DOCUMENT: Crime

Dave Matthews Sued For Dumping On Chicago

Claim band bus discharged human waste into river, onto tourists

View Document

Dave Matthews Sued For Dumping On Chicago

AUGUST 25--Claiming that a Dave Matthews tour bus driving on a Chicago bridge dumped "80 to 100 gallons of liquid human waste" on dozens of people taking a river boat tour, the Illinois attorney general yesterday sued the band and one of its drivers for $70,000.

According to the Cook County Circuit Court complaint, a copy of which you'll find here, as the Matthews coach drove on the Kinzie Street bridge, the "contents of the bus' waste tank were released through the drain at the bottom of the bus and were discharged down through the open grating onto the bridge deck, into the river and onto the sightseeing tour boat."

The band and driver Stefan Wohl have denied they were responsible for the fetid August 8 cascade, which landed, the AG reported, on "persons with disabilities, senior citizens, a pregnant woman, a small child and an infant." But Chicago cops reportedly have surveillance tapes showing the bus on the bridge at the time of the incident. (11 pages)