Victim Suing Andy & Sophie's Was Shot In Cocaine Deal: Lawyer

JOLIET, IL —The owner of Andy & Sophie's Bar on North Hickory Street is going on the offensive against Elier Trujilo, the 35-year-old Joliet man who was critically injured after being shot multiple times in his abdomen outside the bar at 931 North Hickory St. on Jan. 31, 2020.

The current owner of the Joliet bar, suburban Chicago attorney Patrick Walsh, has hired lawyer Matthew K. Krueger of the Streator, Ill. law firm of Brassfield, Krueger & Ramlow to defend Andy & Sophie's.

Krueger has filed an affirmative defense in his response to the January lawsuit filed by Trujilo and his lawyer, Robert Lewin, of Skokie.

The lawyer representing Andy & Sophie's has outlined the following details as part of his affirmative defense:

• According to the Joliet Police Department ... plaintiff Trujilo willingly engaged in a verbal and physical altercation with the alleged incapacitated person, the shooting defendant Matthew Ramones.
• It was the plaintiff, Trujilo, who threatened Ramones.
• Trujilo punched the alleged incapacitated person, Ramones.
• "According to the Joliet Police Department and upon information and belief, the plaintiff was in possession of illegal drugs which was the cause of the incident ... the sale of illegal drugs, cocaine, was the cause of the incident."
• Lastly, the Streator law firm representing Andy & Sophie's argues that "one or more of the foregoing acts were the proximate cause of the plaintiff's injuries."

The lawyers for Andy & Sophie's have also asked that Will County's judges allow them to have a jury trial of 12 persons, or in the alternative, a jury trial of six persons.

According to Trujilo's lawsuit filed in January, Andy & Sophie's employees are accused of selling or giving intoxicating liquors to accused shooter Matthew Ramones, and his intoxication "caused (him) to injure plaintiff and caused serious and grievous bodily harm to plaintiff," according to the suit.

Andy and Sophie Wrobel ran the well-known neighborhood bar at the corner of Moran and Hickory Streets for 45 years, from 1974 until 2019.

Walsh, a private practice lawyer in suburban Hinsdale, bought the Joliet property and acquired the liquor license in 2019. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Andy & Sophie's was shut down in March 2020 and has not reopened yet.