By Dan Rozek
The Chicago Sun-Times
WAUKEGAN, Ill. — Waukegan police ignored a threat made against Adelina Weber by her estranged husband two months before he allegedly stabbed her to death in a parking lot, her family claimed in a lawsuit filed Thursday.
“He was a very real threat and they just didn’t believe her. They didn’t believe us,’' said her sister-in-law, Cynthia Trujillo, after relatives filed the wrongful-death lawsuit in Lake County.
The suit came on the same day Weber’s husband, Clarence J. Weber Jr., was denied bond as he appeared in a Waukegan courtroom to face first-degree murder charges in her July 5 slaying.
Clarence Weber, 58, was arrested Tuesday in northwest Indiana, three days after he allegedly lured his wife to a Lincolnshire parking lot to discuss their failing marriage, then fatally stabbed her.
During questioning by police, Weber admitted he attacked his wife when he became enraged as the two talked in her car, which was parked near the restaurant where she worked, Lake County prosecutor Jeffrey Pavletic said in court.
But authorities said Clarence Weber hinted to an acquaintance in Chicago before the murder that he planned to leave the area abruptly. “You won’t see me after the 4th,’' Pavletic quoted Weber as saying.
Police also found two notes in Adelina Weber’s car believed to be from her husband, suggesting they meet to talk.
After she was stabbed, Weber staggered into a nearby hotel, telling workers there: “Help me, I’m dying,’' Pavletic recounted.
Her relatives contended the mother of three wouldn’t have been harmed if police had acted earlier.
On May 5, Adelina Weber, 31, obtained an order of protection barring her husband from having any contact with her. A day later, Waukegan police officers accompanied her and her sister to the couple’s Waukegan home to remove personal belongings.
The suit said Clarence Weber had scrawled a threatening message in red crayon on a wall inside the home that read, in part, “now everything is going to end.’'
“I needed help and you didn’t give it to me. You forgot I love you,’' the message continued, according to the lawsuit.
Police accompanying Adelina Weber should have arrested her husband then for making the threat -- something prohibited by the order of protection, the family’s attorney said. “There was a threat of bodily harm scrawled on the wall. Had they taken the action they should have, her death could have been avoided,’' said attorney John Karnezis.
Waukegan police declined to comment on the suit Thursday, but offered condolences to her family.
Copyright 2008 The Chicago Sun-Times