CHARLESTON – A former state lawmaker is suing Family Dollar Stores after he says he was injured at the Romney store.
Jerry Mezzatesta filed his complaint December 8 in Kanawha Circuit Court against Family Dollar Store #1892, Family Dollar Stores of West Virginia Inc. and Family Dollar Stores of West Virginia LLC.
According to the complaint, Mezzatesta was shopping at the Family Dollar store in Romney in Hampshire County when he tripped over a small box on the floor that partially extended from beneath the shelving. The date of the incident is not included in the complaint.
Mezzatesta
| File photo
“Mezzatesta fell so hard and fast a witness thought he had suffered a heart attack,” the complaint states.
He says he suffered severe and permanent injuries because of the defendants’ negligence. Those injuries include past and future permanent bodily injury, pain and suffering, disability, disfigurement, mental anguish, loss of capacity to enjoy life, hospital expenses, medical and nursing care expenses, treatment, loss of earnings and loss of ability to earn money.
Mezzatesta seeks compensatory damages, pre- and post-judgment interests, court costs, attorney fees and other relief. He is being represented by attorney Richard Lindroth of Eleanor. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Carrier Webster.
Mezzatesta, a Democrat, represented Hampshire and Mineral counties in the House of Delegates and served as chairman of the House Education Committee. In 2004, he and his wife pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of altering and destroying legislative computer records. He lost his re-election bid later that year. The following year, he was fired from his job with the Hampshire County Board of Education.
In 2005, the state Ethics Commission found Mezzatesta had violated an agreement to not use his legislative position to solicit funds for the county school system. He was fined $2,000, but he refused to pay the fine. He was the first public official to resist paying such a fine in the history of the ethics panel.
The following year, he and former Hampshire County Schools Superintendent David Friend were indicted for fraud and misappropriation of funds. They were acquitted in 2007. Mezzatesta never admitted to breaking the law. He did sign a “conciliation agreement” acknowledging he violated the ethics act and avoiding a public hearing.
In 2009, a special judge cleared Mezzatesta of the alleged ethics violations and ruled he should get his school job back. Instead of rehiring him, Mezzatesta was paid a $192,000 settlement by the school board.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 22-C-995