A downtown Texarkana bar being sued in connection with a drunken driving fatality wants another local watering hole to share any responsibility.
Hopkins Ice House and its owners are named as defendants in two civil suits filed in September in Miller County circuit court on behalf of the families of Tameka Pavon, 38, and Jercarlos Hawkins, 34. Both died in a September 2013 crash on State Line Avenue in Texarkana, Texas.
The suits allege that Chad Caldwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for two counts of intoxication manslaughter and a single count of intoxication assault, was overserved at Hopkins the night he ran a red light while driving with a blood alcohol level of .301. Hopkins' lawyers filed a motion in both cases June 29 asking for the court's permission to add Fat Jack's Oyster and Sports Bar and owner Meredith Mills as third-party defendants.
A proposed third-party complaint attached to the motions alleges that Caldwell left Hopkins shortly before midnight Sept. 28, 2013, and headed to Fat Jack's, where he continued to drink. The proposed complaint alleges Caldwell had just left Fat Jack's at 2 a.m. Sept. 29 when he slammed his jeep into Pavon's 2004 Honda sedan, killing Pavon and Hawkins. Genaro Camacho, 28, survived the wreck but suffered a severe, debilitating brain injury.
The proposed third-party complaint accuses Fat Jack's of selling alcohol to an already intoxicated Caldwell and of failing to take action that might have kept an impaired driver off the road. The proposed third-party complaint alleges Fat Jack's is guilty of negligence and of violating Arkansas law prohibiting the sale of alcohol to a clearly intoxicated person.
The proposed complaint notes that while Hopkins continues to deny any wrongdoing, should it be found liable, Fat Jack's should share responsibility. Texarkana lawyers Dennis Chambers and Hailee Amox represent defendants Layin' Low Inc., doing business as Hopkins Ice House, and Hopkins owners David Jones, George Dodson and Mike Rogers. Caldwell is named as a defendant as well.
The civil suits were filed on behalf of Pavon's and Hawkins' families by Texarkana lawyers Hawley Holman and Chad Trammell. Holman and Trammell have not filed a response concerning the defense motions to include Fat Jack's in the suits, and Circuit Judge Kirk Johnson has not ruled on them.