Widow files suit against former deputy
Las Cruces bar that served deputies also named in lawsuit
SANTA FE — The widow of a Santa Fe County deputy has filed suit against the former deputy who shot her husband to death and the bar where the two lawmen were drinking, maintaining the bar staff should have known better than to serve the defendant a combination of vodka and energy drinks.
Tai Chan, 30, is awaiting his third trial in the death of 29-year-old Jeremy Martin, scheduled for April after the first two ended with hung juries.
Prosecutors say Chan, a former SFCSO deputy, shot and killed Martin the evening of Oct. 27, 2014, at the Hotel Encanto in Las Cruces while the two were returning to Santa Fe after transporting a prisoner to Arizona. They got into an argument while drinking at Dublin’s Street Pub in Las Cruces before going to the hotel for the night, according to evidence presented at trial.
Martin’s widow, Sarah Martin, filed her wrongful death lawsuit Friday in District Court in Sandoval County against Chan, owners of Dublin’s and unnamed bar employees.
The suit says the Dublin’s staff continued to serve Martin and Chan alcohol even after they had to “intervene” between the two “due to their behavior on the premises.”
The suit also says the bar should not have served Chan a mix of vodka and Red Bull because the label on Red Bull’s can says not to mix the caffeinated energy drink with alcohol and the bar staff should have known what the mixture could do.
“By serving Chan and others with the combination of alcohol and Red Bull, as well as additional alcohol, the Defendants knew or should have known of the effects that the combination of alcohol and Red Bull would have on a person,” the lawsuit states.
“Upon information and belief, Defendants were informed by Red Bull, through a warning posted on the can, to not serve a combination of Red Bull and alcohol.”
Sarah Martin’s lawyer, David Foster, could not be reached Monday.
At least one study has compared the effect of Red Bull mixed with alcohol to cocaine’s, and another says the caffeine from energy drinks allows for longer periods of less inhibited behavior from the alcohol.
Santa Fe attorneys John Day and Tom Clark, who are representing Chan in his criminal case, said they wouldn’t represent him in the civil case and don’t believe Chan has been served with the wrongful death suit yet. An owner for Dublin’s could not be reached Monday.
Sarah Martin wants compensatory damages as well as punitive damages to “punish Chan and the Defendants for their failure to properly dispense alcohol in a reasonable and prudent manner and amount.”