A Dallas County jury has rejected a mother’s civil lawsuit against a convenience store that illegally sold alcohol to her teenage son before he died in a car wreck. Now, that mother is focusing on getting a bill passed in the TX legislature that would require all retailers that sell alcohol to use electronic ID readers. Charlotte Stephens still holds on to every reminder of her son Deshawn, including a box containing the darkest reminder.
Empty bottles of alcohol were among what authorities found inside the wreckage of the 18-year-old’s car in 2022. Deshawn died, and his mother sued the Dallas convenience store for selling alcohol to a minor. The jury heard the case this week.
“Had he been carded, ID’d, I’d have my son today,” Stephens said. Stephens and her attorneys argued that laws that hold bartenders and servers accountable for a drunk driver’s actions should also apply in Deshawn’s case.
However, the jury disagreed because that law requires evidence that the customer is already intoxicated. “You have to be visibly intoxicated to the clerk,” Stephens said. “I’m very disappointed.” Now, Stephens is redirecting her efforts to prevent alcohol sales to minors by partnering with State Senator Royce West on a bill that would require all retailers to use electronic ID readers, which she believes would have prevented her son’s death.
“It needs to be in all stores, and there has to be an implementation policy that makes the clerk scan the ID, just scan the ID. You scan ID when you go through TSA,” Stephens said.
Stephens wants her son to be remembered not just for clutch shots that helped Woodrow Wilson’s basketball team win games but also as someone whose tragic death at a young age will lead to needed change that protects others from the same fate. “I think I’m saving my grandkids, and I’m saving yours,” she said.
