Sugarland Ordered To Testify On Indiana State Fair Stage Collapse
By Samantha Abernethy in News on Mar 29, 2012 7:00PM
A judge has ordered members of the band Sugarland to testify regarding the Indiana State Fair stage collapse that killed seven people and injured 58 people in August 2011. Mid-America Sound Corp., the company that built the stage roof and rigging that collapsed under high winds, said they need the testimony of Sugarland band members Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush by April 17 in order to settle lawsuits that injured parties have against the company.
The band had said they would testify, but asked to have until May to submit their testimonies. The Tribune writes:
Sugarland responded to Mid-America’s request, saying they would not be “bullied” into giving their depositions. Sugarland’s spokesperson said Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush are not refusing to give depositions, but they are “simply refusing to be bullied into doing so on short notice.”
In ordering Nettles and Bush to submit testimony by April 17, the judge said, "I don't understand why the whole world must stand still because your client is going on tour."
Parties involved have been playing the blame game for months, pointing fingers at the State Fair Board, the Local 30 stage union, local weatherman Paul Poteet and the National Weather Service, among others. Sugarland's attorneys had previously responded to a civil suit by saying injured fans "failed to exercise due care for their own safety" and contended some or all of their injuries "resulted from their own fault."
That led one Sugarland fan injured in the stage collapse to tell the Tribune, "I'm insulted, and I'm angry. They don't have a clue what life is like now." Another said, "I've been dealing with emotions of losing my partner and then to have them come back and say it's my fault. It's my fault that she died, really?" The AP writes:
Jeff Stesiak, a South Bend attorney involved in the suit, said the band's response was strange given the circumstances of the fans' injuries."It's unusual to put the blame on victims. The concert wasn't canceled and they weren't told to leave. I can't imagine what the victims did to be at fault," Stesiak said Tuesday. "They had a duty to warn fans. An open and obvious danger is more like walking along a road and seeing a downed power line and walking over it anyway. The storm wasn't like that."
Sugarland's attorneys' full legal response is available here [PDF].
One state fair official said in a deposition that the band "was approached twice about the fair's desire to delay the show, and the band wanted to go on." Sugarland's manager says that discussion never happens.
Several entities were fined by the state for "failing to provide appropriate supervision and to develop a risk assessment plan," including the State Fair Commission, the union that worked at the site and Mid-America Sound Corp. Indiana is drafting new state inspection regulations.