Lawyers in Tiger Woods wrongful death lawsuit say evidence was destroyed
Tiger Woods has been named in a wrongful death lawsuit involving a former employee at his Florida restaurant, The Woods.
The parents of Nicholas Immesberger say their son, who worked as a bartender at The Woods, was regularly served excessive alcohol after he ended his shift, despite the fact that Woods and others at the restaurant knew he was an alcoholic. On 10 December 2018, Immesberger drank after his shift and subsequently crashed his car on the way home. The 24-year-old was killed in the crash; tests showed he was three times over the legal limit for alcohol.
Lawyers for Immesberger’s family say they believe a video of the day was wiped deliberately. “One of the most significant issues we have here is the destruction of evidence,” attorney Spencer Kuvin said on Tuesday. “Obviously it shows that somebody knew something had gone wrong and they wanted to get rid of that evidence. We have evidence to show that that video tape, showing Nick at the bar that night after he got off at 3pm, drinking for three hours at the bar, was destroyed shortly after the crash had occurred.
“So we have through our investigation uncovered evidence to show that the bar knew what happened, they knew about the crash that night and shortly thereafter that video evidence was destroyed and deleted off the servers they had there at The Woods.”
Woods’s girlfriend, Erica Herman, who manages the restaurant, is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit. “Tiger knew, or reasonably should have known, that Immesberger was habitually addicted to the use of any or all alcoholic beverages, and/or was a habitual drunkard,” the lawsuit says. The suit does not specify whether Woods and Herman were present on 10 December but it does say they were “drinking with [Immesberger] at The Woods bar only a few nights before the fatal crash of December 10, 2018.”
Woods was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom this month, and is due to play in the US PGA Championship later this week. He was asked about the lawsuit during a pre-tournament press conference on Tuesday. “We’re all very sad that Nick passed away. It was a terrible night, a terrible ending, and just – we feel bad for him and his entire family. It’s very sad,” said Woods.