Club found partly to blame for overserving former Cowboys player before deadly crash

The nightclub that served alcohol to former Dallas Cowboys player Josh Brent the night he crashed his car, killing teammate Jerry Brown, was found partly to blame for Brown’s death by a Dallas County civil court jury on Thursday.

The now defunct club Beamers will share half the blame with Brent (48 percent each), according to the Dallas Morning News. The other 4 percent was pinned on the victim. The crash happened six minutes after Brent and Brown left the club on Dec. 8, 2012.

The jury awarded Brown’s mother, Stacey Jackson, and his estate $25 million The multimillion-dollar verdict will be shared equally between Brent and Beamers.

“I’m sure Jerry’s looking down and happy,” Jackson told the Dallas Morning News.

There are no punitive damages, the Morning News reports, because one juror was a holdout in assessing an award to punish Beamers. The bar and management company argued Brent was not intoxicated when he arrived or when he left the nightclub.

Jackson and Brown’s estate sued, and their lawyers asked for up to $95 million, mostly from the bar and management company, the Morning News reports. Attorneys for Beamers argued that Brent chose to drink and drive and was solely responsible for Brown’s death.

But jurors believed Beamers shared the blame with Brent, who had a blood alcohol level of 0.18 percent — more than twice the legal driving limit. A toxicologist testified during Brent’s criminal trial that he would have had to consume 17 alcoholic drinks to have a blood alcohol level so high. He was driving 110 mph in a 45 mph zone when he crashed on Texas 114. Brent was sentenced to 10 years probation by a jury.

“I hope that this sends a message to bars — especially bars that do bottle service — to say if they’re going to undertake that type of business, they need to do it safely,” Charla Aldous, one of Jackson’s attorneys, to the Morning News. “They need to protect the public. They need to make sure that their patrons aren’t being served drinks when they’re intoxicated. And our hope and prayer is that, through this verdict, it may save a life in the future.”

This story was originally published December 13, 2018 at 8:13 PM.