Illinois Attorney General says owners of Joliet nursing home owe employees $420,764

Owners of a shuttered Joliet nursing home have become further embroiled in legal troubles with a lawsuit from the Illinois Attorney General’s Office claiming 117 employees have not been paid about $420,764.

The Aug. 2 lawsuit against Salem Village Nursing and Rehabilitation Center follows a $2 million default judgment issued May 15 against the nursing home in a separate lawsuit case involving the death of a resident last year.

The nursing home also faces a July 3 lawsuit from a pharmacy company UnitedRx that alleges an unpaid bill of about $53,146 for their services.

In the latest lawsuit, attorneys for Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul alleged the Illinois Department of Labor received wage claims from 43 current or former employees. The lawsuit claims the department also identified 74 additional employees who were owed unpaid wages.

The lawsuit alleged a preliminary investigation determined the 117 claimants were underpaid about $350,839 from the owners of Salem Village.

The lawsuit seeks a $420,764 judgement against the owners of the nursing home. That figure includes almost $70,000 of unpaid compensation that accumulated from the time the claimants were allegedly underpaid until the lawsuit was drafted.

The $420,764 amount will continue to accrue at about $17,496 a month “without limitation until judgment is entered,” according the attorney general’s lawsuit.

Last March, the Herald-News interviewed several employees who said they were not paid by Salem Village and were concerned they were never going to be paid.

“We can’t get any answers. All our corporation is telling us is, ‘We’re working on it,’” Lorri Tibble, who was admissions director for Salem Village, said in an interview in March.

Shanta Lewis, a certified nursing assistant at Salem Village, also said in March that employees are getting no answers from Salem Village management on the future of their last pay for work done at Salem Village.

Both Lewis and Tibble are listed among the 117 claimants in an exhibit filed in attorney general’s case.

Makhlouf Suissa, the primary owner of Salem Village, is a defendant in the attorney general’s lawsuit case. Another defendant is Eric Rothner, whom state records list as one of the company’s managers. The lawsuit alleges David Aryeh and Shoshana Aryeh, the last two defendants, are owners of the company as well.

A call to Suissa was not returned Monday.

The wrongful death lawsuit case that led to a $2 million default judgment against Salem Village involved the death of Michael Pappas, 61, who was wounded in an alleged attack from fellow resident, William Paschall, 72.

Paschall was initially charged with Pappas’ murder but he was subsequently indicted only on aggravated battery after Pappas’ death was deemed “undetermined” in a preliminary autopsy.

Will County Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak may rule on a defense motion Wednesday requesting a dismissal of the indictment against Paschall.

Salem Village was issued a $50,000 fine for violations over the incident involving Pappas and Paschall, according to records from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The department’s report of its investigation alleged the Joliet facility failed to protect Pappas from physical abuse from Paschall and failed to review and revise a resident’s plan of care after Paschall exhibited physically and verbally aggressive behaviors.