Student group to receive $5,000 from Kutztown bar

Nov. 24--A student organization that helps young people resist pressure to use alcohol and other drugs will receive $5,000 from a Kutztown bar as a result of a recently announced legal settlement in a drunk-driving tragedy.

Attorney Kevin R. Marciano of Philadelphia said that while nearly all of the $12.7 million settlement will come from insurance companies, it requires Shorty's Bar in Kutztown to directly give $5,000 that will be turned over to an as-yet-undesignated chapter of Students Against Destructive Decisions.

"I am assuming we are going to give it to one of the local chapters, near the bar," Marciano said.

Attempts to contact Charles Stokes, a Bucks County attorney who represented Shorty's in the settlement, were not successful.

SADD has nearly 10,000 chapters nationwide that involve about 350,000 students, according to its website. The organization helps students deal with the issues of underage drinking, other drug use, risky and impaired driving, and other destructive decisions.

Brandywine Heights High School business teacher Michele Moore formed a SADD chapter there after a student died from a destructive decision.

She declined to be specific, but said, "It impacted me and a lot of people here."

Fourteen Brandywine students are involved in SADD, Moore said. Each year, they organize prom weekend activities to make students aware of the dangers of drinking and drug use in general.

The SADD chapter also arranged for an impaired driving simulator to be brought to the high school. Students also hold group discussions.

"Parents can say things or guidance counselors can say things, but it hits home when students talk to them," Moore said.

Moore said she was not aware of the legal settlement.

On Jan. 28, 2010, Anthony R. Bruno of Bethlehem Township, Northampton County, crashed his pickup truck into a car in Northampton County while drunk, killing three people.

Marciano was lead plaintiffs' lawyer in the wrongful death lawsuits and the ensuing settlement, which Marciano described as one of the largest drunk-driving settlements in state history. Other lawyers involved were Patrick D. MacAvoy of Philadelphia and Kelly C. Rambo, R.J. Brasko and Eric Conrad, all of Bethlehem.

According to Marciano and the lawsuits, Bruno had consumed more than 30 drinks during and after a group trip to a Reading Royals hockey game. Bruno was ordered to serve up to 18 years in state prison after pleading guilty last year to homicide by vehicle while driving drunk.

Nine defendants in the lawsuits agreed to a settlement with total payments of $12.7 million, according to Marciano.

Among them were a $6 million payment from the company that manages the Santander Arena in Reading, and a combined $4.5 million from All Star Distributing of Muhlenberg Township and Geiger Beverage of Allentown.

All Star, Marciano said, sponsored the van ride to Reading that Bruno took part in and made drinks available to him.

The settlement called for Shorty's to pay $1 million in the settlement because Bruno was served drinks there after he was visibly drunk, Marciano said.

That money, Marciano said, was to be paid by an insurance policy. The attorneys, he said, asked specifically that the bar pay the additional $5,000 for SADD with its own money.

Marciano said, "We wanted Shorty's to pay out of its own pocket."

Contact Ford Turner: 610-371-5037 or [email protected].

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