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No damages in firecracker case

A Cuyahoga County jury Friday rejected a plea for damages by a couple injured by a firecracker at Jacobs Field in 2002. Judy Knight and Chris Wise of Strongsville were at a Cleveland Indians baseball game when Andrew Mendez tossed a firecracker that exploded and burned them. Knight and Wise sued the Indians and Mendez, 21, of Elyria, seeking $210,000 for a variety of claims. Mendez spent eight months in prison for aggravated arson. At the end of the trial, Judge Jose Villanueva dismissed the Indians from the case, and the jury found unanimously in favor of Mendez. "The jury didn't feel the plaintiffs proved any of their claims against Andrew Mendez," said his attorney, Joe Ritzler. Knight and Wise had accused the defendants of negligence, negligent infliction of serious emotional distress, intentional infliction of serious emotional distress, and assault and battery.

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