After losing Amanda, talk about drinking

Kids don't know as much as they think they do about alcohol..Published: November 03, 2007

© 2007 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.

Minnesota State-Mankato Drinking Death Victim Had .46 BAC Minnesota woman drinks to death on 21st birthday in Mankato

 Last Edited: Friday, 09 Nov 2007, 2:17 PM CST Created: Friday, 09 Nov 2007, 2:17 PM CST        Top of  page

MANKATO, Minn.  -- Amanda Jax, the former Minnesota State University-Mankato student who died while visiting friends on her 21st birthday, had a blood alcohol level of 0.46 according to an autopsy.

Mankato police say they have rarely seen a level of intoxication so high -- five times the legal limit to drive.

Amanda Jax, of Mayer, drank large amounts alcohol over two or three hours the night of Oct. 29 while celebrating her 21st birthday with friends. She was found dead early the next morning in a friend's off-campus apartment.

The case will now be handed to the city attorney's office for possible civil or criminal charges.

Mankato, binge drinkers 'dodge a bullet' many times

Policing the streets of Mankato, home to a university campus with 14,000 students, means dealing with underage drinkers. For Jerry Huettl, Mankato's director of public safety, it's surprising that more of them don't suffer the same fate as Amanda Jax, who died of alcohol poisoning after she turned 21 last month.

By Jeff Shelman, Star Tribune

Last update: November 17, 2007 – 4:01 PM                 Top of  page

Policing the streets of Mankato, home to a university campus with 14,000 students, means dealing with underage drinkers. For Jerry Huettl, Mankato's director of public safety, it's surprising that more of them don't suffer the same fate as Amanda Jax, who died of alcohol poisoning after she turned 21 last month.

"To us it was not a matter of if, it was a matter of when," Huettl said. "I think we have dodged a bullet. People who binge drink like this have dodged a bullet many times in this community. What I'm mostly concerned about is that this was a tragic waste."

Jax was a pre-nursing student at Minnesota State University, Mankato between 2005 and this summer and had been accepted into the nursing program for next spring, a university spokesman said. After a night of drinking, Jax was taken to a friend's apartment near campus. When she didn't wake up, friends called 911.

As a result of Jax's death, Blue Earth County Attorney Ross Arneson is considering whether charges will be filed against one or more bars or one or more bartenders in connection with Jax's night of heavy drinking.

Huettl said he met last week with both the Mankato city attorney and the county attorney about his staff's investigation. Jax's last known stop was Sideliners Bar & Grill in Mankato. Arneson was unavailable for comment on Friday.

This month, Mankato passed a social-house ordinance in which a resident could be fined if underage people are found drinking under their roof. The process of passing that ordinance was underway more than a month before Jax's death.

According to the city's arrest log, 143 people age 18-20 were arrested for underage consumption in September. Another 44 were arrested in October for an average of more than three arrests per day in that 61-day span.

Huettl's officers see people with blood alcohol levels of 0.40 on a weekly basis.

"Certainly we aren't getting all of them," Huettl said. "And that's a lot of people to be arresting."

While Jax's death was shocking, Huettl doesn't believe it will change the behavior of young adults.

"Certainly those people close to Amanda have modified their behavior and hopefully that modification will hold," he said. "Amanda's memory will burn in her friends' minds for a while, but that will fade. We can only hope that the memory that will stay is that bad things can happen when you drink to that kind of level."

Jeff Shelman • jshelman@startribune.com

A dangerous rite of passage

Reaching legal drinking age is a milestone for many young people. But wild 'I'm an adult now' partying can lead to serious trouble - or death.

 By Jeff Shelman and Tom Horgen, Star Tribune

 Last update: November 17, 2007 * 5:13 PM

 First up on Nikki Schneider's 21st-birthday celebration was a bomb pop -- a shot made with lemon vodka, raspberry liqueur and blue curacao.

 Then a "get messed-up shot." Then a vodka concoction called a lemon drop.

Like many newly legal drinkers, Schneider was celebrating the occasion by gulping down a potent lineup of shots and cocktails. "Before, you're kind of restricted," said Schneider, who was out with friends at the Dinkytowner Cafe on a midweek night this month before a heavier night of partying the next weekend. "I'm an adult now."

