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The parties the Tempe City Council puts on at Tempe Town Toilet are causing a lot of drunks to hit the streets of Tempe!!!!
Tempe hit with suit in death of officer
Katie Nelson and Elias Arnold The family of fallen Gilbert police officer Rob Targosz is demanding $31 million from the city of Tempe. A notice of claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, has been filed with the city, saying the motorcycle DUI officer was "violently killed due (to) the gross negligence of the City of Tempe and its Police Department . . . in connection with a rowdy and alcohol-raged 'Red Bull Flugtag' event, attended by 70,000 partygoers who were mostly teenagers and under-21 college students from Arizona State University fraternities and sororities." The Red Bull Flugtag was held at Tempe Town Lake last spring. It featured groups of people who built "flying" boats and paraded them off a platform into the water. Targosz died after being struck by a driver who reportedly had been drinking and had been one of the thousands there. Lawyers for Targosz's widow, Brigitte, and his parents, Sue Ann Cassidy and Eugene Targosz, ask the city to make amends for the police officer's April death by paying out $21 million to his widow and $5 million to each of his parents. Andrew Ching, Tempe's city attorney, declined to comment about the case. The city has about another month to respond to the accusations before state statute allows the Targosz family to file a lawsuit in state courts, Ching said. The Targosz family attorneys make a case against the city by leveling the following accusations: • "This bedlam-driven Flugtag event, as sponsored, condoned, hosted and approved by the City and Police, drinkers of all ages, including patrons under the lawful drinking age of 21, were invited, encouraged and induced to consume excessive quantities of alcoholic beverages," the claim says. • "It is undisputed that the City and Police Department abandoned and deviated from the longstanding policy of prohibiting hard liquor at events held on City property," according to the claim. • "Predictably, one of the underage, rowdy partygoers at the Flugtag event imbibed numerous Red Bull/Vodka cocktails in the VIP tent and then drove a high-powered Ford Mustang sports car while severely intoxicated over the legal limit. "The intoxicating effects of the Red Bull/Vodka cocktails caused the driver, Tyler Fahlman, to speed, run a red light, and crash violently into the marked police motorcycle driven by Officer Targosz, who was on duty for the City of Gilbert," the claim asserted. The crash occurred April 29 on Apache Boulevard at its intersection with Price Road in Tempe. Targosz died the day after the collision. He was a 37-year-old traffic officer and 12-year Gilbert police veteran. Fahlman was a 20-year-old who lived in Tempe at the time. He is charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident, endangerment and manslaughter. Fahlman's family declined to comment. |