Woman sues Bolingbrook church, claims slip-and-fall injury after baptism

A woman has filed a lawsuit against a Bolingbrook senior pastor and an area church claiming she slipped and severely injured her leg and knee after a full-immersion baptism at the church.

Pamala Prepura filed the lawsuit Aug. 22 in Will County court that names Senior Pastor Mont Mitchell and Westbrook Christian Church, 1175 Lily Cache Lane, Bolingbrook, as defendants in the lawsuit. The law firm Harman and Fedick is representing Prepura in the lawsuit.

Prepura’s lawsuit alleged that on Sept. 6, 2020, she was a guest at the church and participated in a full-immersion baptism, which involves a person being completely submerged in water as part of their admission to Christianity.

Prepura had exited the baptismal tub of water and was directed to the restroom, where she would be able to change clothes, according to the lawsuit.

When Prepura stepped forward, she was “caused to slip and fall on the marble slab or tile floor, which had been made wet by the water runoff from the baptism that she had participated in moments before,” according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleged that Prepura suffered a “severe and permanent injury to her left leg and knee.”

Calls and a message to the Westbrook Christian Church for comment about the lawsuit Friday were not immediately returned.

Prepura’s lawsuit alleged that Mitchell and the church were “carelessly and negligently [failing] to provide a wheelchair” for her to use in getting from the baptismal tub to the restroom to dry off and change her wet clothing.

The lawsuit alleged that the defendants were careless and negligent in other ways, such as not making sure she was dry enough to walk across the floor and failing to warn “invitees of the hazardous and dangerous condition of the floor after participation in a full-immersion baptism.”