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Two South Carolina beach bars have settled a wrongful-death lawsuit for allegedly serving the accused drunk driver charged with killing new bride Samantha Miller on her wedding night.
The Crab Shack and The Drop In Bar & Deli were among several companies named in a wrongful-death lawsuit accusing them of allowing Jamie Lee Komoroski, 25, to get “visibly intoxicated” before she crashed into the golf cart carrying Miller and her new husband in April.
The two bars agreed to settle with Miller’s estate, as did Progressive Northern Insurance Co., according to court documents shared by WLTX.
The amounts of the settlements have not been made public and a judge still has to approve the petition of approval of the death settlement, the outlet noted.
However, the three will pay attorneys’ fees in the amount of a third of the total settlement and any additional relief ruled by the judge, the documents show.
Miller’s widower, Aric Hutchinson, 36, filed the wrongful-death lawsuit in May, claiming Komoroski had a “booze-filled day of bar hopping” before getting behind the wheel — and that the named bars served her “copious amounts of alcohol” despite her being “visibly intoxicated.”
Hutchinson’s attorney, Daniel Dalton, signed off on the offered settlement, saying it was “reasonable and proper and fully protects the right of the statutory beneficiary under the Wrongful Death Act.”
On Sept. 12, a grand jury returned indictments against Komoroski, charging her with driving under the influence resulting in death, two counts of DUI with great bodily injury and reckless homicide.
She earlier broke down in tears when a judge denied her bond request after determining she was a flight risk for the April 28 crash that killed newlywed Miller, 34, and seriously injured three others.
Komoroski was allegedly extremely drunk and speeding when she slammed her Toyota Camry into the back of a golf cart carrying Miller, Hutchinson and two wedding guests.
The Coastal Carolina University grad — whose blood-alcohol level of 0.261 percent was over three times the legal limit for driving — was quoted telling cops that she “did nothing wrong.”
Her lawyers previously sought her release on $100,000 bond, with the condition she would enter a substance abuse rehab program, arguing she was neither a danger to the community nor a flight risk.
But during Komoroski’s Aug. 1 court appearance, Judge Michael Nettles ordered her to remain behind bars until the start of her trial, provided it gets underway by its scheduled March 2024 date.
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