlier, and that it is unlikely that the report was in the Police Department's files and then disposed of after the 7 years."

Richards also said Fuller's should have been cited for having an unlicensed employee in 2007.

"(I)t just shows how recklessly Fuller's operates and has for decades," Richards said.

On July 17, 2023, the younger Richards was walking on the sidewalk in front of Fuller's when an employee driving a car struck him, crossed the street and crashed into Fontano's restaurant, injuring customers. The boy died days later.

At last month's meeting, Kristine Richards asked Hinsdale to investigate how the repeated Fuller's crashes were allowed to happen on the village's watch, reduce the business' curb cuts along the street and issue a statement that her son's death should never have been allowed to happen.

Also, she said Fuller's has damaged the sidewalks in front of its business, making them slippery. The village, she said, should require the car wash to replace the sidewalks.