 Two years ago, Minnesota became only the second state to outlaw the midnight-to-closing birthday celebrations, dubbed the "power hour," to discourage dangerous drinking binges. Yet the tradition of alcohol-soaked 21st birthday bashes continues unabated around the state. Last month, a former Minnesota State University Mankato nursing student, Amanda Jax, drank herself to death while celebrating her 21st birthday. 

Jax's death has helped bring a renewed focus on this enduring but dangerous rite of passage. Around the state, university administrators, bartenders and parents are grasping for ways to ensure 21-year-olds make it through their birthdays unharmed.

 "Twenty-one-year-olds think they're invincible and they can do crazy things and get away with it," said Ed Ehlinger, director of the University of Minnesota's Boynton Health Service. "The 21st birthday is probably the riskiest time. More kids get in trouble on that day than any other day of their 21st year."They are now legal and there is a lot of pressure to celebrate this big event. They intellectually know that alcohol can kill you, but they don't internalize it and they do respond to the peer pressure."

 Peer pressure that usually comes in small glasses filled with liquor. 

The big night

 The tradition is part celebration, part hazing. A group of friends takes the birthday kid to a bar. Every time he or she turns around, someone's buying a shot.

 An undergraduate at St. John's when he turned 21, Scott Specken did a tour of five bars in St. Joseph. Among other drinks, he swallowed a double shot of microwaved tequila, a double shot of gin and a prairie fire -- a drink that mixes tequila and Tabasco sauce.

 "Pretty much the goal of everybody is to get you as drunk as possible," said Specken, now 22. "It's their one night when they can buy you the crappiest, dirtiest drink that they can think of."

 A 2006 study at Virginia Tech University found that the average male consumes 13 drinks on his 21st birthday, and the average woman, seven and a half.

 The survey also showed that 32 percent of men and 26 percent of women drank so much on their 21st birthdays that they vomited. A third of all students experienced a blackout on their birthday and 30 percent consumed enough drinks to give them an estimated blood alcohol level of 0.28 or higher, putting them at risk for alcohol poisoning.

 Jax, a resident of Mayer, Minn., who planned to study nursing, had a blood alcohol level of nearly 0.46 when she died in a Mankato apartment after a night of heavy drinking at a bar. Authorities in Mankato are

 considering criminal or civil charges in the case.

 University of Minnesota Prof. Toben Nelson has studied drinking by college students for the past decade, both here and at Harvard. 

"It's cheaper to binge drink than it is to go to a first-run movie in many college towns," Nelson said. "It's cheap, highly social entertainment and there's an industry around supplying alcohol to college students."

 Amber Rice, now 24, regrets what happened on her 21st birthday. She started that day by tailgating before a Vikings game and doesn't really remember how it ended.

 "I woke up the next morning in somebody else's house, had no idea where I was," Rice said. "My girlfriend didn't know where she was. My girlfriend and I still have no idea how we got there."

 Recently, Rice went out for her younger sister's 21st birthday. She described her sister's night as fun but not crazy.

 "Your friends want to get you to the point where you do throw up," Rice said. "I don't think they realize that you can drink and have a good time and not have it get out of hand."

 Counting the days

 After Jax's death, Winona State junior Rachel Ostroot's mother e-mailed her with a motherly reminder for Ostroot to be responsible when she turns 21 on Dec. 11, because she understands her daughter's anticipation.

 "The 21st is that one time when you can do whatever you want and it's your own fault in the morning," she said.

 Part of Ostroot's anticipation for turning 21 is the result of how many

 college juniors find themselves longing for the ability to go out with friends.

 "Usually the people who are 21 go to the bar and the ones who aren't 21 get left behind and we have to come up with our own plan," Ostroot said. "It's the in-limbo thing that's really annoying."

 Colleges and universities are trying different ways to encourage moderation among students. Many schools -- including St. Thomas, St. Benedict's and St. John's -- send birthday cards reminding students of the dangers of overconsumption.

