Emotional distress lawsuit against Wilmette Park District thrown out

A Cook County judge earlier this spring dismissed a civil lawsuit that was filed against the Wilmette Park District and its former Executive Director Steve Wilson.

The district’s interim Executive Director Margaret Resnick announced during the Park Board’s Monday, May 12 meeting that the Hon. Michael B. Barrett dismissed with prejudice on April 4 the legal motion that was brought forward to the district in 2024.

Per Resnick, “the matter is officially resolved now that more than 30 days have passed without further legal action.”

“The Wilmette Park District is pleased by the court’s decision to dismiss the case and appreciates the clarity and finality provided by the court’s ruling,” Resnick concluded.

The suit was filed by the family of Elizabeth Cox, a former park district employee who resigned in 2023 and died later that year. In the claim, her family alleges that the park district and Wilson inflicted emotional distress upon Cox prior to her death.

In his decision, which can be viewed here, Barrett wrote that the claims in the suit — intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress — do not “survive Elizabeth’s death.” Barrett cited Illinois statute in saying that a plaintiff can only recover damages for intentional or negligent emotional distress in this case if a physical injury is involved.

While Cox’s team argued that Illinois should recognize “the importance of mental health,” Barrett wrote, the state currently requires “a physical impact” for such claims.

Barrett wrote that the plaintiff’s “failure to plead” a physical injury was enough to dismiss the suit, and with that, other arguments from the defendants (park district and Wilson) did not require consideration.

As first reported by The Record, Kevin Cox — on behalf of Elizabeth Cox, the park district’s former Superintendent of Human Resources — filed the suit in May 2024 alleging that Wilson forced Cox to resign after she raised concerns about Wilson’s alleged inappropriate conduct.

Wilson’s and the park district’s treatment of Elizabeth Cox prior to and following her resignation caused emotional distress that impacted her physical health, the suit claimed.

Kevin Cox declined to comment on the dismissal of the lawsuit.

Earlier this year, Wilson sued the parties who sued him, according to a complaint filed in January with the Cook County Circuit Court. Wilson, in that lawsuit, alleged that attorney Thomas Skallas and community members Kevin Cox and Lora Dubin engaged in a “coordinated campaign of defamation” against him in 2024.

Wilson departed from his position as executive director in January of this year when the Park Board approved a separation agreement. The park district had previously announced that Wilson, who had been executive director since 2011 and a district employee since 2007, would resign effective Jan. 31, The Record reported.

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