Warren settles lawsuit in death

The city was negligent in
maintaining the storm sewer, the boy’s father said.

WARREN — The lawsuit filed against the city by the father of a 10-year-old Warren boy who drowned July 21, 2003, has been settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.

A jury trial was set to begin Monday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court before Judge W. Wyatt McKay, but the settlement eliminated the need for the trial, said Atty. Michael Scala of Warren.

Scala represents John Keytack of Brookfield, the father of Johnny Keytack of Bonnie Brae Avenue Northeast in Warren. The boy was playing with friends in a 3-foot ditch that contained a storm drain at Cornell and Clermont avenues Northeast in the city. He became trapped and drowned. He was unconscious when firefighters freed him from the drain grating and was pronounced dead a short time later.

Scala said the amount of the settlement will become public when it proceeds to Trumbull County Probate Court. Settlements in civil suits have to be approved by the probate court before they become final in cases involving a death, Scala said.

Greg Hicks, Warren’s law director, and James E. Sanders, assistant law director, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

In the lawsuit, Keytack argued that the city was negligent in maintaining the sewer.

Other documents filed in the case alleged that a man named Thomas Bator had complained to Councilman Al Novak, at Warren City Council meetings and to former Warren Mayor Dan Sferra about the sewer before the boy died.

“Such testimony serves to show [the city] was on notice that the storm sewer in question was ill-maintained,” said a ruling from the 11th District Court of Appeals.

The appeals court made that observation while ruling against the city in October 2006. At the time the city was appealing a decision by Judge McKay that said the Keytack lawsuit should go forward.

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