Crime & Safety

Oil Man Slapped Mokena Woman Outside Movie Theater: Lawsuit

A Mokena woman is suing the president of DeGroate Petroleum for allegedly slapping her outside the New Lenox movie theater and stomping on her eyeglasses.

By Joseph Hosey

The president of  DeGroate Petroleum followed a Mokena woman to the New Lenox movie theater where he slapped her in the face and stomped her eyeglasses, according to a lawsuit filed in Will County court.

Scott DeGroate, 45, of Joliet already faces charges of battery and criminal damage to property in connection with the alleged March 29 attack.

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The woman allegedly on the wrong end of DeGroate’s slapping hand, Janis Grady, claimed in her lawsuit that when she turned into the parking lot of the AMC theater, DeGroate, who was behind the wheel of a DeGroate Petroleum tanker truck, followed her.

When Grady got out of her car and tried to enter the theater DeGroate blocked the door, the suit said. The two then “engaged in a verbal exchange,” it said, and this exchange escalated to the point that DeGroate grabbed Grady’s arm, “re-aggravating a previous injury to her shoulder.”

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As Grady “attempted to retreat,” DeGroate hit her in the face, the lawsuit said. The blow dislodged Grady’s spectacles, the suit said, and after they hit the ground DeGroate “proceeded to crush” them with his feet.

This caused the eyeglasses “to be unwearable and beyond repair,” the suit said.

The DeGroate Petroleum website lists DeGroate as the company’s president. DeGroate’s father, John DeGroate, started the company in 1976, the site said.

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