Parents want sales to minors stopped

Wrongful death suit alleges Del Rois sold alcohol to teen-age boys

By STEVE KADEL-Frontiersman reporter

PALMER -- The four parents of two teen-aged boys who died in a four-wheeler crash in 1996, allegedly after buying beer and rum from a Butte bar, are seeking about $1.3 million from the bar's owners for economic loss and an undetermined amount for pain and suffering.

The civil suit in Palmer Superior Court went to the jury Wednesday morning after days of testimony. Rose Gama, formerly Rose Sowinski, and James McGill are defendants in the case brought by the parents of Palmer residents Justin Vaughn and Robert Walker, both of whom were 17 when they died June 25, 1996.

Gama is majority owner of Del Rois Bar and Liquor and McGill is an absentee owner of the establishment at Mile 39.5 Old Glenn Highway, said plaintiffs' attorney Phillip Paul Wiedner.

His clients are William Patrick Walker and his wife, Donna. Attorney Charles Coe represents the other parents, Donald L. and Donna Vaughn. Each couple is seeking virtually the same amount for economic loss, although Wiedner said money is not the motivating factor.

Instead, the parents want Del Rois Bar closed down so other youths do not buy alcohol there and end up dead, Wiedner said in an interview.

During Tuesday's court session, he said, "A verdict needs to go out in this community so bars know that if they sell alcohol to young people and they die, they must pay. Everybody knew you could go to Del Rois. Even in 2002, after these boys had died, they were still selling alcohol" to minors.

An Alaska State Trooper investigation revealed that three youths riding a four-wheeler struck a cable used to close a private access or driveway to Knik River just before 5 a.m. on June 25, 1996. Troopers said alcohol and excessive speed appeared to be factors. Vaughn and Walker died at the scene, and a third passenger, Chrystal Brueggeman, 17, was injured but survived.

"It appears as if the four-wheeler hit the cable, which was stretched out across a private driveway or access to the river," Sgt. Don Bowman of the troopers told the Frontiersman. "The passengers went flying off of the vehicle."

Del Rois sold one of the teens a pint bottle of Bacardi rum and a 12-pack of Budweiser beer just hours before the crash, Wiedner said during his closing argument. He and Coe called five men to the witness stand to testify that, as teens, they had purchased alcohol at Del Rois.

"What it comes down to is a case of abusing a privilege," Coe said in his closing argument. "They sell to a minor. That starts the chain."

However, defense attorney Andrew Robinson said there were problems with the picture painted by Wiedner and Coe. First of all, Brueggeman has said the rum was Bacardi 151, which wasn't sold at Del Rois, he said. And second, the empty bottle and beer cans were never recovered as evidence.

He also said Del Rois would have been investigated if the staff sold to minors.

"If this is such a widespread practice, why hasn't there been a criminal prosecution?" Robinson asked. "There are too many unanswered questions."

Contact Steve Kadel at steve.kadel@frontiersman.com.