5 Idaho Inmates Suing Beer and Wine Companies For $1 Billion Saying Their Booze Made Them Commit Their Crimes

Huff Po - Five inmates at the Idaho State Correctional Institution are suing national beer and wine companies for $1 billion, claiming that alcohol was responsible for their crimes, the Associated Press reports. The civil suit alleges that they were not sufficiently warned about alcohol’s addictive properties. The inmates, who do not yet have an attorney, drafted the litigation themselves. Keith Allan Brown, who pleaded guilty in 2010 to voluntary manslaughter, filed the suit on Dec. 10, according to the Kansas City Star. The 52-year-old wrote that over the course of his life, he has spent almost 30 years in prison, and that alcohol has “played a major role” in most of the situations that landed him there. “At no time in my life,” the suit states, “prior to me becoming an alcoholic, was I ever informed that alcohol was habit forming and addictive.” Brown’s co-plaintiffs are Jeremy Joseph Brown, Cory Alan Baugh, Woodrow John Grant and Steven Todd Thompson as co-plaintiffs. Jeremy Joseph Brown, 34, is serving a 20-30 year sentence for a 2001 shooting that left his victim seriously injured. In his affidavit, he claims he never would have started drinking had he known alcohol was habit-forming. He was drunk when the shooting occurred, his affidavit states, and if he had not been an alcoholic, it “never would have happened.” Baugh, also 34, and Thompson, 44, are both serving 3-7 years for grand theft and drug convictions, ABC news reports. Grant is serving up to 7 years for drug and aggravated battery convictions. Grant wrote that he “fears the day” of his release, because he does not know if he will be able to “control the desires and craving to use alcohol.” The companies targeted by the lawsuit are Miller Brewing Company, Anheuser-Busch Co., Adolph Coors Co., Brown-Furman Co., American Brands Inc., Pepsi-Cola, RJR Nabisco, Gallo’s Winery, Ernest Gallo and Julio Gallo. None of them have yet responded to the suit.

Snake it until you fucking make it! How great is the thought of these 5 guys sitting around the prison yard coming up with their own billion dollar lawsuit? Just rotting away for the next 20 years, might as well try my hand and snaking a billion dollars. And I’ll tell you what – I’m no lawyer. I’ve got no esquire after KFC. Not sure about penal codes and law books. But if you ask the simple question “Did booze lead these guys to commit these crimes?” the answer is fucking yes. I don’t know if it was 100% the reason and I don’t know how much proof you need to win a case, but I’d say thats enough to give them a fighting chance. As far as the “not knowing alcohol can be addictive” – we’ve got a criminal from fucking Idaho suing Pepsi in a booze lawsuit. I’m not sure its too far fetched to assume these guys really didn’t know that.

Bottom line is I think we got an Erin Brokovich situation on our hands. If that slutty single mother could take down PG&E then why can’t the Idaho 5 take down Anheuser-Busch?