Family Of Man Who Died At Mile High Stadium Files Lawsuit

By Jeff Todd

DENVER (CBS4)- One year after his death, the family of Jason Coy is suing the stadium, beer vendors, and companies associated with game day activities at Mile High.

Coy died on Oct. 25, 2016 after he fell roughly 60 feet at the stadium.

The lawsuit states, "The Stadium contained a defective, unsafe, non-obvious and dangerous condition in a fire escape corridor and staircase."

Coy's widow and five children are listed as plaintiff's in the civil suit. They're suing and seeking a jury trial for monetary damages from the Metropolitan Football Stadium District, four companies with an address shared with Broncos Headquarters, and the three unidentified people who served coy alcohol during the night.

"The issue is going to be, should there have been more warnings," said CBS4 Legal Analyst Karen Steinhauser. "From the defense standpoint, then it's going to be, do you really need to warn somebody that you should be careful walking down stairs or walking down a fire escape?"

Police told CBS4 that Coy was drunk after the game and slid down a handrail while exiting. After losing his balance he fell several stories and died from injuries the next morning.

An autopsy report show's Coy's blood alcohol concentration was 0.171.

"At what point do people have to take responsibility for their own actions such as becoming drunk at a football game," Steinhauser says the defense will ask. "If you had signs there or did other things to make it safe would that have ensured that someone who had as much to drink as he's had wouldn't have had the same accident?"

Coy is the second person to die from a fall at Mile High since 2015.

Jeff Todd joined the CBS4 team in 2011 covering the Western Slope in the Mountain Newsroom. Since 2015 he's been working across the Front Range in the Denver Headquarters. Follow him on Twitter @CBS4Jeff.