Ex-bar owner gets 4 years prison for drinking death

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9852592/

So why is it that the bar owner bears the brunt of the responsibility? Her mother and sister couldn’t help her in decising to stop drinking? The bar owner wasn’t holding her mouth open and forcing the drinks down her throat.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. - A former bar owner was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for the death of a woman who prosecutors said participated in a drinking contest involving a red, yellow and green concoction called the “Stoplight Challenge.”

Billy Leroy Scott, 34, apologized to Juanita Goodpasture’s family at the sentencing Thursday: “If we could change things, we would. … I liked Juanita, she was a great person, and it’s a tragedy we lost her.”

Scott was convicted of involuntary manslaughter last month in the alcohol poisoning death of Goodpasture, 31, who had a blood alcohol content of .430 when she was found dead at her home in July 2004 after a night of drinking with her mother and sister.

“A lot of us are at fault, including myself,” Goodpasture’s mother, Bev Brown, told the court. “But he took a life and I think he should be punished for it.”
The three women were drinking at The Point, a bar co-owned by Scott, when Scott served the red, yellow and green drink to Goodpasture, according to testimony.

Some said the “Stoplight Challenge” was used in a drinking contest; other witnesses testified the bar didn’t sponsor one.

Such games are illegal under state law, but prosecutors said patrons were refunded the $15 cost of the drink and awarded a T-shirt if they could remain coherent for 30 minutes after consuming it.

foot notes … mother and sister help girl drunk, girl dies, mother and sister feel guilty, pawn guilt off on bar owner

mother and sister feel better about themselves because bar owner was "obviously the guilty one

my take: the mother and sister should be prosecuted too, just to keep things fair

That’s fucking bullshit

People need to man the fuck up and take responsibilities for their own actions.

Blame it on the bar owner?

FUCK THAT SHIT.

yea thats REALLY fucked

“A lot of us are at fault, including myself,” Goodpasture’s mother, Bev Brown, told the court. “But he took a life and I think he should be punished for it.”

riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight cause you coudln’t stop your own fucking daughter from drinking :roll:

this is why i hate lawyers and BS litigation and civil suits, its destroying this country

grow the hell up people and take responsibilty for your own damn actions. it isnt other people’s responsibility to babysit your dumbass

stop always blaming everyone else for things you screw up on. /rant

The accusation isnt the scary part,people love to pin the blame on other people.

The scary part is that he was actually convicted :bloated:

i wanna know what was in the drink that people were incoherent after 30mins after one drink.

doesnt beat the people suing cruise ships because they had drunk family members that jumped overboard…

This is fucked up, but not surprising. Same stuff happens every day. If she was a minor or a retard it would be different. Or, if he held her down and poured it down her throat. But as it is???

bartender should be prosecuted, but not for murder. bartenders have a legal responsibility to not serve underage people and people who are already very intoxicated. Granted they don’t have breathalyzers, they have to use good judgement.

slowtalon im thinking the same thing

now thats some fuct up shit right there

What happens when the bartender is drinking too (not uncommon) and his ability to make that judgement is impared… :gotme:

x…

P.S. I’m guessing the Long Island got her started.

http://www.thevirtualbar.com/cgi-bin/dspdrink?RecNo=2693
http://www.mydrinkrecipes.com/drink/d8708dn_s.html
http://www.drinknation.com/drinks.php?op=addfav&nameid=4057&barbook=
http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink2256.html
http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink7835.html

there is plenty of diff ways to make them…but i have seen them made with all WL,Devil springs, or 151

straight fucking bullshit…sister and mom should sit in jail also. but i think none of them should go to jail

ahhh gota love the bullshit liberalization of this country. thats total bullshit.

then the bartender gets fired too. I thought it was understood (not a rule or a law) that drinking on the job is a no-no. :shrug:

have you been to a bar recently?? i see lots of bartenders/shot girls driking on the job, like all the time

not really. I usually only go to bars for concerts. I stay home or go to a friend’s place for the drinking. cheaper that way. (but the few bars I do frequent, those bartenders are only allowed like one drink per night…:shrug: )

I’m willing to bet you voted for AlGore in '00 and horse-face Kerry in '04? Don’t be afraid to admit it - some of my best friends (and my wife) did too. There is this “liberal” legal priniciple in some states, the People’s Republic of New York included, called “joint and several liability”. This a pretty good description:

The theory of Joint and Several Liability allows that each defendant in a legal action is responsible for the entire amount of damages that a plaintiff is seeking, regardless of their relative degree of responsibility for the damages involved. This has come to be known as the “deep pocket” rule because it has had the effect of turning lawsuits into all out searches to find the most financially lucrative defendants. The search for deep pocket defendants has created a “lottery” atmosphere within the legal system in this country.

You can see why plaintiff’s trial lawyers and liberals love this. The same kind of thinking is what would lead a bartender to be held responsible for a patron acting like a moronic asshole. Just to illustrate what this means: Let’s say you were being sued. The jury decided that the damages were “worth” $5,000,000 and they decided that you (the defendant) were 1% responsible for the injury. The plaintiff (“victim”) might be themselves responsible for 99% of the fault because they acted a complete fool. But YOU would have to pay the entire $5,000,000. Or. two parties are being sued and one is 99% responsible the other 1%. Mr. 99% has no assets. Guess what happens to Mr. 1%? Pays the whole five mill!!!

Only a lawyer with a “liberal” mentality could think this shit up.

I hate republicans, but I hate democrats more. But this isn’t about politics. it’s about these people taking responsibility for their own actions. The person who died was 31 years old. Having a .430 BAC means that she (the drinker) was not being responsible. Heavy drinking may be fun, but what if she went to a liquor store and bought tons of stuff and drank it and died? Would she be able to sue the liquor store? No. that’s just rediculous. Now it seems if I’m negating my original post, but really, I’m not. Bartenders (as a job description) have more responsibility, mainly in being more picky in who they sell too. The bartender in this article failed on that responsibility, and the tender, not so much the owner, should take the consequences.

(unless of course, the bartender at the time WAS the owner, then all of my posts made zero sense. lol)