 Ohio State e-mails students with a message from a woman whose brother died on his 21st birthday while attending school there. Florida encourages moderation by supplying coupons for a free dinner and a movie that are good only the night of a student's 21st birthday.

 Watchful bar staff

 Bartenders are also watchful to keep 21-year-olds from going over the edge.

 At the Lone Tree/Annex in downtown Minneapolis, general manager Brandon Weston said his staff tries to identify potential risk even before bargoers take their first sip.

 "Lets say 'John Smith' is coming through the door and a security officer sees that he just turned 21. He'll warn the rest of the staff," Weston said. "They're all miked up, not to mention that all my bar-backs are miked up too. Now if it's some docile young woman with her friend, then she's doesn't really get red-flagged. But if six guys come in and they're 21, they're green-lit all night."

 Power hour has always been a special concern for Bob Pomplun, a former bartender who has been training bar staff in alcohol awareness for more than 20 years. It's something he categorizes as "special event" drinking, which would also include bachelor and bachelorette parties.

 In 2005, Pomplun testified at a hearing in support of a ban on power hour. Now, people turning 21 cannot drink on their birthday until 8 a.m., which cuts out the midnight drinking blitz.

 "What that law did was it took away an opportunity for abusive drinking," Pomplun said. "Anytime you have an opportunity to eliminate risk, it's a good idea."

 The door staff at the Library Bar and Grill just off the University of Minnesota campus is supposed to alert the bartender when a person celebrating a 21st birthday comes in, and it isn't to give that person a free drink.

 "You don't know how many shots they took at another bar and it hasn't hit them yet and they just walked into your door, then it's on your shoes," said manager David Toby.

 A 'forever problem?'

 Even with all the precautions taken by parents, schools and bars, many acknowledge that there's only so much they can do in the face of such an established ritual.

 "I think people celebrating their 21st birthday, it's an ongoing, forever problem," said Jerry Huettl, director of public safety for the city of Mankato. "I don't think we see [people drinking] 21 shots, but I know the officers see a lot of, 'Let's go down and get wasted, it's our 21st birthday.'"

 Ehlinger acknowledges that whatever the universities do, many students are going to drink to excess on their 21st birthday. He'd like to see others realize the danger that comes with those actions.

 "Other people have responsibility to call 911 when somebody is passed out," he said. "We've asked students how likely they would be to call 911 if their friend was passed out and you couldn't wake them? Only about 50 percent said they were likely to call. That should be 99 percent.

 "If somebody passes out because of alcohol, they are at a risk of

 dying. If you see somebody hit by a car, you'd call 911 right away, there

 would be no questions. In many ways this is just as lethal."

 Here is a sidebar that went with the above story:

In Mankato, binge drinkers 'dodge a bullet' many times

Policing the streets of Mankato, home to a university campus with 14,000 students, means dealing with underage drinkers. For Jerry Huettl,

 Mankato's director of public safety, it's surprising that more of them don't suffer the same fate as Amanda Jax, who died of alcohol poisoning after she turned 21 last month.

 By Jeff Shelman, Star Tribune

 Last update: November 17, 2007 - 4:01 PM

 Policing the streets of Mankato, home to a university campus with 14,000 students, means dealing with underage drinkers. For Jerry Huettl, Mankato's director of public safety, it's surprising that more of them don't suffer the same fate as Amanda Jax, who died of alcohol poisoning after she turned 21 last month.

"To us it was not a matter of if, it was a matter of when," Huettl said. "I think we have dodged a bullet. People who binge drink like this have dodged a bullet many times in this community. What I'm mostly concerned about is that this was a tragic waste."

 Jax was a pre-nursing student at Minnesota State University, Mankato between 2005 and this summer and had been accepted into the nursing program for next spring, a university spokesman said. After a night of drinking, Jax was taken to a friend's apartment near campus. When she didn't wake up, friends called 911. 

As a result of Jax's death, Blue Earth County Attorney Ross Arneson is considering whether charges will be filed against one or more bars or

 one or more bartenders in connection with Jax's night of heavy drinking. 

Huettl said he met last week with both the Mankato city attorney and the county attorney about his staff's investigation. Jax's last known stop was Sideliners Bar & Grill in Mankato. Arneson was unavailable for comment on Friday.

