In January, LSU student Madison Brooks died after being struck by a vehicle and allegedly raped. In September, her father, John Brooks, filed a lawsuit against the parties he believes were involved in her death. 

The 16-page lawsuit reveals 24 defendants, including Reggie’s Bar, where Madison Brooks drank the night she died; the bar’s owners, managers and employees; the men in her case charged with rape and principal to rape; the driver of the vehicle that hit her, a Lyft operator; the company Lyft itself; and the insurance companies attached to the parties involved. 

LSU Law School Professor William Corbett spoke to the Reveille, explaining the lawsuit from a legal scholar’s perspective.

“I think what he’s bringing is a wrongful death and a survival action [lawsuit],” Corbett said. 

Wrongful death lawsuits are typically filed on behalf of loved ones, seeking damages for human loss and pain suffered. A survival action lawsuit, on the other hand, brings the suit that the deceased party would have been able to pursue had they survived.

“The same person can bring both of those [lawsuits],” Corbett said, as John Brooks is. 

Corbett broke down how the case applies to each defendant. For some defendants, like Reggie’s Bar and the Lyft driver, the lawsuit boils down to alleged negligence. And in order to be successful in court, John Brooks and his team must prove negligence on the part of the bar and the driver.

Proving negligence can be difficult because of something called “reasonable care,” which establishes a link of causation between the event and damages—in this case Madison Brook’s death and her family’s bereavement—and the actions of the defendants—in this case, Reggie’s Bar and the driver.  

“You have to prove that they owed a duty of reasonable care,” Corbett said. “Most people own a duty of reasonable care; they have to prove a breach, and that is if they failed to exercise reasonable care. You have to prove that the breach caused the damage. You have to prove the damage was in the scope of the risk, that is when they failed to exercise reasonable care…was this something we would have anticipated happening?…and then that the damages occurred because of it.”

But when it comes to the men in her case charged with rape and principal to rape, John Brooks is suing for damages; the legal concept of negligence doesn’t apply to them because John Brooks’ suit claims their responsibility based on an alleged, criminal act, rather than an unintentional consequence of actions, which would be negligence. 

“As far as the young men that she rode with, that’s different because I understand it, he’s alleging a sexual assault, so that is what we would call suing for damages,” Corbett said. “[The assault] is a battery in criminal law, and it is a battery in tort law.”

Corbett also spoke to the large number of insurance companies named in the lawsuit. Their presence stems from a quirk of state law. 

“I’m not surprised about the number of insurance companies that were named,” Corbett said. “In Louisiana, we have a direct action statute, which means you can sue the insurance company of the person who was negligent.”

Corbett also pointed to the small details of the law that will likely come into play when the case is heard, including a stipulation of the Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 9, Section 2800.1, which gives immunity to those who serve alcohol commercially or recreationally. According to the statute, if a person who receives alcohol from a supplier causes injury, that supplier cannot be found liable. But the law only applies if the person receiving alcohol is of legal drinking age.

“The problem the bar has is that [Madison Brooks] was not the legal age to drink, so the bar has no immunity,” Corbett said.

Overall, however, Corbett said John Brooks had a “fairly strong case.” 

In the lawsuit, John Brooks and his legal team tell an account, based on their gathered information, of the night of Jan. 14 and the morning of Jan. 15, when Madison Brooks died. 

The following is a timeline of those hours laid out by the lawsuit:

Jan. 14, 2023: Madison Brooks went to Reggie’s Bar around 10 p.m. Though she was underage, she received a wristband stating she was over 21, and that night she received 24 alcoholic beverages and fell four times, the suit alleges. Her blood-alcohol content levels later indicated that she had impaired functions, and John Brooks’ legal team believes that she was visibly intoxicated and shouldn’t have been served. 

After 1:30 a.m. on Jan. 15, Madison Brooks was seen leaving with four men who brought her into a car, later pulling over, when two of the men sexually assaulted her, the suit alleges. Afterward, Madison was let out of the car. At 2:50 a.m., she was hit by a Lyft driver on Burbank Drive near Pelican Lakes Parkway.

Two men, Everette Lee and Casen Carver, have been charged with principal to third-degree rape. Kaivon Deondre Washington was charged with first-degree rape, and Desmond Carter was charged with first-degree and third-degree rape.

To lay the groundwork for arguing Reggie’s negligence, the lawsuit sets up a timeline of each time she received a drink and how many times she fell. John Brooks asserts that Reggie’s not only broke the law but acted negligently, and to add to his case, he has also outlined Reggie’s history. 

The bar has been a well-known site of controversy. 

In 2011, two gay men were attacked outside of Reggie’s. 

In 2014, a man was arrested for attempted murder outside of Reggie’s, and in 2015, two intoxicated men threatened customers and employees with loaded guns. 

In 2016, Dillon Gordon, an LSU tight end, was stabbed after a fight at Reggie’s spilled into the street.

A police sting at the bar in 2017 led to dozens of citations for underage drinking, minors on-premises, and other offenses, as well as a 45-day suspension and $8,000 fine from the Alcohol and Tobacco Control Office. 

After Madison Brooks’ death, Reggie’s had its liquor license revoked, and was fined $15,000 by the Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control. 

The Tigerland bar has shut down permanently under that management. 

Looking at John Brooks’ case, Corbett spoke of the lawsuit’s possible outcomes. 

 ”In negligence cases, it’s hard to predict. The plaintiff has to prove five things, all five of those elements.”

The five elements needed to prove negligence are duty, breach, cause, scope and damages. 

Most civil suits, including wrongful death suits, never go to trial and parties end up settling out of court. There have been no updates on the status of the case since the lawsuit was served in September.  

The Reveille contacted John Brooks’ legal team for comment on multiple occasions for this article but did not receive a response. The Reveille also contacted Reggie’s co-owner Darin Adams, but he did not respond.