HOUSTON – An establishment in Houston’s Midtown neighborhood has been sued over a car accident late last year which paralyzed a passenger, recent Harris County District Court records show.
Juan Luis Martinez – in a lawsuit filed on Jan. 9 in the Harris County 151st District Court – claims Axelrad Beer Garden served his driver, Omar Okafor, an excessive amount of alcohol prior to the accident on Oct. 8, 2017.
Okafor and Martinez then left the defendant’s business in a 2013 Toyota Scion.
Court documents allege that Okafor sped and traveled recklessly along Westheimer, just west of Elmside Dr.
“Omar Okafor struck the rear of another vehicle, swerved around that vehicle, lost control, and ran head on into a street sign and then a tree,” the original petition says.
Martinez asserts he suffered injuries resulting in paralysis.
He accuses Axelrad of encouraging its staff “to violate the law” and serve Okafor despite his intoxicated state.
Consequently, the complainant seeks unspecified monetary damages and a jury trial.
Jason P. Hoelscher of the law firm Sico Hoelscher Harris & Braugh LLP in Corpus Christi serves as Martinez’s lead counsel.
Harris County 151st District Court Case No. 2018-1788