 This month, Mankato passed a social-house ordinance in which a resident could be fined if underage people are found drinking under their roof.

 The process of passing that ordinance was underway more than a month before Jax's death.

 According to the city's arrest log, 143 people age 18-20 were arrested for underage consumption in September. Another 44 were arrested in October for an average of more than three arrests per day in that 61-day span. Huettl's officers see people with blood alcohol levels of 0.40 on a weekly basis.

 "Certainly we aren't getting all of them," Huettl said. "And that's a lot of people to be arresting."

 While Jax's death was shocking, Huettl doesn't believe it will change the behavior of young adults.

 "Certainly those people close to Amanda have modified their behavior and hopefully that modification will hold," he said. "Amanda's memory will burn in her friends' minds for a while, but that will fade. We can only hope that the memory that will stay is that bad things can happen when you drink to that kind of level."

 Jeff Shelman * jshelman@startribune.com

Our View : Bingeing is not just a local issue

Published December 26, 2007 05:43 pm - MSU's campus summitt on binge drinking was not a solution to the problem, but it was a start on one.

The Free Press               Top of  page

— Signs that Mankato is taking the problem of binge drinking seriously are all around us, evidenced most recently by the forum hosted at Minnesota State University last week. It is important to note, however, that forums in and of themselves don’t always produce lasting, applied solutions.
In fact, the best and most time-tested way to ignore facing up to a problem is to plan endless forums and conferences around the subject, talk it to death and then fail to arrive at a workable consensus. We need to ensure that doesn’t happen here.
It would be a mistake to say that alcohol-related issues are solely associated with young people, or with MSU students. But the college culture is persuasive in this town, and that is the right place for the focus to be now. The city of Mankato has already demonstrated a seriousness on its part by temporarily restricting new liquor licenses and re-examining liquor ordinances. MSU has stepped up with a campus summit and now plans for a community summit.
The time has arrived. When student leaders complain there is little to do in Mankato but shop, watch a movie and drink — as occurred at the campus summit last week — they should be kindly yet pointedly reminded that wise, responsible — and more mature — choices are available. MSU student groups need to be a real partner, not an excuse-maker for other students who place alcohol consumption at too high a priority.
Alas, the problem of binge drinking is indeed a large and troubling issue that affects not just Mankato but elsewhere. This past weekend an investigation into the Dec. 13 death of a Winona State University student resulted in a finding of acute alcohol poisoning. A 20-year-old sophomore from Brownsville was said to have steadily consumed drinks at bring-your-own-bottle parties for more than 12 hours desiring to get “smashed” following a tough quarter at school.
In lieu of the report, local police considered charging one or more people with supplying alcohol to the underage woman. The local police chief, citing other alcohol-related deaths, suggested students develop a buddy system. WSU president Dr. Judith Ramaley suggested students become “designated responders” who can spring into action when alcohol consumption goes beyond safe levels. Other suggestions included community-wide responses including cracking down on unlimited drink specials at bars and holding hosts of parties more responsible when things get out of hand.
These are the kinds of suggestions we are hearing in Mankato, or have already discussed. We are, of course, fully aware that persons determined to binge drink will find a way with or without stricter community controls, but by understanding that we are not alone — that other communities grapple with the same challenges — we can perhaps steel ourselves to tackle the issue of binge drinking and insure that we are moving toward seriously addressing this societal problem, knowing that we cannot afford to allow forums and conferences to end there.

Copyright © 1999-2006 cnhi, inc.

Amanda Jax: Rum, whiskey, vodka, beer, more

The Blue Earth county attorney provides a vivid picture of the free-flowing booze that led to Amanda Jax's death.

By PAUL WALSH, Star Tribune                            Top of  page

Last update: January 1, 2008 - 6:00 PM

Amanda Jax's fateful night of drinking with friends to celebrate her 21st birthday started with a beer or two at an apartment, then more beer at a Mankato bar, then a whiskey shot, a shot of rum and a cherry schnapps drink, according to a report from the Blue Earth County attorney's office. Even after Jax started passing out, someone bought her a "stoplight" made with vodka.

