OAK PARK, Ill. (WLS) — About 500 furloughed employees of West Suburban Medical Center have received notices that they will not be returning to their jobs, marking the latest development in the uncertain future of the hospital as its owners continue negotiating a settlement over its future.

ABC7 obtained multiple copies of a letter sent to employees stating there would be “a mass layoff at West Suburban Medical Center” beginning Aug. 31 and that “this mass layoff is expected to be permanent.”

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West Suburban Medical Center CEO Manoj Prasad told ABC7 the notices were required under the Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN Act, which limits furloughs to six months and requires advance notification before a permanent separation.

Prasad said the hospital’s plans to reopen have not changed, but there is still no firm reopening date.

Sylvia Williams, a former head of nursing at West Suburban Medical Center, said staff knew layoffs were a possibility but hoped they would not become necessary.

SEE ALSO | Exit strategy? Settlement negotiations underway over future of Oak Park safety-net hospital

The notices come amid an ongoing court battle between West Suburban Medical Center owners Prasad and landowner Rathnaker Patlola. The two sued each other in the weeks following the hospital’s closure in March.

ABC7’s I-Team was in court Tuesday for a hearing on progress toward a settlement agreement involving the hospital. During the hearing, attorneys representing Resilience Healthcare did not mention layoffs.

Sources close to the settlement discussions told the I-Team the notices are “a big deal” and that Prasad “had not consulted with anyone” about plans to permanently lay off the remaining furloughed employees.

One source also told the I-Team that the judge was surprised by the news and “upset” it was not disclosed.

Patlola issued a statement saying, in part, that he was “surprised and disappointed” and that employees “deserved far better.”

Settlement negotiations over the future of West Suburban hospital remain ongoing.

In a 6-3 ruling Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down White House efforts to restrict birthright citizenship, which It grants citizenship to anyone born in the country regardless of their parents’ immigration status. Political Reporter Chris Tye reports.

• A Springfield Township man on parole is facing new public indecency charges.
• Police said Leon D. Sims was seen masturbating at a Barnes and Noble in Fairfield Township.
• Sims is a registered sex offender with a history of similar offenses and other federal convictions.

A Springfield Township man who was on parole for engaging in a sex act during a Facetime call with two children is now facing public indecency charges, police said.

Police said Leon D. Sims, 44, was seen masturbating June 25 at the Barnes and Noble at the Bridgewater Falls Shopping Center in Fairfield Township.

Sims has a history of similar offenses and is listed on the National Sex Offender registry.

He was charged with public indecency in 2011 after being accused of exposing his genitals to a library employee in Cincinnati.

In 2016, Sims was arrested for masturbating in a public place in Cincinnati. Three years later, he was accused of similar conduct in front of children near a Franklin County high school.

His most recent parole violation is related to a 2021 offense, in which he masturbated in front of two young girls, 9 and 15, over a Facetime call. One of the victims realized what was happening and recorded the call, which was later used as evidence.

Sims also recently spent time in federal prison for coercing a woman into prostitution and transporting her to Ohio, Kentucky and California, according to court documents. Prosecutors said that Sims forced the woman into prostitution “countless times” over a period of months between 2020 and 2021.

In a sentencing memorandum from the 2021 case involving the Facetime call, prosecutors said it was “well within the realm of possibility” that Sims had committed the crime to groom the 9-year-old girl into prostitution. They added that he was operating his sex trafficking business two weeks before he exposed himself on Facetime in front of the two girls.

According to prison records, Sims was no longer in federal prison custody as of September 2024.

Sims was convicted in Hamilton County in February 2025 of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles in the Facetime case. He was paroled from state prison in November 2025.

Sims had no attorney listed in court documents at the time this story was published.

This story may be updated.