April 14, 2005

Lopez estate files civil suit against Rittenhouse family

By Diane Chiddister

Last week the estate of Tim Lopez filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit against Michael Rittenhouse and members of his family in the Greene County Common Pleas Court.

On March 30 Rittenhouse was sentenced to 15 years to life imprisonment after he pled guilty to the January 2002 killing of Lopez, who was then a Yellow Springs High School senior. Lopez was missing for two years before his body was found in the backyard of the Rittenhouse family home in February 2004.

Rittenhouse, who was also a YSHS senior at the time of Lopez’s death, admitted to hitting Lopez over the head with a baseball bat and then storing the body in the basement of the home before he buried it in the backyard sometime later.

The lawsuit contends the Rittenhouse family knew that Michael had violent tendencies and that some family members knew Lopez had been killed. The lawsuit names Rittenhouse’s mother, Gilah Pomeranz, his father, Bill Rittenhouse, his grandmother, Evelyn Pomeranz, and his younger brother as defendants.

The suit seeks damages in an amount “in excess of $25,000,” according to Rittenhouse’s attorney, Jon Paul Rion of Dayton. The suit’s beneficiaries are Lopez’s parents, Barbara McQuiston and John Lopez, both of California.

Rion stated that he was not surprised that a wrongful death lawsuit was filed but that he was surprised at the suit’s assertions that family members knew about the murder.

“The allegations within the complaint we believe are at least mischaracterizations and in many cases are completely untrue,” said Rion, who also stated that in the investigation following Rittenhouse’s arrest “from what we were able to see it came as a complete shock to the family.”

The executor of the Lopez estate, Craig Mathews of Centerville, said he could not comment on the case. The lawyer representing the Lopez family in the suit, Jeff Hainbaugh of the Cincinnati firm of Dinsmore and Scholl, also stated that he had no comment.

According to Rion, a civil lawsuit is a “multi-year” process and probably will not come to trial in the near future.