Bar owner found not guilty in crash deaths
WAYNESBURG – A Greene County jury on Wednesday found Michael Koratich not guilty of involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment in the deaths of two patrons at his former bar, Koratich’s Golden Rail. “There was, in my opinion, no way that (Koratich) could be criminally responsible for the actions of his employees,” said Koratich’s attorney, Noah Geary, after the verdict was read.
The charges resulted from a Nov. 18, 2004, car accident in which James “Jake” Superack, 18, crashed his car into a tree on Rolling Meadow Run Road around 2 a.m., after leaving the Golden Rail. Both Superack and his passenger, Chad A. Seybold, died in the wreck. Both were from Waynesburg.
District Attorney Marjorie Fox had argued that as the manager, owner and president of the Golden Rail that Koratich was ultimately responsible if underage people came into the establishment and drank. She also alleged that the bar regularly admitted underage people, bringing in several witnesses who indicated that they had been going to the bar while they were under 21.
In making their finding, jurors held the Golden Rail criminally liable for serving underage patrons. Fox and Geary both said that during a sentencing to be scheduled, the corporation will be fined. Jurors deliberated for about three hours.
Although Koratich, 40, of Waynesburg was not convicted, Fox said she and the victims’ families agreed that following the directive of the coroner’s jury that recommended the charges was the right thing to do.
“I’d do it again,” she said. “It’s important to do whatever we can to keep our roads safe and to keep people from driving underage and intoxicated.”
In his closing remarks, Geary said that Koratich was asleep at home when the accident occurred and noted that neither of the two bartenders, nor the doorman on duty that night were charged with wrongdoing. Geary told the jury of nine women and three men that the lack of charges goes to “the heart of the case.”
Geary told jurors that alcohol did not factor into the crash, instead arguing that Superack’s speed of 88 mph on Rolling Meadow Road, his use of a cell phone and drugs he used earlier in the night were responsible.
“It’s not Michael Koratich’s fault that he’s calling on the cell phone and speeding and can’t negotiate the curve,” Geary argued. “He was a young man, but he was making adult decisions that had adult consequences.”
He acknowledged that what happened was emotional, but told jurors they were precluded from basing their verdict on sympathy.
“You may feel angry, you may feel skeptical about some things you heard about going on at the Golden Rail … but the feeling that you had isn’t evidence. This is a court of law,” Geary said. “Your function is not to send a message or teach someone a lesson. You have to constrain yourselves.”
Geary said Koratich hired responsible bartenders who knew that they would be held responsible if underage patrons were served.
“Mike Koratich did all that any good owners of a business could do. He hired responsible people to work for him, and made policies and enforced those policies,” Geary said.
He acknowledged that “maybe things were sloppy for a period of time,” but Geary argued that it was the bartenders and doormen who made it such.
“Sloppy is not criminal homicide,” he said, noting that no one was able to testify that any bartender specifically served Superack.
Fox asked jurors to keep with them their common sense.
She said that most of the commonwealth witnesses said that they were in the Golden Rail before they turned 21, even if they were 21 on Nov. 17-18, 2004.
“This was not an isolated visit for these people,” she said, alleging that the bar, and Koratich as the manager, had a history of allowing minors in.
Koratich was charged because he is the bar’s manager, and under state law, it is his duty to stop that from happening, Fox said. And while jurors may wonder why something wasn’t done sooner to curtail minors being served, she told them that the underage college students who frequented the Golden Rail weren’t likely to complain.
“All of those things we tell our kids not to do – and this is what it takes to get their attention,” she said. “This wasn’t just a whoops. Look what happened. This was the place to go.”
Fox told the panel that it was the alcohol that impaired Superack’s ability to drive safely, and said that was why he was speeding.
“Alcohol was the cause of this crash – not brakes, not drugs, not bad weather,” she said.
As for the witness who testified that Superack snorted crushed methadone and anti-anxiety medication and cocaine, Fox suggested that he was either lying or mistaken because he was doing drugs.
On Tuesday, Michael Wise, who said he was Superack’s best friend, testified that he used those drugs and also drank 30, 12-ounce cans of beer before going to the Golden Rail that night.
Fox argued that was unlikely.
“There’s no way Jake could havet had Michael Wise’s 30 beers – and let’s not even think about the drugs – and been able to leave Michael Wise’s house. That’s a toxic level of alcohol. So he was either lying or was too high to know,” Fox argued.
At the time of the accident, Superack’s blood-alcohol content was .18 percent, over the legal limit of .08 percent for legal drivers in the state.
“That’s falling down drunk,” Fox argued.
At the end of the day, Fox said that the accident occurred because Koratich allowed it to, even if he didn’t pour the drinks himself and wasn’t in the bar that night.
“(Superack and Seybold) took on adult responsibilities and they paid the ultimate price. They paid with their lives. I don’t know if there is a higher price to pay for their stupidity of not listening to their moms … and drinking and driving,” she said.
After the trial, Fox said that she knew the facts of the case would make it difficult to try. And while the victims’ families were disappointed by the acquittal, she said the worst tragedy they suffered was on Nov. 18, 2004, when their sons’ died.
“They feel if they’ve saved one other life … that their sons didn’t die in vain. Maybe they’ve saved someone else that pain,” she said.