{"id":1366,"date":"2012-06-06T17:55:27","date_gmt":"2012-06-06T23:55:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alcoholmonitoring.com\/blog\/?p=1366"},"modified":"2016-02-18T19:10:25","modified_gmt":"2016-02-18T19:10:25","slug":"handing-them-the-keys-should-parents-of-adult-offenders-be-legally-liable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2012\/06\/handing-them-the-keys-should-parents-of-adult-offenders-be-legally-liable\/","title":{"rendered":"Handing Them the Keys: Should Parents of Adult Offenders Be Legally&#160;Liable?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In May, a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pressdemocrat.com\/article\/20120509\/ARTICLES\/205091004\/1033\/news?p=1&amp;tc=pg\" target=\"_blank\">California judge approved a $1.2 million settlement agreement <\/a>\u00a0for a drunk driving crash that injured two sisters standing on a street corner. And last March, the North Carolina mother of Laura Fortenberry, whose death in a DUI crash eventually resulted in North Carolina\u2019s <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncleg.net\/Sessions\/2011\/Bills\/House\/PDF\/H49v6.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Laura\u2019s Law,<\/a><\/em> one of the nation\u2019s toughest pieces of DUI legislation, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wbtv.com\/story\/17276677\/mom-files-lawsuit-against-repeat-dwi-driver-who-killed-teen\" target=\"_blank\">filed a lawsuit related to her daughter\u2019s death.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>But the interesting part: Both lawsuits claim the parents of the drivers responsible for the DUI crashes are&#160;liable.<\/p>\n<p>In the California case, the plaintiffs claimed that the parents of then 35-year-old Michael Tweedie, who injured 13 and 15 year old sisters in 2009, \u201clit the wick of the bomb\u201d by purchasing a pick-up truck for their son after three previous DUIs (and numerous other criminal offenses), allowing him access to a joint bank account from which he continued to purchase alcohol after entering a second-time DUI offender program, and generally having knowledge that their son continued to drink and pose a risk to the community. Tweedie himself testified that his parents were aware that he never stopped using alcohol after being discharged from the Sonoma County jail in&#160;2006.<\/p>\n<p>After hitting the two sisters, Michael then fled the scene.\u00a0 He was found 4 hours later with a BAC of .17. There is no conclusive evidence that the drinking was before or after the actual crash according to the article. Michael was later sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading no&#160;contest.<\/p>\n<p>In the North Carolina case, Fortenberry&#8217;s mom, Michelle Armstrong, claims that the parents of Howard Pasour, a multiple DUI offender now serving 21 to 28 years in prison without parole, are responsible because they allowed their son to continue driving their 1997 Jeep with a revoked license. According to the lawsuit, Pasour\u2019s parents had told his girlfriend that \u201che is going to kill someone some day because of his continued habit of drinking and driving impaired.\u201d Pasour was 28 when he killed&#160;Fortenberry.<\/p>\n<p>Obviously, in both cases, both drivers had serious problems with alcohol and a proven record of making poor decisions. But neither was a minor. Far from it. So should the parents\u2019 knowledge of the situation make them financially liable? To what level is a parent, or anyone else, liable for someone else\u2019s actions? And should the liability be limited to parents? Given the fact the offenders were adults, should it extend to spouses, siblings, or even close friends with knowledge of the addiction and the risky&#160;behavior?<\/p>\n<p>Let us know what you&#160;think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In May, a California judge approved a $1.2 million settlement agreement \u00a0for a drunk driving crash that injured two sisters standing on a street corner. And last March, the North Carolina mother of Laura Fortenberry, whose death in a DUI crash eventually resulted in North Carolina\u2019s Laura\u2019s Law, one of the nation\u2019s toughest pieces of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,11],"tags":[60,139,237,296,368,375,381,418,419,426,527,571,582],"class_list":["post-1366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drunk-driving","category-legislation","tag-alcohol-dependence","tag-california","tag-drunk-driving-2","tag-feature","tag-impaired-driving","tag-incarceration","tag-interlock","tag-laura-fortenberry","tag-lauras-law","tag-liability","tag-north-carolina","tag-problem-drinking","tag-recidivism"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Handing Them the Keys: Should Parents of Adult Offenders Be Legally Liable? 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