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Lawsuit Against Bar After Beer Pong Beatdown Is A Go
By
Garth Johnston
Published Jun 27, 2011
Modified Jun 27, 2011
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Jun 27, 2011
Modified Jun 27, 2011
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A Staten Island judge has decided that a bar there can be sued by a patron who was beaten in a fight over beer pong. In May 2007 Thomas Venito got a broken ankle and a shattered nose when he was chased out of KJ's Ale House, where he and others had been playing the popular drinking game. Venito's attacker previously pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and served 60 days in jail for the attack and now the victim, a firefighter, has been given the green light to sue the bar for not providing enough security at an event where it should have known there would be excessive drinking.
"When [beer pong is] played in a bar, the obvious inference is that the bar profits most when players drink large quantities of beer," State Supreme Court Justice Joseph J. Maltese wrote in his ruling. "[Michael] Fusco, the employee of KJ's, knew that the parties were engaged in the 'beer-pong' drinking game, which, by its very nature, encouraged excessive drinking on the premises of KJ's. ... As part of that game, beer was served to [Venito's attacker Mark] Salvesen, who could be identified as being visibly intoxicated by his aggressive behavior." Maltese also said a jury should decide if the bar provided adequate security for its patrons.
According to one of Venito's lawyers the "firefighter's injuries kept him out of work for a month, then forced him onto light duty."
This isn't the only legal woe for the Great Kills bar. A South Beach woman who was badly hurt in a crash four years ago, has pressed charged saying the bar served the driver of the SUV in which she was a passenger, while he was drunk (curiously the man who attacked Venito was also in the SUV). The driver of the SUV, off-duty cop Gary Chin, pleaded guilty to vehicular assault and served jail time. And KJ's is also the bar that was sued earlier this year by a woman who fell after getting plastered at the bar while underage in 2008.
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beer pong thomas venito
kj's ale house
lawsuit
staten island
Garth Johnston
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