NEW ORLEANS (22 June 2006) — The family of jazz pianist Hilton Ruiz, who died June 6 in New Orleans, is suing Club Utopia, claiming Ruiz was attacked in the Bourbon Street dance club while the club’s bouncers “failed to intervene in any meaningful fashion.”
Filed by Ruiz’s daughter, Aida Ruiz, the negligence suit alleges the security workers didn’t even call an ambulance for Ruiz after the May 19 incident, but instead threw him out of the club.
Police said the incident first was investigated as an attack, but evidence indicated Ruiz sustained his injuries in a fall that left him unconscious. (He never regained consciousness.)
Utopia manager Fred Woodruff said he had not heard about the lawsuit.
From wire reports
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