Following the tragic death of 34-year-old Patrick Murphy at last year’s Backwoods Music Festival, an administrator of his estate is filing a lawsuit against the festival organizers and the contracted security company.
The lawsuit is calling for $75,000 in damages, claiming that the defendants “failed to provide adequate security,” and that the festival was an “open-air drug market,” making for an “exceedingly dangerous, reckless and grossly negligent” event.
During last year’s event, Murphy stripped his clothes off and jumped over a stage barrier, where at least four security guards subdued him with zip-ties and allegedly left him lying backstage, face-down in the dirt.
The state Medical Examiner’s Office found Murphy’s death to be caused by cocaine and methamphetamine toxicity. However, this lawsuit claims that the circumstances surrounding Murphy’s death point to positional asphyxia. Additionally, the case posits that some of the security staff hired were unlicensed felons, and that they should have known to take Murphy to receive medical care from his intoxicated and exerted state after being subdued.
The case has yet to make its way to trial, but we’ll update as details become available.
H/T Tulsa World