Lawsuit: Texas Roadhouse Served 'Excessive Number of Alcoholic Beverages to Keene'

 

SAN ANGELO, TX — Babs and Raymond Jarmon have sued Texas Roadhouse in district court seeking $1 million in damages.  The Jarmon’s suit claims Texas Roadhouse served Michael Keene alcohol on the night of June 15, 2015 before he struck and Killed their daughter Gisele Jarmon with his vehicle.  

According to the suit, Texas Roadhouse employees, “served an excessive number of alcoholic beverages to Keene, even though it was apparent to Texas Roadhouse, through its employees that Keene was obviously intoxicated to the extent that he presented a clear danger to himself and others.”

The suit contends that Texas Roadhouse allowed Keene to leave and when he did, “Keene was traveling east on the frontage road of Houston Harte Freeway when he struck pedestrian, Gisele R. Jarmon.  Gisele R. Jarmon died from the injuries that she sustained in the collision. After striking Gisele, Keene fled the scene of the collision.”

The Jarmons' state in the suit that the collision was the result of Keene’s ‘severe intoxication’.  Keene, 20-year-old that night, was an employee of Texas Roadhouse at the time and was drinking under age illegally.  

The suit states the Jarmons are entitled to recover damages including pain and mental anguish; medical expenses and funeral and burial expenses.  The Jarmons are seeking a jury trial. It was filed by the Jarmons' San Angelo attorney Jon J. Bailey.

Texas Roadhouse answered the suit in August 2017.  In the response, Texas Roadhouse, “denies each and every fact alleged by Plaintiffs and demands strict proof thereof.”  

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Texas Roadhouse states in its response that “At this time, (Texas Roadhouse) cannot confirm whether Michael Keene drank alcohol at (Texas Roadhouse) on the date of the incident.  

On January 26, 2018 a hearing was held in this civil case.  The hearing was on a motion to compel Texas Roadhouse to provide documentation to the Jarmons' attorney.  The court took the matter under advisement. There are no other court dates scheduled at this time.

Michael Keene was found not guilty on one count of an accident involving death and one count of manslaughter by a Schleicher County jury on Monday.  The trial was moved from Tom Green County because of pretrial publicity.

Texas Roadhouse trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol TXRH. For 2017, the corporation reported an 11.5 percent increase in revenue and 13.8 percent increase in net income over 2016.

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Urlik, Wed, 03/07/2018 - 12:41

Texas Roadhouse was quoted in another media’s story 7 weeks ago that Keene was served zero alcohol at the restaurant.

live, Wed, 03/07/2018 - 17:36
According to TXRH response, dated Jan 23, 2018: "At this time, TXRH cannot confirm whether Michael Keene drank alcohol at TXRH on the date of the accident." They went on to say that since a criminal case is pending, TXRH attorneys have not been able to speak with Keene. They also state that "upon information and belief, neither Michael Keene nor any other TXRH employee, consumed alcohol provided, sold, or served by TXRH that night. Thus, any alcohol consumed by Keene on TXRH premises was obtained from sources other than TXRH."

It's likely that they couldn't file the civil suit while an on going criminal investigation was in progress. That would explain why it wasn't filed until June of 2017. It's also clear that they wouldn't allow the civil case to go forward until the criminal case was completed. A civil case verdict would influence a criminal case in a way that would make a fair trial even harder than it was. That's why civil cases, with their different standards of proof happen after related criminal cases.

Hope that helps clear things up a bit.

Lots of questions and no good answers. An acquittal and no evidence for a civil trial, but there’s a dead girl and a family who suffered the loss of their loved one. Who gets away with something like this? Hmmm!

What do you mean who gets away with this. It was an accident that could've been avoided if the girl had not been walk-in in the dark,in the rain down a 55 mile an hour accessy

To Mark McCarty: Yes accidents do happen. Was it the wrong place wrong time? Was Keene drunk? Why did the Judge throw out evidence that might of found Keene guilty? My assumption only of all of this is yes the girl probably was in the wrong place at the wrong time but I do not blame her parents for that. After all it states her age and that she had the mind of a 7 year old. You cannot take and lock them up to keep them from leaving there room at night or all of us would have to lock up or kids for grandkids then we would be in trouble with CPS for locking them in a room. As far as Keene, he admitted he hit something, so why didn't he stop at that moment and see what it was? She might of been alive at the time and could of saved her. But of course if he was drunk he would of left the scene for fear of being arrested for a DWI and hitting someone. Next question is now many cars drove down that road from the time she was hit until someone found her after daylight? Just wonder if there was tall grass there to keep someone from seeing her as I do not know the answer to that question. Then San Angelo Live reported that the judge threw out information about the windshield, Keene going back to the scene to see what he had hit, something I think maybe about phone records and then I heard (hear say only} they would not let the hair samples found in his windshield be presented as evidence so that tells me the SAPD for whoever collected them messed something up in there collection or did not have a search warrant. So if this turns out to be a case of SAPD not following the rules on how to handle evidence and Keene really was guilty I hope the parents find a lawyer out of the state to sue the detectives to botched this one and the guilty party whoever it is Keene or someone else get what they deserve. If that was your child that had been hit and died would you want the judge throwing out evidence that could prove the man was guilty????? Yep , now that you've thought about it you'd take matters into your own hand. And don't say I don't know who you are because you if have raced cars I know who you are and if you have not then you are a different person.

Failure to supervise the woman in question is neglect, just the same if the person was actually only physically 7 years old. I am surprised it was not the first question raised by all of the everyone involved.

I will raise another question: why was the person not in a state school or group home for supervision if the parent(s) were not capable? Could it possibly be, oh I do not know - MONEY? Just like the lawsuit? Or is the family going to donate the money (in excess of the legal costs) from the lawsuit to those less fortunate?

Just saying.

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