Parents of sisters killed in wrong-way crash sue Mellow Mushroom restaurant

The parents of two sisters killed by a drunk man driving the wrong way on Interstate 17 are suing the popular restaurant where the man had been drinking all night before the crash.

On April 14, 2017, 21-year-old Keaton Allison drove nearly six miles the wrong way before running head-on into the vehicle in which Karli and Kelsey Richardson were riding.

Allison had a blood-alcohol content of 0.25 percent, more than three times the legal limit, according to blood-testing results from the Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner.

All three died instantly.

A new report from the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control states that Allison had been drinking for four and a half hours at the Mellow Mushroom at Interstate 17 and Happy Valley Road and crashed within minutes of leaving, around 2 a.m. 

The liquor department report states Mellow Mushroom violated three Arizona liquor laws: selling liquor to an intoxicated or disorderly person, having an intoxicated person on the premises for 30 minutes and failing to protect the safety of patrons. 

The sisters' mother, Cathy Hocking, said the report makes it clear that Mellow Mushroom is to blame for the deaths of her only children.

"The more that is discovered, the more it becomes extremely realistic to anyone and everyone this should not have happened," she said. "It was so preventable."

What happened before the crash  

The liquor department investigative report, which Hocking provided to The Arizona Republic, states that Allison was drinking beers and taking shots with about 10 members of Young Life, a popular Christian ministry that works with adolescents, after a Young Life event. 

He "consumed more alcohol than anyone else," had "spilled a drink and didn't notice," and "was overly touchy" with a stranger to the point that it seemed to make that person uncomfortable, according to an account in the investigative report from two men who were with Allison.

One of them told Allison, "Dude, you can't drive," according to the report.

The pair told officials they offered Allison a ride multiple times but he declined. They said they waited for him in the parking lot but didn't see him leave and get in his own car. 

Kelsey, 18, had flown from North Carolina to spend time with Karli, 20, in Phoenix for Easter. The sisters were headed to the Grand Canyon to see the sunrise together when Allison hit them.

Allison's BAC level of 0.25 percent falls in the range of "severe impairment," with effects including "dangerously impaired" driving skills and decision-making ability, blackouts and loss of consciousness, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Lawsuit blames Mellow Mushroom 

Hocking and the sisters' father, Perry Richardson, are suing the Mellow Mushroom location; the franchisee that owns that location, 29 Holdings; the franchiser, Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers; and the state of Arizona.  

"I believe they were more than a part of why my children are dead," Hocking said.

The lawsuit alleges that 29 Holdings "was negligent in its oversight, supervision and training of the Mellow Mushroom Bar and its employees," and that Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers is "vicariously liable." 

The owner of 29 Holdings, Jay Beskind, owns all five metro Phoenix Mellow Mushroom locations. 

He told The Republic Monday that he would not comment on the lawsuit. 

"We are trying to respect the families involved and we also have obviously ongoing litigation and it would be imprudent of me to say anything," he said. 

The lawsuit also accuses the state of negligence for the design of the intersection at I-17 and Happy Valley Road where Allison entered the freeway the wrong way. Shortly after the crash, the Arizona Department of Transportation announced it would reconstruct that intersection as a "diverging-diamond" interchange.

Hocking and Richardson are demanding a jury trial. No date has been set. 

Hocking said she hopes the lawsuit will raise awareness of liquor laws, which could save a life. 

"There’s no amount of anything – time, money, space, things – nothing will ever remove the pain or the loss," she said. "If one person's life is saved then there's one other mother out there that doesn’t have to go through it. Nobody wants to live the life I live."

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