When the young woman from Mayer, Minn., lay down on a bar stool next to a bartender, he and another person carried her out to a car, and Jax's friends declined an offer of more help. By the next morning, Jax was dead and tests later showed her blood-alcohol level was 0.46 percent.

Friends later told authorities that Jax had gotten drunk "over a hundred times" in the past year and that they had seen her drink more at other times. "We're used to her being like this," one of the friends said.

The county attorney's office declined to file criminal charges in the case, but the summary of facts released recently gives a glimpse into the partying that night and why, perhaps, her friends didn't see her death coming on Oct. 30.

One friend was surprised that Jax's alcohol consumption that night was enough to kill her " 'cause she has drank so much more than this ... " previously.

A prenursing student at Minnesota State University, Mankato, between 2005 and the summer, Jax had been accepted into the nursing program in the spring.

Nationwide, about 1,400 students a year died after drinking, with fewer than 300 of those from alcohol poisoning or choking in their sleep, a 2002 federal study showed.

No case can be proven

Along with the summary, the county attorney's office said it is declining to charge anyone connected with Sidelines, the bar where Jax and her friends drank. Nor, the office said, will it charge her friends with any crime.

"The state cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that any particular person was [criminally] responsible" for the alcohol that was served to Jax, Blue Earth County Attorney Ross Arneson wrote. "Likewise, companions are not committing a crime for failure to take alcoholic beverages away from a friend if the friend becomes intoxicated."

Arneson said Monday that he understands that prosecuting cases such as this are rare, saying he was at a meeting recently of fellow county attorneys and that none of the dozen or so he questioned said they had pursued this type of case. He also said this was the first time in his 26 years of prosecuting that a case such as this had been referred to him for charges.

Jax's mother, Jenny Haag, said Monday that she is pursuing civil action against the bar. She referred further questions to her attorney, Alan Milavetz, who said that he believes the bar is "primarily culpable" in Jax's death and that a suit should be filed "within a couple of weeks."

Not only can he meet the lower civil standard of guilt of "more likely than not," Milavetz said, but "we can prove [the criminal standard of] beyond a reasonable doubt" that the bar is liable.

He pointed to the amount of alcohol served to Jax, the fact that the bartender bought her a drink and that Jax was passing out and showing other visible signs of drunkenness.

"Talk about a red flag," he said.

The Mankato city attorney's office said Monday it is weighing whether to sanction Sidelines' liquor license, which is granted by the City Council.

Sidelines management declined to comment Monday.

Detailed account

The county attorney's office summary includes a detailed account of the night at the bar, including the many drinks that Jax consumed leading up to her death.

According to the bartender on duty:

Jax, two women and three men entered Sidelines before 10 p.m. on Oct. 29 and sat at the bar. Jax, who companions said had a beer or two at a friend's apartment earlier, started with more beer at the bar. Someone else bought a round of whiskey for the bar, and Jax drank a shot.

Later, Jax started passing out.

One of her female friends bought her a shot of rum. The bartender bought her a drink, cherry schnapps mixed with an energy drink. One of the men in the party bought her a "stoplight" (a vodka-based drink), and she drank part of it.

Jax lay down on a stool next to the bartender, and he and another man carried her out to a car.

At that time, Jax's friends declined an offer of further help, saying that she gets drunk a lot.

At this point, the bartender determined that Jax -- who weighed 100 pounds -- had a beer or two before entering the bar, as well as four shots and two to three glasses of beer at the bar. Friends told authorities that she also drank from a Long Island Ice Tea pitcher that the group had ordered.

Friends also said it was difficult to know whether she was sober because of how much she drank in the past year.

Once at the apartment of one of her friends, Jax was still breathing as late as 1:30 a.m., soon after they had laid her down and she vomited.

911 call made the next day

About 7 a.m., a female friend of Jax's got up for school and checked on her, finding her cold and not breathing. The friend called 911.

Thinking back on Jax's pattern of heavy drinking, the female friend told authorities: "That's why we just don't understand 'cause she has drank so much more than this, and we just don't know what ... we don't know if she ate anything that day. We have no idea. ... All I know is that she came to our apartment, and she wanted to go out, so we went out."

