Famend Chicago leisure legal professional Linda Mensch has been recognized as the lady killed in East Garfield Park hit-and-run – CBS Chicago

CHICAGO (CBS) – Linda Mensch, a well-known lawyer in the music and film industry and a board member of A Save Haven, which campaigns for homelessness, died this week in a hit-and-run on the west side of the city.

Police said around 3:50 p.m. Thursday that a black GMC Savana truck hit the 70-year-old woman on the 300 block of North Central Park Avenue near Fulton Boulevard in East Garfield Park.

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According to police, this truck hit and killed a 70-year-old woman in East Garfield Park on August 26, 2021. (Source: Chicago Police)

Although the driver stopped at the scene of the accident, he got back in the van and fled north on Central Park Avenue.

Human was later pronounced dead.

(Source: Chicago Police Department)

Mensch’s daughter, Jess Heyman – an attorney with New York County Defender Services in Manhattan – told CBS 2 the details of what she’d heard.

“He hit her initially, I suppose, then he got out of the car and got back in, then drove off and dragged her body a few feet under the car,” Heyman said.

Heyman said the driver drove at a very “insane speed” and recklessly, and he believes it is likely that people have died as a result of the towing.

Mensch was a native New Yorker who, as his friend and colleague Lynn Orman Weiss put it, became a “Chicago warrior of the arts – musician, writer, writer, filmmaker – and a passionate advocate for the rights of artists.”

Orman Weiss wrote that Mensch had served as vice president and president of the Chicago Recording Academy in the 1990s, and started a pre-Grammy party in Los Angeles that featured all of Chicago’s artists and nominees.

Linda Mensch at a safe haven gala. (Photo credit: Lynn Orman Weiss)

Orman Weiss provided photos of people with icons like Grammy-winning Chicago folk and children’s musician Ella Jenkins – who was Mensch’s long-time customer – and blues guitarist and Grammy winner David “Honeyboy” Edwards.

Linda Mensch and Ella Jenkins. (Photo credit: Lynn Orman Weiss)

Linda Mensch with David ‘Honeyboy’ Edwards, (Image: Lynn Orman Weiss)

Human was also passionate about helping the homeless, which led to her involvement with A Safe Haven.

Linda Mensch at a safe haven gala. (Photo credit: Lynn Orman Weiss)

Safe Haven President and Co-Founder Neli Vazquez Rowland made a statement on the loss of humans on Saturday.

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“Linda S. Mensch has been an amazing life force in her professional career as an award-winning lawyer in the music and film industries,” Rowland said in the statement. “She was also an amazing, dedicated board member of A Safe Haven and has been a supporter of the homeless for over 12 years. As a friend, she has touched the lives of thousands of people from all walks of life and has been loved by all. Her legacy will truly live on in the hearts and minds of all of us who knew her and were inspired by her intelligence, compassion, kindness, humor and joy. ”

Mensch was a counsel with Mandell Menkes LLC and Leavens, Strand and Glover LLC Entertainment, and was also the president of their own law firm, a Safe Haven said.

Linda Mensch and daughter Jess Heyman. (Photo credit: Lynn Orman Weiss)

Heyman said her mother was the first female entertainment attorney in Chicago and was loved by many.

Heyman also said her mother was a happy person who lived to connect others.

“She lived an incredible life in full color,” Heyman said. She said her mother enjoyed traveling, food, and music and loved connecting people and finding out what her dreams were.

“All she wanted to do was find a way to make your dream come true – and find the right person to get in touch with; the producer, the job or whatever it was, ”Heyman said.

(Photo credit: Lynn Orman Weiss)

Heyman said Human “really, really lived” to the end and just went kayaking last weekend.

Heyman said her mother inspired her to go into law too, calling her “glamorous, brilliant, enthusiastic, charismatic inspiration”.

“I felt like a giant foot stepped on me,” Heyman said when he heard the news that her mother had died. “I felt kind of flattened with grief.”

Police have released surveillance images of the delivery truck bearing the Illinois specialty White Sox license plate 11285WS.

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Anyone with information about the crash is encouraged to call the Serious Accident Investigation Department at 312-745-4521.