Joliet Man Sues Restaurant Owners and Worker For Alleged Brutal Beating With Metal Pipe

A Joliet man claimed he was subjected to an unprovoked, brutal beating by a worker from a Mexican restaurant.

Everardo Plascencia’s Rolex watch and gold necklace were also damaged in the August attack, according to a lawsuit filed in Will County court.

Plascencia, 50, had pulled into the parking lot of Dona Chelo restaurant but “before he was able to exit his vehicle, he was viciously attacked” by 38-year-old Omar Cardona, a worker at the North Chicago Street eatery, the suit said. Cardona “repeatedly slammed a car door on (Plascencia’s) leg.”

Plascencia “sat down on a nearby chair to nurse his leg when he was hit with a solid object across his head, body and hand,” the lawsuit said.

The owners of of Dona Chelo, Jose and Maria Hernandez, not only “instigated” the attack, the lawsuit said, but “did nothing to stop the assault” and “refused to call for an ambulance” or provide other medical assistance.

Cardona was arrested and jailed on a charge of aggravated battery following the incident at Dona Chelo. The police said Cardona, 38, was was taken into custody because they found Plasencia bleeding profusely from a gash to his forehead and from other lacerations. Plascencia suffered this gash and the other lacerations when Cardona brutally beat him with a metal pipe, possibly a mop handle, police said.

Cardona’s case remains pending.

Maria Hernandez, 39, later defended Cardona in a petition for a protective order.

In her petition, Maria Hernandez told of Plascencia coming to her restaurant on a Sunday and allegedly making an obnoxious scene.

Plascencia, who is “missing one eye” and “wears dark glasses,” was drunk when he got there, Maria Hernandez said.

“He started arguing with me but I didn’t understand what he was saying,” Maria Hernandez said. “Omar Cardona, my worker, intervened and asked him to leave the premises because there were customers with their children eating and they were afraid of Everardo screaming and yelling but Everardo refused to leave. I then called the police and Everardo did the same thing. I couldn’t explain (to) the officer what happened because I don’t speak English. Everardo called his daughter who speaks English and she came to the parking lot and talked to the officer. I don’t know what explanation she could (have) given to the officer but my worker was arrested.”