Man went on drinking binge at Hooters in DFW before killing girl [Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas]

April 29--Nine minutes after a drunken Marcial Jose Ortega left a Hooters bar in North Richland Hills in 2008, he rear-ended a station wagon at 77 mph. Four-year-old Kaitlyn Sanchez died, her head crushed.

Ortega, a 36-year-old mechanic, had three previous convictions for drunken driving -- all after binges at different area Hooters bars.

Why did Ortega choose Hooters?

His brother Nathan Ortega explained in a handwritten affidavit:

"Jose liked to drink at Hooters because they would serve him even after he was drunk or they would take away his keys and call a cab. ... Jose was usually too drunk to drive when he left Hooters. ... Hooters knew about his DWIs because I was there when he was telling the Hooters people about getting another DWI leaving there."

Marcial Ortega was charged with murder, rare in a drunken-driving case, and began a 30-year sentence after pleading guilty.

In March, the Sanchez family finalized a $1.1 million settlement with the insurance company of Texas Wings, which in 2008 owned all the franchised Hooters bars in Texas, said the family's attorney, Brian Butcher of the Noteboom law firm.

It's illegal for a bar to sell alcohol to an intoxicated person, and bartenders and other staffers are legally obligated to look for signs of intoxication.

But the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission took no action against the North Richland Hills restaurant. The agency's investigation of the March 14, 2008, incident could not prove that the restaurant had over-served Ortega, a spokeswoman said.

The case file said, "Unless no new information is obtained, no action is recommended."

Commission spokeswoman Carolyn Beck said, "Because he was at more than one bar and because the waitress refused to talk, it was hard to prove that [the over-serving] was directly attributable to the alcohol he was served at Hooters."

It's difficult to confirm a violation, Beck said, if there is no witness saying that Ortega was falling down, tripping or showing other signs of intoxication.

Butcher, the Sanchez family attorney, believes that surveillance recordings made by Hooters on March 14 could have provided such evidence, but they were never presented, despite requests by both his law firm and the Hurst police who investigated the accident.

Special customer

In a prison deposition, Ortega paints a picture of a social life centered on Hooters bars, particularly in North Richland Hills, where he was treated as a special customer. He'd arrange a midweek day off from his mechanic's job to coincide with shifts that favorite servers worked. They allowed him to hug them; sometimes he got them drunk by slipping them mixed drinks in plastic foam cups or buying them beer, he testified.

The Hooters in Grapevine once served Ortega 16 beers, he said in his deposition. He recalled drinking so much after visiting one Hooters that he'd fall asleep in his truck afterward, spend the night sprawled in his mother's garden -- awakened only by red ant bites, or be so senseless that he'd soil himself in bed.

Arlington had the most liberal serving policy, he said. "It's a place where there was no rules. There was no boundaries there. I got free beer. You know... it was endless there."

Hooters servers in Arlington would take Ortega's keys away if he got drunk, but that never happened at the North Richland Hills bar, he said.

Known as a generous tipper, Ortega was drawn to the Hooters in North Richland Hills on March 14 by text messages from a server, Stephanie Darnell, telling him it was her last week before going on maternity leave, according to a police report.

Darnell was quoted as saying that she served Ortega six Bud Lights but that he did not appear drunk.

"He was not stumbling or falling over," she was quoted in a police report as saying. "If he would have, I would have called a cab." Ortega started drinking before he got to Hooters, according to court records.

He had more than one shot of Crown Royal whiskey and Dr Pepper in the morning, then bought and consumed a 12-pack of Bud Light, although it might have been an 18-pack, then had more shots at Studer's Sports Bar before heading over to Hooters, he said in his deposition.

Surveillance video would have shown him so inebriated that he would hold onto tables on the way to the restroom, Ortega said. Two hours after he killed Kaitlyn Sanchez, tests showed, he still had triple the legal blood-alcohol level.

Hooters risk manager John Chlebak said in a deposition that a wide-angle, "eye in the sky" surveillance camera was positioned between the restroom and the bar area. Another camera near the entrance would have recorded people entering and leaving, Chlebak said. The equipment would have stored the continuous recording about 20 days, he said.

John Gessner, the Hooters former chief legal counsel who handled the 2008 incident, said in a deposition in September for the Sanchez lawsuit that after Hurst police viewed the tape and found no sign of Ortega on it, the video was recorded over.

Gessner reiterated his deposition statement. "My recollection is that the police officers were in the location within 24 hours of the accident and viewed the footage," he said in a telephone interview last week. Gessner also said that he himself had watched it. Ortega wasn't on the recording, he said.

However, an incident report by officer Chad Woodside, who investigated the girl's death, said, "During the entire investigation, I, Detective Woodside, was never provided with a video from Hooters on the night of March 14, 2008."

In another report, Woodside quoted Hooters manager Mark Burckel as telling him that either there was no videotape or it was unavailable.

No action was taken against Hooters over the discrepancy.

Both Burckel and Gessner now work for a rival chain, Dallas-based Twin Peaks, which owns the Ojos Locos sports bars and other concepts.

Restaurant group sold

At the time of Kaitlyn Sanchez's death, Texas Wings was the largest Hooters chain in the country.

Within weeks of the accident, Texas Wings owners Kelly and Judy Hall of Dallas negotiated to sell out to a North Carolina-based investment group, Chanticleer Holdings.

In July 2008, an announcement was made that Chanticleer had agreed to buy the chain for $108 million in cash and stock. But financing collapsed with the economic downturn that year and the deal fell through, Chanticleer CEO Mike Pruitt said in a telephone interview. The breakdown had nothing to do with the Sanchez case, Pruitt said.

Later, Texas Wings merged with Atlanta-based HOA Restaurant Group, the Hooters brand owner and franchise management company. Chanticleer acquired the entire HOA company including the Texas bars in January 2011, reportedly for $200 million.

A Hooters corporate spokeswoman stressed that the accident occurred before the change of ownership.

She also described the case as an anomaly.

"This is an unfortunate and rare incidence, despite all of the best and most proactive training measures," said Alexis Aleshire, the spokeswoman. "HOA Restaurant Group has an extensive and ongoing safe alcohol service training program and considers itself a leader on this subject."

The Sanchez family, which spoke through their attorney, said their lawsuit was never about money. It was aimed at preventing other families from living through a "nightmare like they have experienced," Butcher said.

Ortega, who has taken a cooking course in prison and now works in a unit kitchen, said the hardest part of serving time was not being permitted to hug his 4-year-old daughter -- Kaitlyn's age when she was killed -- during visits.

In his deposition, he takes responsibility for his role in the tragedy. But Hooters bears some blame too, he said.

"They knew I had a problem" with drinking, Ortega said but added that he couldn't help himself. "I just didn't love it, I was stuck in Hooterville."

Barry Shlachter, 817-390-7718

Twitter: @startelegram

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