Families of crash victims offered $300,000

Thursday, Nov. 18, 2004 | 11:06 a.m.

The families of four boys killed or injured when a drunken teen driver wrecked his car have been offered a share of $300,000 to settle a civil lawsuit against the owner of a home where the boy was drinking.

The families of the four teens sued Pamela Roman, whose European Drive residence in Seven Hills was the site of an impromptu party involving alcohol and dozens of teens in the hours leading up to the Nov. 10, 2003, wreck.

A 16-year-old attending the party, loaded up his car with his friends and ended up crashing, killing 15-year-olds Travis Dunning, Josh Parry and Kyle Poff. Cody Fredericks, also 15, survived with serious injuries.

The Henderson city attorney's office declined to prosecute the parents, but the settlement by the homeowners' insurance company, USAA, which still has to be approved by a judge, shows that parents are responsible to control what happens at their house, said William McGaha, a lawyer who represents the Poff and Parry families.

"When you fail in your responsibilities there are consequences," McGaha said. "If you know your house is a favorite nightspot for the neighborhood teenagers and you know there's potential for alcohol being added to the mix, you can't go upstairs to bed and hope for the best."

In a deposition taken July 6 as part of the civil suit, Roman described how when she was awakened and told there were teens drinking on her property she took no action beyond ordering her 14-year-old daughter to break up the crowd.

"Why didn't you ... stop and ask any of the kids who were in the back if they had been drinking to see if they were OK to leave?" McGaha asked.

"I don't know," Roman said.

"Should you have?" McGaha asked.

"Yes," Roman replied.

Despite the lack of criminal charges against Roman, the two plaintiffs' attorneys said they believe they proved that Roman bore some responsibility for the deadly crash.

Las Vegas lawyer Justin Clouser, who represents the Dunning family, noted that the offer is expected to include a statement that the settlement is not an admission of liability.

"However, from a practical standpoint, you have to step back from that and realize that insurance companies don't just give away money," Clouser said. "They realized there's enough to our case that the path they're taking is the smart one to take."

The money would be shared evenly between the four families, Clouser said. The Fredericks' lawyer could not be reached for comment.

Neither Roman nor her lawyer could be reached for comment either.

In the deposition Roman said she had given her daughter permission to invite a few friends to their home in the gated community.

Before heading upstairs to bed Roman said she made the girls recite "her rules" for parties -- "no alcohol and gone by midnight." Prior to that evening Roman said she had suspicions, but no proof, that her older daughter had experimented with alcohol and that some of her friends drank.

The small gathering quickly grew as teens used their cell phones to relay invitations, Roman said.

At about midnight Roman was awakened from "a dead sleep" by her youngest daughter who reported the older girl's slumber party had grown into a crowd of teens mingling and drinking alcohol in the backyard.

Her husband, commercial airline pilot Bob Roman, was still asleep upstairs and she did not wake him.

Roman told her daughter, "I hear there's alcohol in my backyard. I want it out now."

She then watched from a window as the 14-year-old tried to get the crowd to break up.

When the daughter came back inside and reported the teens wouldn't listen to her, a boy, who Roman said she had not met before that evening, volunteered to help her daughter clear out the backyard.

"And he went out there, and immediately -- he must have said she's going to call the cops, because immediately everybody started leaving like cockroaches," Roman said.

At 12:30 a.m., after leaving the Roman residence, the 16-year-old driver crashed his Pontiac Grand Am crashed into a cement and cinder block wall on Silver Springs Parkway in Green Valley.

His blood alcohol content was 0.19, twice the legal limit for adults.

In the deposition, Roman described how she came downstairs the following morning to her daughters and their friends "screaming" that the boys had been in an accident.

"And I said, 'Just please tell me they were not at my house,' and they said, 'They were.' Well, I just lost it and I couldn't -- I was upset."

Rick Poff, whose son died in the crash, said he was not satisfied with the settlement offer -- but not because of the dollar amount.

"This was never about money and no money is going to bring my son or anyone else's son back," Poff said. "This is about holding people accountable and I'm not sure how it teaches someone a lesson if all that happens to them is their insurance company writes a check."

Henderson Police forwarded the results of its investigation to City Attorney Shauna Hughes with a recommendation that Pamela Roman be charged with a misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Hughes said Wednesday after reviewing the facts there was not enough evidence to support such a charge.

"After looking at what we could prove and what we could not prove we decided not to proceed," Hughes said. "When she (Roman) discovered what was going on she made a good faith effort to get the kids out of there."

Hughes noted that the individual who bought beer for the teens earlier that evening had been prosecuted and punished.

Pierre Goujon, 20, told cops he used a fake ID for the purchase. He pleaded guilty in May to misdemeanor charges of providing alcohol to minors and served two months in jail with an additional 16 months suspended.

Whether Roman should have taken additional action -- such as calling the police or determining whether any of the party-goers intended to drive -- isn't a question for the city attorney to answer, Hughes said.

"Wouldn't it be nice if we all had the benefit of 20-20 hindsight for every decision we made," Hughes said. "Considering the horrible outcome of that night, I'm sure there are a lot of people who wish they done things a lot differently."

The Henderson Municipal Code governing liquor violations outlines "parental responsibility," which deems it unlawful for any parent or guardian to permit their residence to be used for the possession, purchase or consumption of alcohol by a minor, whether its their own child or an invited guest.

Parents, the code says, are responsible if "he or she knowingly authorizes such use or enables such use to occur by failing to control access to either the residence or the alcoholic beverages maintained therein."

The municipal code section does not apply in this situation because Pamela Roman took action once she realized the party was under way, Hughes said.

McGaha, the attorney representing the Poff and Parry families, disagreed.

"Based on Mrs. Roman's own words, the circumstances here seem to fit hand in glove (with the municipal code)," McGaha said.

Police had been called out to the Roman residence on several occasions prior to the November incident to investigate reports of loud parties involving teens, McGaha said.

Police were also called to the residence March 11 of this year -- four months after the crash -- when a neighbor complained about a loud party and noisy juveniles, according to the Henderson Police incident report. The caller reminded the police dispatcher of the residence's connection to the fatal wreck.

Only one of the police visits appears to have resulted in further action. In June 2002, after arriving at the Roman residence to investigate a reported noise disturbance, police took a 20-year-old man into custody on outstanding traffic warrants.

As for the driver of the car that wrecked, a separate civil lawsuit has been filed against him and his parents and that lawsuit is still pending.