Store Faces Suit Over Molestation

A Naperville-based greeting card and party outlet company was sued Wednesday by the parents of triplets who were sexually assaulted at its Hanover Park store in October 2003.

Ronald and Darlene Kirschenbaum are seeking unspecified damages from Factory Card & Party Outlet because they allege the company ignored previous complaints from customers that an employee was sexually assaulting children.

In the lawsuit, the Kirschenbaums argue that Factory Card and Party Outlet was negligent because it knew Glen Kolakowski "threatened and/or sexually assaulted female patrons of the store during the course of his employment," hired him without determining his background for perversion, and failed to terminate him once complaints were filed.

"There is a lot of evidence that indicates he had done this before," attorney Philip Corboy Jr. said of Kolakowski, who was convicted of victimizing his clients' daughters.

Kolakowski began serving an 18-month sentence at the Lawrence Correctional Center in Sumner, Ill., after he plead guilty in June to assaulting the family's daughters, who were 9 years old at the time, at the Hanover Park store, 7470 Barrington Road. Corboy said Kolakowski fondled the victims.

Kolakowski faced a maximum of seven years in jail if convicted of the multiple counts, but he plead guilty to a lesser sentence, said Marcy Jensen, spokeswoman for the Cook County State's Attorney's office.

Kolakowski has already had 90 days taken off of his sentence for good behavior, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Factory Card & Party Outlet declined to comment on the case when reached Thursday.

Corboy said it was the company's reluctance to respond to his client's pre-filing notices that landed the matter in civil court.