Family of suicide victim suing Mankato bar

By Dan Nienaber
Free Press Staff Writer

MANKATO January 08, 2009 12:00 pm

— It was just days after Amanda Jax drank a fatal amount of alcohol at a Mankato bar when 19-year-old Edward Andrew Bump killed himself in a Mankato apartment.
The University of Minnesota student’s death Nov. 2, 2007, drew little media attention compared to 21-year-old Jax’s death on Oct. 29, 2007, just four days earlier. A press release from Mankato police did point out, however, that investigators believed Bump had been drinking before he hanged himself in a girlfriend’s apartment.
Now a lawsuit, filed by Bump’s parents, is making the same claims Jax’s relatives have made: that a Mankato bar is partially responsible for his death.
William and Tamara Bump of Rochester filed their lawsuit against Boomtown and its owner, Dan Guimont, last week. Edward Bump was not legally old enough to be in a bar when he died. Bump’s family members are seeking damages in excess of $50,000.
“Edward Bump was served alcohol even though he was a minor, and in addition was in an obviously intoxicated condition,” the Bumps say in their civil court filing. “He left the bar with his friends and later, while under the influence of the alcohol, he sustained injuries that were fatal.”
The complaint goes on to say Boomtown and its employees were negligent for serving alcohol to Bump when he was underage and obviously intoxicated, which led to his death. As a result, the family has “suffered severe emotional and mental distress because of the severe nature of this incident.”
Guimont said he couldn’t comment on the lawsuit and referred questions to his attorney, Peter Lind of Minneapolis. Lind declined to comment.
Bump’s girlfriend, Minnesota State University student Laura Docken, told police she and Bump had been drinking before and after spending about two hours at Boomtown. The Bumps’ attorney, David Johnson of Eden Prairie, said witnesses told police that Bump walked into the bar with friends and had not used a fake identification card to get into the bar.
Docken called police at 6:04 a.m. Nov. 2, 2007, after finding Bump dead, the initial police report said. She told the first officer to arrive that she last saw Bump alive earlier that morning. She had gone to sleep in her roommate’s room sometime between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. after Bump started yelling at her.
When she woke up around 6 a.m. and went to get a drink of water, she found Bump in her closet. A medical examiner later determined Bump died as a result of asphyxiation from hanging. The examiner also reported Bump’s death appeared to be self-inflicted.
Bump had been attending the University of Minnesota, where Docken also had been a student before transferring to MSU. Docken also told police they had spent the week prior to Bump’s death in Minneapolis.
She said she and Bump returned to Mankato around 3 p.m. on Nov. 1, 2007, and started drinking. Bump was drinking wine, rum and shots of Jagermeister until about 11:30 p.m., which is when they went to Boomtown. They returned to her apartment between 1 a.m. and 1:30 a.m. and continued to drink, Docken reported.
The deaths of Bump and Jax are two of several involving alcohol and young people with ties to the Mankato area during the past three years. There also have been several deaths involving alcohol and college students with Minnesota ties more recently.
“The family is concerned not just over this case, but others,” Johnson said Wednesday. “It’s just a matter of seeking justice for the family, that’s my intent in this. And, if there’s a problem in Mankato, maybe this will help change that somehow.”
The lawsuit filed by Jax’s family against Sidelines Bar, which closed shortly after her death, is scheduled to go to trial in July. That lawsuit claims Jax drank the equivalent of 17 shots of alcohol while celebrating her 21st birthday at the bar. When she died, Jax had a blood-alcohol concentration of .46 (well over the legal limit of .08 for driving).
In October, Dutler’s Bowl settled a 4-year-old lawsuit with the family of Michael Riley Jr. who died after jumping from the Highway 14 bridge into the Minnesota River on April 19, 2001. The lawsuit wasn’t filed until December 2004.
After the lawsuit was dismissed by a local judge then reinstated by the Minnesota Supreme Court, the business paid the family $32,921 to settle. Riley’s daughter received $20,000 and the family’s attorneys received $12,921.

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