The Buffalo Station in Gallatin Gateway, MT is closed after being sued for more than three million dollars http://bozemandailychronicle.com/art...ews/10club.txt
http://bozemandailychronicle.com/art.../20buffalo.txt
The Buffalo Station in Gallatin Gateway, MT is closed after being sued for more than three million dollars http://bozemandailychronicle.com/art...ews/10club.txt
http://bozemandailychronicle.com/art.../20buffalo.txt
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May we have a moment of silence for the greatest club in the business and all of the truly awesome people who worked there. I'm glad I got the chance to work there this summer, and I know everyone that's ever been there will miss this place.





interesting.
damn.





This is so sad. There are rumors that potential buyers are already sniffing around so let's hope that all is not lost and that it will reopen.
It's horrible that the guy died, but is it really the club's fault? I hardly think they would let someone underage drink purposefully, and they sure as hell didn't tell him to get behind the wheel of a car.
What a damn shame to let all those people go unemployed now because he made a stupid decision.
^^^ Hear, hear. There was one criminal here, and he met justice (and unfortunately took someone with him). I see no reason to punish dozens of innocent people for his murder-suicide.





I totally understand where you are coming from. This sounded like a great club, and I actually was looking forward to one day coming out there to work. On the flip-side, I can totally understand why the family of the dead 20yr old would sue. The club is just as liable as the young man was.
Some Douchebag: "[Pimp C] 12:43 am: its true we got to stick together the black people on SW CK you is teh condoleeza of SW"
^^^ How so? Did everyone in the club strap him down and pour alcohol down his throat and tell him to drive home? This guy was an adult and he's the only one responsible for his decisions.





No they didn't...but they are responsible since he was a 20 year old kid. The employees should be trained to know when enough is enough for a patron to be drinking. I go in bars from time to time, and I've witnessed bartenders telling a patron that he is "cut off" after this last drink. Maybe they should've taken the same initiative. Or maybe they could've called him a cab..
Snip from the newspaper: " Some of the money from the jury award will be used to establish a fund for providing taxi cab services to bars, to keep people who have been drinking off the roads and highways, Presler's sister Windy Hammerschmidt said. "
Some Douchebag: "[Pimp C] 12:43 am: its true we got to stick together the black people on SW CK you is teh condoleeza of SW"





in plenty of other cities, clubs and bars get shut down for serving underaged people all the time. if you serve alcohol, you're supposed to card everyone. additionally, one of the requirements to be certified to serve booze in many states is accepting the responsibility to cut off or not serve obviously drunk people such as this guy. if the owner tolerates his staff not doing so (as in this case), then the club is legally liable. and they got bit by their own failure to practice responsible bartending.
don't get me wrong, i suspect that the club was levied such a huge punitive reward because it was a titty bar rather than a regular bar, but they still messed up and legal sanction of some kind (though perhaps not to this degree) was totally correct.
One night while I was at the Buffalo Station, a customer got wasted. He hadn't drunk that much, but who knew he had such a low alcohol tolerance? Once we realized he was drunk, the bartender cut him off and offered him water. The guy wouldn't drink it and said he would leave. I enlisted a few other dancers to pressure him into staying and drinking water. At one point we actually stole his keys and hid them in the dressing room. Somehow he got his keys back and left while he was still drunk. He came back the next day and apologized.
No one was hurt, but what else were we supposed to do? We offered to call him a cab and he wouldn't take it. We stole his keys, we offered him free water, we insisted he should stay and sober up, and he left anyway. Should I be held personally responsible for HIS decision to get wasted and drive?
And a 20-year-old man is not a kid. He's old enough to vote, own property, join the armed forces, get married, move to Timbuktu if he wants. He's a grown man and it was his own decision to get wasted and drive. You can't reasonably expect everyone else in the world to babysit him.





No, not necessarily everyone in the world, but the bartenders in that bar - YES. He shouldn't have been drinking...point blank!
Now, as far as considering a 20yr old a man, this is True BUT you need to be 21 before you are LEGALLY allowed to drink. Hell, I'm 24, and if I want to rent a car, I get charge more simply because I'm not over 25.So yea, I can totally sympathize..but like I said, the law is the law.
Some Douchebag: "[Pimp C] 12:43 am: its true we got to stick together the black people on SW CK you is teh condoleeza of SW"





Good to know that the bartender finally was trained to know when to cut a customer off. The Presler death happened back in 2005. So maybe this is why the bartender finally took some initiative to cut your customer off, simply because he already knew of the fatality that happened with the Presler guy 2yrs prior.
Some Douchebag: "[Pimp C] 12:43 am: its true we got to stick together the black people on SW CK you is teh condoleeza of SW"
Sure, fine them for serving him underage (although if he got past the door guy, it's reasonable for the bartender to assume he's 21). But the club is not responsible for his decision to drive drunk.





in the case of the 20 year old, the club did none of these things. if they had, the case for liability would have been much weaker, and they probably would still be open. it only takes one slip-up for someone to sue for liability and get your bar/club/stripclub shut down or so heavily fined it has to shut down. this club didn't suffer something unusual, but something that is completely not uncommon and honestly, not inappropriate to fine or sanction for.
He actually died in November, 2003. The family didn't sue until 2005
A fine for serving an underage man is reasonable. Shutting the club down (or fining enough money to force the club out of business) as punishment for not babysitting a grown man, that is not reasonable. I'm aware that businesses are often shut down due to employees' being too busy working to babysit adults, but in my opinion this practice is dead wrong.
What happened was nothing more or less than a murder-suicide. This guy made a CHOICE to get wasted and another CHOICE to drive that way. He had to have known the risks of drunk driving. In my opinion drunk driving is attempted murder and should be prosecuted just as harshly, but this guy killed himself so he wasn't there to stand trial. The club is only guilty of serving an underage man; it is not guilty of the drunk driving or anything that happened as a result.




Wasnt it in one of the articles that he had a military ID that he showed that allowed him to be served alcohol? And that he'd drunk at ANOTHER bar as well, before going there? Seems like the responsibility is shared a LOT of different places.
Sucks that they came down THAT HARD on the club.
But HIS choosing to drive drunk was his own choice, it sucks that his family hasn't accepted that.
It is not going to reopen as a strip club. The liquor and adult entertainer licenses are up in smoke. It is for sale for 1.3 million, for just the building.
Times like this, I wish I believed in hell. Drunk driving is bad, killing yourself is worse, killing someone else is evil, and this is a damn tragedy. Everyone, if you ever consider driving drunk, look at all the people whose lives have been affected by this idiot's bad decision.
It doesn't just affect the people who worked at the Buffalo Station, but those of us who work at Teasers, too. We are now trying to deal with 30+ girls a night in a club that normally has about a dozen.
Yep. Two families have been destroyed (the murderer's and his victim's), countless hardworking people are out of work, the business owner has lost his livelihood, and the repercussions affect countless people who were never even involved with the Buffalo Station. All because one asshole decided to get drunk and drive. To be honest, I'm not sorry one bit that he's dead. I have zero tolerance for drunk drivers.
You work at Teasers, huh? If you see Mindy, tell her Lily from L.A. says hi!
I think she is working in Billings, but if I see her I'll tell her.
Yeah, I've been at Teasers for about 3 years. This is kicking my ass, because I don't do lap dances, I live at the top of the pole. Hard to make any money when I only get on stage 3 or 4 times in 10 hours now. The big guy and I have been discussing moving to Cheyenne with him so that I can work in Nebraska and Colorado.
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