Parents Sue as a Result of a Binge Drinking Death

The timesunion.com is reporting that the parents of a Boston College honors student who drowned last year after binge drinking at Skidmore College have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against nine Saratoga County men for allegedly supplying or buying alcohol for their underage son. The suit was filed earlier this week by Kenneth and Deanna Grant of Westchester County on behalf of their son’s estate.

At the time of his death, Alexander Grant was 19 years old and was visiting at Skidmore during spring break. Four Skidmore students, Jonathan Hoeg, Bryan Connolly, Matthew Diaco, and Nicholas Yedibalian, have been named in the suit along with Seth Berger, who is accused of buying the alcohol for the first Skidmore party that Grant attended. The civil action contends Grant and a friend continued drinking at another party on Church Street in Saratoga Springs. The hosts of that gathering, Brendan Flynn, Ian Bain, Charles Sullivan, and Brian Milazzo, have also been named as defendants in the lawsuit.

The suit alleges the nine defendants, all of whom are Saratoga Springs residents, supplied Grant with alcohol even though they knew he was not of legal drinking age.

Police were able to retrace some of Grant’s final movements through video surveillance that captured him staggering outside the Saratoga Springs train station off West Avenue after he left the Church Street party by himself.

The timesunion.com reports that he later stripped down to one sock, a shirt, and shorts in frigid weather, broke into a medical office building on Care Lane, where he remained for about 35 minutes, before drowning in about 4 feet of water in Putnam Creek.

The police probe revealed Grant had a blood alcohol content of 0.16 percent and low levels of marijuana in his system. His cause of death was asphyxia due to drowning with contributing factors of intoxication and probable hypothermia.

“By reason of the intoxication or impairment of Michael Perlow, Alexander Grant was placed in an unsafe and dangerous situation in that he was left alone and disoriented in an unfamiliar city, resulting in his tragic and horrifying death,” the suit states.

No criminal charges were filed in the case by police or the Saratoga County District Attorney. This case serves to highlight the dangers of binge drinking on college campuses. For more information on the tragic impacts of binge drinking and college hazing, please visit www.inmemoryofjack.com.

If you or someone you know has been a victim of hazing, contact the attorneys at Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner by calling (713) 222-7211 or 713-222-7211.