Paul K. Downes - