A lawsuit alleges employees at the Chili’s Grill & Bar in Lebanon knowingly sold alcoholic drinks and allowed an intoxicated patron to leave the establishment before a wreck that killed a 27-year-old mother.
Prosecutors say the wreck was alcohol-related. Sandra Lee Strickland of Lebanon is charged with DUI first offense, vehicular homicide, two counts of reckless endangerment with a vehicle and failure to stop at the scene of an accident. Strickland, 71, has pleaded not guilty.
A jury trial in the criminal case is scheduled for Aug. 14.
Ashley Bailey died in the crash at the Lebanon Public Square on April 25, 2022. Bailey’s 3-year-old son in the car was treated at a hospital and released, police said at the time.
Bailey was a 2013 graduate of Central Magnet High School in Rutherford County who played basketball growing up who had a love of horses and the outdoors, family members said.
A civil lawsuit was filed in Wilson County on behalf of Bailey’s husband, Larry Bailey, and son, Colson. The lawsuit seeks a jury trial to determine an amount of up to $7.5 million in damages against Chili’s, Chili’s Southwest Grill & Bar and parent company Brinker International.
The lawsuit states that employees at the restaurant on South Hartmann Drive “knew” that the defendant “was being served alcohol in sufficient quantity and strength to cause or enhance her intoxication.”
The lawsuit also states Strickland was “visibly intoxicated while at Chili’s,” and “one or more of Chili’s employees knew Strickland was leaving the premises in a visibly intoxicated condition” just prior to the fatal wreck. The lawsuit references another crash near the intersection of West Main Street and Greenwood Avenue that the defendant was involved in prior to the fatal wreck.
The lawsuit alleges Chili’s violated state law “because it sold alcoholic beverages to a visibly intoxicated person and/or a person who is known to habitually drink alcoholic beverages to excess.”
An attempt to reach Brinker International was unsuccessful. A response to the lawsuit has not been filed according to the Wilson County Circuit Court office.