A Plano, Texas, bartender has been arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for serving an intoxicated man, who then went on a shooting spree at a local home, killing eight people at a Dallas Cowboys viewing party.
According to NBC Dallas/Ft. Worth , bartender Lindsey Glass was arrested and charged with violating a Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code statute called “Sale to Certain Persons,” which deals with serving alcohol to those who are visibly drunk.
“A person commits an offense if the person with criminal negligence sells an alcoholic beverage to an habitual drunkard or an intoxicated or insane person.”
Glass, who works as a bartender at Local Public House in Plano, is facing a fine of $500 and/or a year in jail, but the bigger punishment could come in civil court. It seems Glass knew that Hight, 32, was visibly drunk and acting erratically, yet she continued to serve him alcohol.
The TABC investigation showed that Glass had texted several times with another bartender, indicating that before the shooting, Hight “had 2 gins and he only had 2 beers and a shot when he came back [sic] I think he was at another bar while he was gone.”
She also confirmed that he had a knife on him while he was drinking.
“Spencer has a big knife on the bar and is spinning it and just asked for his tab and said I have to go do some dirty work… Psychoooooooo.”
JUST IN: Bartender who served Plano man before he killed 8 people in 2017 has been arrested. Lindsey Glass faces up to a year in jail. https://t.co/cHFVaBGD8V pic.twitter.com/V3mdu9l13V
— Meredith Yeomans (@YeomansNBC5) May 3, 2019
The state medical examiner determined that Spencer Hight had a blood alcohol level four times the state’s legal limit when he drove to the home of his estranged wife and shot her and seven other people, who were gathered to watch a Dallas Cowboys game on television.
The victims were identified as Meredith Hight, Anthony “Tony” Michael Cross, 33, Olivia Nicole Deffner, 24, James Richard Dunlop, 29, Darryl William Hawkins, 22, Rion Christopher Morgan, 31, Myah Sade Bass, 28, and Caleb Seth Edwards, 25. Spencer Hight was killed by police officers who responded to the shooting.
WFAA says that a year after the shooting, families of three of the victims filed a civil lawsuit against the Local Public House and Lindsey Glass, who served Hight earlier the same day.
Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code 101.63B states that a person can be charged with this offense when they sell “an alcoholic beverage to a habitual drunkard or an intoxicated or insane person.” In her texts, Hight was known to Glass as a regular patron and a heavy drinker, and she was able to tell that he was impaired when she continued serving him.
Dan Garrigan, who now represents five of the victims’ families, confirms that they will make additional filings as the criminal case proceeds against Glass and the Local Public House, blaming the tragedy at least in part on negligence.
“It confirms what we’ve believed all along that what they did here was grossly negligent,” Garrigan explained.
