Cleveland Family Sues Apartment Owner After Car Crashes Into Home, Injuring Mother and Sons
A Cleveland family is suing the owner of their apartment building after a car crashed into their home, injuring them. Stephanice Washington, who lives with her two sons in the Brooklyn Centre neighborhood, hopes the lawsuit will prompt safety improvements to prevent future accidents.
The incident occurred on October 25, 2022, when Washington and her sons were sitting in the living room of their first-floor apartment. A black Chevy Malibu, driven by Nia Nicole Moxley, slammed into their apartment, sending the family flying. Washington was thrown into a closet by the impact, while her sons were trapped beneath the car and rubble.
“The car came straight at me,” Washington recalled. “The chair turned, and it threw me into the closet.” Firefighters were the first to arrive on the scene, and Washington begged them to rescue her sons, who had suffered broken bones, severe bruising, and lacerations. One of her sons even went into convulsions from the trauma. “He was seizing, you can see the vibration of him seizing,” Washington said.
The crash left Washington physically impaired, and she is now confined to a mobility scooter due to ongoing pain. Her sons continue to experience nerve pain. “I’m going to live with this pain for the rest of my life,” Washington said. “When you don’t feel safe in your home, you have no sanctuary.”
In response, Washington has filed a lawsuit against the building’s owner, Wolfe Pintus Brooklyn LLC, for negligence. Her attorney, Eric Henry, is pushing for compensation and safety improvements, including the installation of bollards to protect the first-floor residents, as their apartments are partially underground. Henry emphasized the potential for future accidents unless proper safety measures are implemented. “This could very well happen again unless changes are made,” he said.
Court records show that Wolfe Pintus denies responsibility, and there is no indication that any barriers have been installed to prevent future accidents. Henry hopes the lawsuit will lead to a safer living environment for other residents in the building.
Washington says that if barriers had been in place two years ago, her family wouldn’t be suffering today. “They’re recovering but they’re still suffering,” she stated. “It is inherently dangerous and something that should have been corrected a long time ago,” Henry added.
Moxley, the driver, was sentenced to two months of community service for the incident. Negotiations between the two sides are ongoing, but if a settlement is not reached, the case is set to go to trial next June.