State crime records show that Jax, while enrolled at Mankato and still too young to legally drink, was twice convicted of drunken driving: once in 2005 in Hennepin County and in 2006 in McLeod County.

In 2005, a Maverick Health university newsletter lamented "21st birthday celebrations [that] include birthday rituals that can lead to serious consequences and, in some instances, death."

The Mankato campus suffered another alcohol-related fatality about three weeks after Jax died, when 22-year-old student Rissa Amen-Reif of Eden Prairie was struck and killed by a car in Mankato. Amen-Reif had left a sorority semi-formal at a VFW post with friend and fellow student Corinne Overstake, 21, of Loretto, Minn., when they apparently got lost far from their destination.

Amen-Reif apparently fell in the street and was being helped up by Overstake when they were struck on Nov. 18 at 12:47 a.m.

Police say alcohol played a role in the accident, but they have yet to release specifics. The 17-year-old Mankato boy at the wheel of the car that hit the two did not appear to have been drinking, authorities have said.

To the east in Winona, 20-year-old Jenna Foellmi, of Brownsville, Minn., died on Dec. 14 after steadily drinking for more than 12 hours with friends in what police called "a classic case of binge drinking." The Winona State University sophomore was a 2006 honors graduate of Caledonia High School in far southeastern Minnesota. She belonged to the high school's chapter of Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD).

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482

Family sues friends who partied with Jax

By PAUL WALSH and HERÓN MÁRQUEZ ESTRADA, Star Tribune

February 28, 2008    Top of  page

The family of a woman who drank herself to death at a Mankato nightspot while celebrating her 21st birthday is suing not only the establishment but also the friends who bought her a steady stream of drinks.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Blue Earth County District Court, alleges that on Oct. 29 the college-age friends of Amanda Jax bought her one drink after another in less than two hours.

As a result, Jax's parents are taking the unusual legal step of suing her companions, in a case that could set a precedent as to who can be held legally liable when someone drinks too much.

"It's evolutionary," said Prof. Barry Feld of the University of Minnesota Law School, who used the scenario as a question on a final exam last semester. "It's pushing the edges of legal liability. These kinds of cases are the engines that drive social change."

That desire for change -- along with holding people responsible for their daughter's death -- is what is driving the lawsuit, Jax's parents said Thursday.

Jax, the suit contends, "was in the care" of the friends who gave alcohol to "an obviously intoxicated person." Their actions, the suit argues, "created an unreasonable risk of causing physical harm" to Jax, and the friends "failed to exercise reasonable care" in preventing harm to her.

"I don't know how they could have called themselves friends and not done anything," said a tearful Jenny Haag, Jax's mother. "They helped her drink even when she wanted to quit. If people had called 911 [in time], then Amanda's death could have been avoided."

At the apartment where Jax died, the suit says, an intoxicated Jax was tended to by two of the defendants about 12:30 a.m. Oct. 30, when she had "been unconscious for approximately one hour and had vomited twice. No one sought medical help for the dying Amanda." A 911 call was made from the apartment about 7 a.m., police records show, after a friend discovered Jax's cold body.

Legal duty questioned

Mark Solheim, the attorney for Jax friend and defendant Hannah Becker, said his client had no "legal responsibility to [Jax] and her family. This is an incredible and unfortunate tragedy," he said, but "the deceased has some responsibility for voluntarily drinking."

As for the lawsuit's legal standing, "the law does not impose any legal duty on [Becker] to care for a drinking companion," said Solheim, who has practiced in this area of law for 18 years. "I can't think of any other case that has been brought on similar facts."

The lawsuit cites a handful of Minnesota cases dating to 1979 in pursuing damages. In one, the state Court of Appeals said that a "duty to act for the protection of another only arises when a special relationship exists between the parties." It went on to list possible "special relationships," including "persons who have custody of another person under circumstances in which that other person is deprived of normal opportunities of self-protection."

The suit contends that Jax was denied "normal opportunities of self-protection" and was "particularly vulnerable and dependent" on the defendants, who "held considerable power" over her welfare.

