Setting Fire to Friend Could Prove Expensive

JOLIET, IL — A Joliet man set on fire by his friends has sued them.

Two of the men named in the lawsuit filed by 24-year-old James Malinek — Dylan Altergott, 22, and Joseph Taylor, 20 — have already pleaded guilty to setting him on fire and were sentenced to four years in prison.

But Malinek has also sued Altergott’s brother, 20-year-old Brandon Altergott and the aunt and uncle the Altergotts were living with at the time, Patrick and Brenda Enright.

Brandon Altergott was never charged in connection with the shocking incident. Nor were his aunt and uncle.

According to the lawsuit, the Altergotts and Taylor were drinking alcohol in the garage of the Enrights’ Pandola Avenue home in June 2014. They had the Enrights’ permission to drink there, the suit said, even though they were all underage at the time.

A friend of the Altergotts’ named Matthew McDonald invited Malinek over to the house, the lawsuit said. After he arrived, Malinek reportedly played video games inside the home before heading out to the garage to join the others.

A short time later, the Altergotts and Taylor “messed around with a gasoline can that was in the garage and splashed gasoline on” Malinek, the lawsuit said. Then one of them “lit a cigarette lighter near (Malinek), causing his sweatshirt to catch on fire.”

Dylan Altergott and Taylor were arrested within weeks of the incident. At the time, police said they doused Malinek with gasoline and lit him on fire for unknown reasons, then helped him undress and get in the shower. The lawsuit contends that Malinek took his own clothes off — further burning himself in the process — and got in the shower.

“None of the Defendants nor the owners of the property called emergency personnel to tend to (Malinek’s) injuries,” the lawsuit said.

He somehow got to Presence St. Joseph Medical Center, the filing said, and was then taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood where he spent two weeks while his burns were treated.

According to police, the burned man at first lied to cover for his friends, claiming he was set ablaze while lighting off fireworks.

Dylan Altergott is serving his prison sentence at Dixon Correctional Center and Taylor is locked up in Vandalia Correctional Center.