Complaint over security is dismissed

JOURNAL STAFF REPORT

WINSTON-SALEM

March 4, 2000

The N.C. Supreme Court has dismissed a complaint against the company that provided security at Silas Creek Crossing shopping center, where a woman was beaten and left for dead more than four years ago.

The ruling, which was filed yesterday, affirms a June 1999 decision by the N.C. Court of Appeals.

The complaint was filed by the parents of Jill Marker, who was attacked Dec. 9, 1995, at the Silk Plant Forest shop where she worked. Marker, whose skull was smashed after being hit 20 times in the back of the head with a blunt object, spent several months in a coma. She was pregnant when she was attacked and delivered a son while in a near coma.

In April 1998, a Forsyth Superior Court judge dismissed Wackenhut Corp., the company that provided security for the shopping center, as a defendant in a lawsuit. Marker's parents, who have legal guardianship of their daughter, filed the case on behalf of Jill Marker, who eventually received a $9.25 million settlement.

Marker's parents, who appealed the decision to dismiss Wackenhut from the case, have said they believe that the company failed to protect their daughter.

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