STILLWATER Okla.
Oklahoma State University has filed a response to a lawsuit by a Perry woman who was injured in a traffic collision last year with former basketball coach Eddie Sutton.
“We admit (Sutton) was negligent in hitting her,” OSU attorney Mort G. Welch told the Tulsa World. “OSU was legally responsible as his employer.”
Teresa Jean Barnard sued Sutton, 71, OSU and several others in Payne County District Court on Aug. 8.
An award against OSU for damages for Barnard’s bodily injuries from the collision cannot exceed $125,000 under state law, Welch, an Oklahoma City lawyer, said in court documents filed last week.
In answering the lawsuit, OSU denied Barnard’s allegation that the university’s “athletic, medical, security and police staff negligently assisted, enabled and allowed” Sutton to operate an OSU vehicle “while Sutton was under the influence of alcohol and/or other intoxicating substances.”
Sutton pleaded no contest to charges of aggravated drunken driving, driving left of center and speeding in the Feb. 10, 2006, crash. His blood-alcohol level after the accident was nearly three times the legal driving limit of 0.08, court records show.
