Tyrone Williams Teen involved in slaying subject of lawsuit sealed by court Frank Chelli Defendant in sealed fatal accident case is scheduled for criminal trial in May

Since details of sealed lawsuits are not available to the public or media, it's unclear whether settlements were reached and what price was paid to resolve three lawsuits that followed a deadly car accident and two fatal shootings. All three lawsuits involved teens serving prison time or awaiting trial on criminal charges.

District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez, the presiding judge over the Clark County Civil Court, said she never has sealed a case simply to have the dispute settled and cleared from the crowded court docket.

However, some judges have done so, she said.

"With some (cases), one of the terms of the settlement is to seal the case in its entirety," she said.

A lawsuit was filed in March 2001 by the mother and 5-year-old son of murder victim Crystal Ledesma against McDonald's Restaurants of Nevada and the owner of the Golden Arches at Cheyenne Avenue and Losee Road in North Las Vegas, according to the limited information available about sealed civil cases.

Ledesma was sitting in a friend's pickup, waiting for food outside the drive-through window, when gunshots ripped through the restaurant. She was struck in the head and chest, police said at the time of the incident.

The primary defendant in the lawsuit was Miguel Cano, a 17-year-old charged with her murder. Cano started shooting inside the McDonald's after he got into a fight with another teen, police said. Cano pled guilty to murder and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, according to court records of the criminal case.

Even though the civil case against McDonald's and Cano is closed, the case is assigned to District Court Judge Michelle Leavitt, according to court records obtained in November.

Like Cano, Tyrone Williams and Frank Chelli also were teenagers and presumably not very wealthy when they were sued in civil court.

Four months after Williams was arrested in connection with the June 2003 fatal shooting of Benito Zambrano-Lopez, a lawsuit was filed against him. Williams was 17 at the time of the shooting and, according to police, believed to be a member of a street gang in Las Vegas.

Not only was the lawsuit sealed six months after it was filed, the judge in the case allowed the plaintiff to remain anonymous. He is identified in court records as "John Doe."

Police characterized Zambrano-Lopez, a 48-year-old day laborer, as a random victim. He was shot in the back five times as he walked home from a grocery store on the 1000 block of North Rancho Drive.

Police said after the slaying that two accomplices spurred Williams to shoot Zambrano-Lopez. They thought the violent slaying would earn them respect among their fellow gang members, police said.

Other defendants in the lawsuit include an apartment complex located on Lake Mead Boulevard and North Tonopah Drive, which is several blocks away from the location where Zambrano-Lopez was killed. Since a judge sealed the case, it is not clear why owners of the complex were named in the lawsuit, or whether they or other defendants paid a settlement to "John Doe."

The name of the judge who sealed the case is itself one of the details sealed from the public, but the case late last year was assigned to District Court Judge Douglas Herndon, according to court records.

Chelli was 19 years old when he was sued in August 2005. The lawsuit was filed 10 months after he was arrested for driving while impaired following a fatal accident in Summerlin.

Police said Chelli was driving his father's 2000 Cadillac Catera when he ran a red light and struck another vehicle at the intersection of Hualapai Way and Sahara Avenue.

Two passengers in the other vehicle, California resident Yong Sadka, 47, and her 15-year-old daughter, Rachel Sadka, were killed in the Oct. 27, 2004, crash.

The lawsuit was filed by the victims' family members. The case has not gone to trial or been resolved out of court, according to the limited information available about sealed lawsuits.

Since the case is sealed, it's not known whether a trial date has been set and whether the public would have any way of ever knowing about any upcoming proceeding in District Court.

In addition, the public has no way of knowing which judge sealed the case. However, two months after it was sealed Aug. 9, the case had been assigned to Gonzalez, according to court records.

In a subsequent lawsuit, that hasn't been sealed or settled, the driver of the other vehicle, California resident Phillip Kim, 43, seeks punitive, general and special damages in excess of $10,000 against Chelli. The accident left Kim in pain and unable to work, according to his lawsuit.

"Frank Chelli was incompetent and unfit to operate the Cadillac vehicle safely and in a reasonable manner as he was under the influence of a controlled substance and had a history of such behavior which was known to the defendants," the suit states.

Named as defendants in both lawsuits are Chelli's father, A. Frank Chelli, and his business venture, Beach View Court LLC.

The lawsuits might be on hold until after Frank Chelli's criminal trial, which is scheduled for May. According to court records, the trial date in the criminal case has been postponed four times since a county grand jury indicted Frank Chelli on April 15, 2005.