by Joseph Omoremi
CHICAGO, IL-A motion seeking a 21-day extension of time to respond to five discrimination charges filed against the Village of Olympia Fields by RoseHeart Renewal Center (RoseHeart) and All Nations Assembly Church (ANAC) have been filed at the Northern District of the U.S District Court, in Chicago.
The extension became necessary because of the death suffered by the father-in-law of the Village of Olympia Fields attorney Brandon K. Lemley and kept him out of town for two weeks.
Attorney Lemley, according to the motion, could not “work on a planned partial motion to dismiss, and because the parties are engaged in substantive settlement discussions.”
It would be recalled that Rosehrat and ANAC, a parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) filed the charges after the Village of Olympia Fields turned down its application to turn the 22-acre property to a 120-bed drug addiction and rehabilitation center.
The motion explained that attorney Lemley father -in-law suffered a hemorrhagic stroke with significant bleeding on the brain in Pennsylvania and added that the emergency prevented the defense counsel from working on the “partial motion to dismiss.”
Besides, the defense counsel said that a three-week extension of time would allow the defendants to prepare and file such a motion and update the court on the out of court settlement agreements being negotiated by the two parties.
Efforts to inform the plaintiffs on the new development were not successful as phone calls and voice message to the plaintiffs’ attorney about the emergency and the need for a three-week extension were not returned.
The defendants, according to attorney Lemley, are favorably disposed to “put the resources into settling the case, rather than engaging in what it views as superfluous motion practice.”
“Such motion practice will only drive up the cost of settlement by forcing the Plaintiffs (and Defendants) to engage in briefing of a motion that the parties expect will be mooted by a settlement, the motion added.
Built on a 22-acre of land, the property located at 20300 Governors Highway in Olympia Fields, Illinois, was acquired from Catholic Church in 2013 for $2.4 million by Vintage Healthcare Services owned by Pastor Oliver Akano of All Nations Assembly Church.
Otherwise known as the multipurpose Tolentine Monastery, it was used to train Catholic Church Reverend Fathers in North America before the sale to Vintage Healthcare Services in 2013.
