Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Attorney goes after parents of 311 Boyz

Flipping the old axiom on its ear, a Las Vegas attorney says parents should be held accountable for the sins of their sons.

In court papers filed last month, attorney Jerome Bowen argues that the parents of the members of the alleged 311 Boyz gang should be named as defendants along with their sons in a civil suit.

Bowen represents Stephen Tanner Hansen, who was disfigured in an attack by members of the gang. Hansen is joined in the suit seeking civil damages with his friends Craig Lefevre and Joe Grill - who were with him the night of the attack - and their parents.

Bowen argues the parents of teens who were involved in the attack - they were minors at the time - failed to adequately instruct, impose restrictions on or discipline their children. He said that led to violent acts during the summer of 2003.

"Literally the minors at issue, among others, consistently wreaked havoc and/or destruction on the community during the summer of 2003, engaging in numerous planned and/or unplanned fights and attacks, largely in an effort to obtain video footage that could be sold for profit similar to the 'Bumfights' video.

"Had the parents of said minors properly engaged in the expected reasonable standard care, much, if not all of these incidents, including the one involving Tanner, Craig, and Joe, would have been avoided."

The complaint lays out a series of violent events through the summer, highlighted by the attack on Hansen and his friends. The boys were trying to leave a house where there was a group of teens was having a party. They tried driving away. Beer cans and rocks were thrown at them. They were also hit, bumped by another car and chased as they drove toward the hospital.

Bowen admits it's "unusual" to hold parents individually accountable for the actions of their children, but he is quick to point out that this is an "unusual case."

After police arrested teens on charges related to the rock attack on Hansen, videotapes emerged and were aired on local and national television depicting alleged 311 Boyz gang members in several fights.

The complaint says that the parents either knew or should have known about their violent behavior.

"Where were the parents when these kids were roaming the streets and videotaping both planned and unplanned fights during the summer of 2003?" Bowen said. "If these parents were doing their job, these kids would have been punished and at home."

Professor Ann McGinley of UNLV's Boyd School of Law said while "it's not absolutely unheard of, it's an unusual course of action to hold a parent liable for negligence in the way they deal with their children."

"Ordinarily the rule is that parents are not held responsible for the intentional acts of their children," McGinley said. "It would have to be proven the parents acted negligently in their supervision or that they had failed in their duty to warn or protect the third party who is injured by their children."

McGinley said the central question will be "what did the parents know and when and how did they know it."

Steve Caruso, who represents two of the boys and their parents, called Bowen's attempt to charge the parents individually an example of "shotgun law."

He said he represents "good parents who issued curfews and punished their children when they broke the rules." He said Bowen is trying to call them bad parents for actions at "a party that got out of hand."

"He's (Bowen) pulling out the shotgun and shooting as many bullets as he can in the hopes he hits something," Caruso said. "He's casting a wide net and hoping he'll get a settlement to fall into it instead of going to trial."

District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez is scheduled to hear arguments and determine whether the parents can be added as individual defendants in the case at a hearing set for March 6. If Gonzalez rejects the motion, the parents won't be entirely off the hook.

As the case stands today, if a jury were to rule in favor of Hansen, the parents of the alleged 311 Boyz gang members would be liable for up to $10,000 because the law says the parents are liable for damages resulting from "willful misconduct" by their children.

Parental responsibility for the actions of their children last came up in November 2004 when the families of four boys killed or injured when a drunken teen driver wrecked his car were offered a share of $300,000 to settle a civil lawsuit against the owner of a home where the boy was drinking.

The families of the four teens sued one of the owners of the Seven Hills house that was the site of an impromptu party involving alcohol and dozens of teens in the hours leading up to the Nov. 10, 2003, car wreck.

A 16-year-old attending the party loaded up his car with his friends and ended up crashing, killing 15-year-olds Travis Dunning, Josh Parry and Kyle Poff. The driver and a 15-year-old who was also in the car survived.

The Henderson city attorney's office declined to prosecute the parents. The homeowner's insurance company settled a civil lawsuit filed against the woman.

Matt Pordum can be reached at 474-7406 or at [email protected].

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