Two families are suing a Connecticut couple who hosted a May 2022 house party and allegedly supplied alcohol to minors before the stabbing death of a Shelton high school student.
Shelton police in March arrested Paul Leifer, 59, and Susanna Leifer, 51, and charged them with allowing minors to possess alcohol.
Susanna Leifer was also charged with second-degree reckless endangerment after James McGrath, a 17-year-old Fairfield College Preparatory School student, was fatally stabbed at a different home after a party at the Leifers’ home on Lazy Brook Road in Shelton.
“On or about May 14, 2022, the Defendants hosted a social gathering at their home on the premises where large quantities of alcohol were served to, and consumed by, minors [21],” reads a lawsuit filed by Thomas Connery, the father of another minor who was stabbed that evening in 2022.
A fight involving a person under the age of 21 who had consumed alcohol later broke out at the home, the complaint alleges, adding that the defendant “knew or should have known that alcohol causes individuals, adults and minors, to become intoxicated, impaired, and often, violent and aggressive.”
Susanna Leifer was charged with allowing a minor to possess alcohol and second-degree reckless endangerment in March. Shelton Police Department Paul Leifer was charged in March with allowing a minor to possess alcohol. Shelton Police Department
After the fight at the Leifers’ home, the suspect – described by witnesses as a student from St. Joseph in Trumbull – arrived at a party on Laurel Glen Drive in Shelton, according to a police report obtained by Fox News Digital at the time.
Another fight broke out at a Laurel Glen Drive home, where four students were stabbed, including McGrath, who died from his injuries.
Raul Eliah Valle of Milford, who was 16 at the time of the stabbing, has been charged with one count of murder and two counts of first-degree assault for allegedly stabbing McGrath and others.
James McGrath was fatally stabbed at another home after a party at the Leifers’ home on Lazy Brook Road in Shelton. Google Maps)
Valle attended school at St. Joseph High School in Trumbull near Fairfield Prep, where McGrath is a junior.
Connery’s lawsuit further alleges that after a fight broke out at the Leifers’ home, the two parents allowed the partygoers, who had been drinking, to leave the premises rather than break up the fight, call the police, or take “appropriate action. .”
Connery charged the Leifers with two counts of negligence, negligence per se, host liability, negligence, and negligent infliction of emotional distress for the suffering inflicted on her son.
In the second lawsuit, one of the minors who was injured after the Leifers’ party and his father both claim that the Leifers knew they were providing alcohol to minors at their home on May 14, 2022.
Jeffrey Heinz and his son alleged that shortly after arriving at the Leifers’ home, the minor plaintiff “was assaulted by several of the Leifers[s’] guests, all minors, who had consumed alcohol on the premises with Leifer[s’] knowledge and consent.” The plaintiff was “thrown to the ground, punched, kicked, and cho[k]ed,” the lawsuit said.
A guest allegedly “struck” the plaintiff in the head with a “motorcycle helmet.”
The complaint further states that although the Leifers knew about the fight, they did not “report the assault to the police…or in any way restrain their underage and intoxicated guests.”
James “Jimmy” McGrath was stabbed to death in the ensuing fight. Fairfield Prep McGrath suffered a single stab wound to the left side of the chest that went through his “ribs and heart,” the warrant states. Fairfield Prep
When guests left the Leifers’ home and a fight ensued at a second address on Laurel Glen Drive, the plaintiff was allegedly beaten again and “stabbed multiple times.”
Heinz accused the Leifers of being careless, negligent and negligent.
McGrath’s father also sued the Leifers earlier this year.
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The office of the attorney representing the Leifers did not immediately respond to inquiries from Fox News Digital.
Police responded to “several 911 calls about a fight” that occurred just before midnight on May 14, 2022, outside a Laurel Glen Drive property and found multiple victims in the front yard.
The owner of the residence where the party took place was home at the time of the incident, according to the warrant.
At one point, there were about 25 people involved in a fight in the front yard, witnesses told police.
At least three juvenile suspects were named in the report, including Valle, who was suspected of having a knife.
McGrath had “one stab wound to the left side of the chest,” the warrant states. “The stab wound went through the ribs and the heart.”
A doctor from the Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner told police that there were about 1.8 liters of blood in McGrath’s lungs.
A representative from St. Joseph told Fox News Digital last year that Valle was in good academic standing and had never been in a fight at school before the May 14 incident.
Valle was released on $2 million bond just days after his arrest in May 2022.
More than 1,000 people attended a private prayer service for James McGrath at Fairfield Prep after his death in 2022. Google Maps
An obituary for McGrath described the 17-year-old as the “sunshine” of her parents’ lives and her sister’s “best friend and confidant”.
“Many described Jim as a very happy man with a big heart who was a loving friend to many,” the obituary said.
“He loved his school, Fairfield Prep, and he excelled as an athlete in every sport he chose. He played football and lacrosse for Fairfield Prep and as a junior for the Shelton and Connecticut Wolves as well. He understands what it means to be part of a team.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
