The family of a Euless detective who was killed by a drunk driver in November 2021 is suing both General Motors and Fuzzy Tacos.
Euless detective Alejandro Cervantes was killed by drunk driver Dylan Molina, who is serving a 15-year prison sentence.
Cervantes’s wife, Priscilla, and their two sons were critically injured in the crash.
Cervantes’s family is now suing Fuzzy’s Taco Shop for overserving Molina and for allowing an unlicensed manager to supervise an unlicensed bartender, according to the law firm representing the family.
“The Cervantes family was shocked to learn that Fuzzy’s Taco Shop allowed an unlicensed bar tender being supervised by an unlicensed manager to serve alcohol to such an obviously intoxicated person,” Zadeh Firm Attorneys wrote in a statement to local news outlet WFAA Dallas.
The suit states that Molina consumed seven double vodka Red Bull drinks and partially drank an eighth, but told police that he only had three.
At the scene, police gave Molina a breathalyzer test which showed Molina’s blood alcohol content was 0.144, according to the lawsuit.
Security footage in Fuzzy’s Taco Shop shows Molina walking through a door from behind the bar in an area that was restricted to employees, according to the lawsuit.
The footage shows bartender Carla Richardson telling Molina to go back to his seat according to the suit.
“Despite his obvious intoxication, Dylan Molina continued to be served alcohol throughout the morning and early afternoon of Nov. 27, 2021,” the suit reads.
“Despite his obvious intoxication, Dylan Molina was permitted to leave Fuzzy’s Taco Shop and drive a motor vehicle.”
Richardson was charged with one count of sale to certain persons, a class A misdemeanor in Texas.
The lawsuit also states that Richardson nor her manager Jayline Barbosa had a TABC server certificate, license, or permit at the time of the incident, according to the lawsuit.
But the Cervantes family is not just suing Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, they are also suing General Motors due to a defective occupant restraint system that failed to restrain the occupant’s movement during the crash, according to the lawsuit.
“At the time of the collision, the Decedent Alejandro Cervantes, Jr. was properly seated and properly wearing the available seatbelt,” the suit states.
“However, despite being properly restrained and properly wearing the available seatbelt, Decedent Alejandro Cervantes, Jr. sustained fatal injuries when the Subject Vehicle failed to protect him because it violated several crashworthiness principles.”
“The fatal and personal injuries complained of occurred because the Subject Vehicle was not reasonably crashworthy, and was not reasonably fit for unintended, but clearly foreseeable, collisions,” the lawsuit reads.
“The vehicle in question was unreasonably dangerous in the event it should be involved in any collision such as occurred herein.”
Good for them! When a local business violates that law and does not have the proper training and license and it causes a death, the prosecutors should be arresting the manager and bar tender for manslaughter, not fining them. It is absurd that just because someone has a business license that the only recourse is civil. In fact, because both he bartender and the manager knew or should have known that the license was required, it became a CONSPIRACY to commit a crime. This crime became conspiracy that caused manslaughter and should be dealt with as such.
With regard to GM. I stopped purchasing GM products in the early 80’s when my special order 4wd truck burned to the ground after a year of major issues and inability to even start the truck in extreme heat or cold. Then GM’s “investigators” accused me of changing the smog control on the vehicle to avoid liability (I never touched any system on the truck except to add fog lights and backup lights on the pre-determined circuit). I will NEVER own another GM product, even used. It will not happen.
I told GM at the time I would cost them 100M in sales. I have already advised several corporate purchasers never to purchase Gm products and they did not. I hope that those reading are hearing my words well. GM may have forgotten me, I will never forget!