Alan Milavetz, the family's attorney, said the family is on strong footing because the friends contributed to the danger the young woman was in. "The law provides for friends to be responsible if they put someone in harm's way," he said. "Someone should have stepped in and done something to stop this."

In an interview, the U of M's Feld agreed. He said the college students not only contributed to her intoxication but also took Jax away from the bar so no one else could rescue her.

"If you cause the person distress," Feld said, "then you have a duty to alleviate it. You don't have to rescue someone you see drowning in a lake, but if you are the one that pushed them in you have to get them out safely."

The Sidelines Bar and Grill is also named as a defendant. The suit says Sidelines bartender Beau Ryan ignored "Amanda's obvious state of intoxication," even buying her a drink -- a "Cherry Bomb" -- after she had already consumed a large amount of liquor.

"The bartender provided this final cocktail of cherry vodka mixed with an energy drink as the last alcoholic beverage prior to Amanda's tragic death," says the suit, which seeks "an amount in excess of $50,000" in damages.

Besides the bar and its liquor license bonding company, the other defendants were all friends of Jax and with her that night and early the next morning. Each is accused of buying her one or more drinks before her death.

Jax, a former pre-nursing student at Minnesota State University, Mankato, was found dead in a Mankato apartment where two of the friends lived. The 100-pound woman died of acute alcohol poisoning and had a blood-alcohol content of 0.4594 percent, nearly six times the legal limit for driving, authorities said.

Along with Becker, 21, of Monticello, the friends being sued are: Kathryn A. Lensing, 21, of Rochester; Richard T. Johnson, 22, of Mankato; Jonathan R. McIntyre, 22, of St. Paul; and Per David Kvalsten of Durbin, N.D.

Telephone, e-mail messages, or both, were left Thursday with all of the friends and the bar's owners, Craig and Adam Blattner. A message also was left for Ryan, who is not a defendant. Only Becker, through her attorney, replied.

The county attorney's office declined to charge anyone, saying it couldn't prove "beyond a reasonable doubt that any particular person was criminally responsible."

List of drinks

The suit offers a tally of everything Jax drank that night and emphasizes that others bought all of it for her: one or two cans of beer at an apartment before going to Sidelines; a pitcher of Long Island Iced Tea (equal to 12.5 shots of hard liquor); five shots of hard alcohol; two beers; and the cherry vodka-energy drink concoction.

Sidelines closed this week after the city suspended its liquor license for 30 days following many violations.

City Attorney Eileen Wells, in her recommendation to the City Council to suspend the bar's license, included a memo that she sent last month to police that read: "The bartender had a duty to stop serving Ms. Jax, to remove any alcoholic beverage from her control, and further prevent any of the other patrons in the bar from providing alcohol to Jax."

A Facebook page created by Becker in Jax's memory is home to scores of mournful messages and dozens of photos of Jax and her friends. One posting, signed by "Amanda's future aunt," questioned how closely Jax's friends were watching over her that night.

Postings in response signed by Becker and Lensing say they told police everything. "Please please do not hold anger or blame against me," Becker wrote. "I loved her ... and I just want to find peace and begin healing." Wrote Lensing: "Instead of backtracking us in our healing help us out in believing and understanding our situation."

Jax, of Mayer in Carver County, was the first of three young adults to die after binge drinking, from October to January in Minnesota college towns.

In mid-December, Winona State University student Jenna Foellmi's body was found in an off-campus apartment in what police called a "classic case of binge drinking."

In early January, Brian Threet, 20, of Farmington, who was about to re-enroll at St. Cloud State University, was found dead after a night of partying and drinking games in St. Cloud. Police and family suspect alcohol poisoning killed him.

Haag, Jax's mother, said the family hopes the publicity in this case will keep others from drinking and dying.

"We didn't know that this could happen," Jax's mother said.

Relatives and lawyers said they thought Jax had her life under control, even though she had had two drunken-driving arrests before the age of 21.

They also challenged friends who told police that Jax drank often. "I'm not going to say that she didn't drink," Jenny Haag said. "But it wasn't the hundreds of times that they said."

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482 Heron Marquez Estrada • 612-673-4280

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