URBANA, Ill. (WAND) – The family of Yingying Zhang has refiled a lawsuit against two social workers at the University of Illinois Counseling Center in state court.
The lawsuit was field on Monday.
According to the lawsuit, the family said the social workers should have done more when Brendt Christensen talked to counselors about his fascination with serial killers.
In a ruling last month on the original suit, a judge said that Zhang’s death “was simply too remote a consequence of Defendants’ alleged actions to hold them responsible under the federal civil rights law.”
The federal lawsuit also accused the social workers of violating state laws against negligence and Christensen of violating state laws against battery, according to the News Gazette.
Lawyers for the social workers say they “cannot be held legally responsible for the random and incomprehensible actions of a lone individual committed more than two months after the Social Workers saw Christensen a single time each.”
Christensen was found guilty of the killing and kidnapping of Zhang in 2017. He was convicted of life in prison. The federal lawsuit filed by Zhang’s family was filed before the start of his trial.
Zhang’s body has not been able to be recovered.
