Woman blames Festa Italiana organizer for letting runners go through event, knock her down

A woman is suing a neighborhood association, claiming she was injured when a group of runners knocked her down at a street festival.

Rose De Leonardis filed a lawsuit in late August in the Cook County Circuit Court against University Village Association.

According to the complaint, De Leonardis was at the defendant's Festa Italiana Little Italy 2014 event on Aug. 15, when she was knocked down and trampled by a group of members of a running club from nearby Whitney Young High School.

De Leonardis claims she sustained fractures to her wrist and pelvis that required more than two weeks of hospitalization. The defendant is accused of being negligent in failing to prevent a group of high school students from running through the festival.

De Leonardis is seeking more than $30,000 in damages and is being represented in the case by attorney Ernest T. Rossiello of Ernest T. Rossiello & Associates P.C. in Chicago.

Cook County Circuit Court case number: 2014L009091

This is a report on a civil lawsuit filed in the Cook County Circuit Court. The details in this report come from an original complaint filed by a plaintiff. Please note, a complaint represents an accusation by a private individual, not the government. It is not an indication of guilt, and it only represents one side of the story.