Edmonton man left quadriplegic after Bon Jovi concert awaits day in court

It's been 18 months since Dennis Schulz, an Edmonton,Alberta father of two, went to a Bon Jovi concert and in just a heartbeat, had his neck snapped under the weight of a falling fellow human being.

But any relief for the quadriplegic, who launched a multimillion-dollar lawsuit back in 2007, is still a year or two away in a case that has entangled the concert promoter, the arena owner, the company in charge of serving booze at the show and even Edmonton's chief of police.

"I can't say if the [trial] date will be 2010 or 2011," Schulz's lawyer, Patrick Phelan, said in an interview with the Canadian Press. He said his client prefers not to talk to reporters but added that "his attitude is excellent," especially considering the circumstances.

"How would you feel if you had no motion in your arms and legs?" Phelan said.

Schulz was 40 at the time he and his wife, Elana Hartman, went to see the rock band perform at Rexall Place on July 12, 2007.

They were near the corner of the building in section 222, Row 22 (Schulz was in Seat 5) — good seats, the second row of the upper deck, not far from the stage.

Schulz and his wife were sitting in front of Kendra Stasyk and Darryl Allan. Behind that couple were Brad McCorry and Alisa Rabideau.

According to Schulz's statement of claim, the atmosphere wasn't safe from the get-go: the lighting was too dark, the music too loud and security lax.

Around 9:30 p.m. that night, things quickly got out of hand.

According to the statement, Rabideau was drunk and was "rudely, recklessly and repeatedly spilling beverages on spectators seated a row ahead of her."

This led to a conflict between Allan and Rabideau's companion, McCorry.

The two men began pushing each other, and Allan toppled straight back, pushing Schulz's head down until his neck snapped. His head was left hanging limply, say witnesses, his chin resting on his rib cage.

Wife, province also suing

Nobody noticed at first as the melee continued and the band played on.

Schulz's C4-5 vertebrae were snapped. Today, he can't feel anything below his neck. He can't feed himself or even cough on his own.

"Mr. Schulz ... has been advised by his doctors that he will not work at his job as a journeyman machinist again," Phelan wrote in a letter on file in the courthouse. "He will not walk again. Currently, he has no movement in his hands."

The allegations contained in the statement of claim have yet to be proven in court.

Schulz is one of three plaintiffs. His wife, Hartman, is also suing for loss of income and the province of Alberta is trying to recoup health care costs. Schulz is asking for $7 million for medical care.

His lawsuit was filed in November 2007, and in subsequent months, the defendants filed statements of defence. Many have also filed notices to each other stating that should they be found liable, they may be coming after each other for the money.

Rabideau, in her statement of defence, says she wasn't drunk or disorderly and that Allan started the confrontation by throwing a drink in her face.

In his statement of defence, McCorry said he accidentally spilled a drink on Stasyk and apologized, but Allan overreacted, throwing a drink on Rabideau, then lunging at McCorry. He said he "placed his open hand on Allan's chest to ward him off. Allan then went backwards."

Allan, in his statement, said McCorry pushed him without provocation or warning. He said he "had no opportunity to avoid contact with McCorry or to prevent himself falling."

Stasyk, in her statement, said she didn't do anything to start or inflame the melee.

Schulz accuses the concert promoter, Panhandle Productions, and the arena operator, Edmonton Northlands, of negligence for failing to provide adequate security. Both deny this.

Schulz says the employees of the company in charge of serving liquor at the concert, Dominion SportService, overserved and didn't check to see if anyone was drunk. Dominion denies this.

Schulz says the police, some of whom were contracted to provide security for the event, were lax. He claims that rather than monitor the crowd, officers simply asked ushers to report problems to them.

Edmonton Police Chief Mike Boyd has filed a statement of defense that says "adequate policing resources were supplied."

Police have not laid any charges, citing the case as non-criminal.

If the case goes to trial, it's expected to last about a month.

This is a terrible incident. There's no denying that, I hope this man and his family get some form of compensation. His life has been ruined over shameless stupidity and blatant negligence. Serving alcohol at public events where the crowds are large and impossible to control is a guaranteed recipe for disaster.

My problem with this isn't the law suit per se, but rather that it won't be the people directly involved in the incident, that actually caused the problem that will end up paying.

The reality is that the court will never order those people to pay, if the law suit is won, then the arena, and likely the police will have to pay simply because they have the money to pay (i.e. taxpayer's money for the most part).

I also have to ask this though: Who on earth would go to a Bon Jovi concert and be surprised that it is dark and loud and semi "out of control"? ITS A ROCK CONCERT!!!!

It is sad to say, but the lawyers of this country have made is so we can guarantee that a good sized percentage of that crowd will be high on drugs or drunk because the police and security have very limited authority to intervene until AFTER something actually happens.
If the police or security had marched down there and tried to remove this drunken couple and THEN this fellow was injured in a fight somehow, everyone would be blaming the police for it and the lawsuit would be a slam dunk.

Perhaps if we were to get back to some common sense and say that police and security have the right to search people entering and have drug dogs clearing the entire crowd, and that anyone deemed to be already high or drunk at the doors could be turned away, then maybe, just MAYBE, we could make public events like this fun for the good and decent folks again and get the jerks out of there.

I am not going to hold my breath though. There are too many lawyers out there who will sue and fight for anything anytime and basically doom the rest of us to live with this nonsense because we might be trampling on someone's rights by telling them that they can't be drunk or high at these events.