Lawyer for Building Owners Speaks out on Gacy Dig

Robert Clifford, attorney for the building owners at the Gacy dig site, is criticizing the Better Government Association (BGA) and the New Jersey-based radar copmpany for their irresponsible part in the investigation.

Clifford, a nationally prominent trial attorney, is calling the entire affair a fiasco and a legal trespass based upon abnormal citings without proper high-tech sonar testing.

"The disruption of the people's lives at the Jefferson Park apartment building is unimaginable," Clifford said. "This community has been in turmoil for days because of the BGA's flagrant disregard of the owner's as well as the tenants' property rights in conducting their illegal search Oct. 7."

It has been reported that the civic group's pushing local authorities to conduct extensive digging was based upon a mere 14-minute sonar test last month. A New Jersey sonar testing company, U.S. Radar, reportedly conducted testing Oct. 7 which did not even include locating utilities in the area.

"This whole affair has been a terrible frustration and disservice to the community," Clifford said. "If the BGA had secured proper authorization from the most reliable utility locating authority, all of this could have been avoided."

He added that several tenants have indicated their intent to void their leases after days of suffering through a media frenzy and the unfounded belief that further victims of mass murderer John Wayne Gacy were buried in the area. The Chicago police closed their investigation Monday night after a day of digging up items such as meat bones, electrircal wire and a frying pan.

At the same time, Clifford commends the Chicago police for the professional courtesty extended to the residents on Chicago's northwest side and for the professional way in which they have treated these families.