Trial Set For Naperville Man Charged With Running Down Plainfield Grad

Nearly six years after Melissa Lech was run down on Joliet's McDonough Street and left for dead, the Naperville man charged with killing her is expected to go on trial.

Will County Judge Robert Livas scheduled a June trial date for 29-year-old David McCarthy. McCarthy has been jailed since February 2012.

McCarthy allegedly ran down 20-year-old Melissa Lech, a Plainfield Central graduate, in August 2008. On the night of her death, Lech drank on the way up to a White Sox game, continued drinking at the game and on the way back to Joliet, and then headed to the Jefferson Street bar City of Champions, a source close to the case said.

Lech, under the influence and underage, was denied service at City of Champions, the source said. She was apparently on foot when she was run over about a half-mile away.

The identity of the driver who hit Lech remained a mystery for three and a half years. In 2009, with the case still unsolved, her mother filed suit in Cook County Court against City of Champions, the White Sox, At Your Service LLC, Chisox Corp. and various others. The lawsuit was still pending when McCarthy, the son of Naperville attorney David McCarthy III, was arrested in February 2012 and charged with the deadly wreck.

McCarthy reportedly turned up on the doorstep of Lech's sister Michelle and confessed to the hit-and-run accident. The Cook County lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed soon after McCarthy's arrest, according to court records. Lech's mother then sued McCarthy. The wrongful death lawsuit was settled in May for $250,000.

McCarthy has been held at the jail in lieu of $1 million bond.

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