21 days ago
SACRAMENTO, CA - After two weeks of deliberations, a Sacramento jury found radio station 107.9 "The End" 100 percent responsible and negligent in the wrongful death civil suit of contestant Jennifer Strange.
On Jan. 12, 2007, Strange died after taking part in a "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" contest on the station's "The Morning Rave" program. The contest challenged contestants to continuously drink water - as much as 16 ounces of water every 10 minutes - without going to the bathroom.
Strange, 28, dropped out of the contest after becoming ill. The mother of three was found dead in her Rancho Cordova home a few hours later.
The Sacramento County Coroner's Office determined Strange died of acute water poisoning.
The Sacramento County Superior Court jury awarded a total of $16, 577,118 in damages to Strange's family. Jurors decided $1,477,118 of the award was for economic loss and $15,100,00 was for non-economic damages.
Strange's family had sought in excess of $24 million from Entercom Communications Corp. and Entercom Sacramento LLC. However, family attorney Roger Dreyer characterized the award as substantial and said the verdict sends a message to radio stations across the country.
"From day one," Dreyer said right after the verdict was read, "We have wanted to make certain that the media in the nation, particularly radio media understand they can't have these kinds of contests without taking necessary steps to research them and educate the people participating."
Jurors rejected the defense argument that no one at the station knew someone could die from drinking too much water and that Strange should have known the contest could be dangerous. They cited testimony that listeners called the station during the contest, warning of the dangers. The disc jockeys, however, paid no attention.
Juror Tammy Elliott told reporters the jury did not find the radio station's parent company, Entercom, responsible because it was the local station's employees who did not follow proper procedure.
"Some of us have different opinions," she said. "But in my opinion, it was the fact that if it had gone to (the) legal (department) . . . there would have been safety guidelines and medical personnel there."
Jurors had a hard time coming up with a final figure, juror Leteshia Paggett said and finally decided that everyone should put in their own figure and they would then take the average.
"We negotiated on that for days but that's what we decided to do in the end because there was no way we could get closer."
Colin Munro, one of the attorneys representing Entercom, said he had no comment on the verdict.
"In reality," Munro said, "Our thoughts and hearts are with all the Strange family at this time. It's obviously an extraordinary event. It's real sad. We'll have to digest this and comment later on."
News10/KXTV
