On March 17, 2011, 23-year-old Kasey McKenzie was struck and killed by a custom 2003 Ford F-250 pickup truck outside a bar in Dallas, Texas. Recently, the parents of Kasey McKenzie have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against their daughter’s killer, Eric Brent Crutchfield, and Spearmint Rhino Gentlemen’s Club. Crutchfield, 27, was over twice the legal limit with a BAC of 0.18 at the time he drove over Kasey McKenzie with both his rear and front tires. According to officers at the scene, Crutchfield claimed that he never saw her.
The lawsuit alleges that Crutchfield was driving with a suspended license and driving while intoxicated. According to the parents’ lawyer, Michael Schmidt, Crutchfield’s truck had a lift kit that substantially impaired his field of vision and “the vehicle itself isn’t road-worthy.” Crutchfield has been criminally charged with intoxication manslaughter. As for the bar, the lawsuit claims that the bar was negligent in allowing its bartenders to serve Crutchfield past the legal limit of intoxication and in allowing Crutchfield to enter his vehicle and drive in his inebriated state.
While the parents of Kasey McKenzie are not speaking to reporters, their attorney said “they’re mostly interested in making sure that this doesn’t happen to another family again.” The parents have requested a jury trial of this matter. Kasey McKenzie was enrolled at the University of North Texas in Denton and was completing her degree in international finance and economics at the time of her death.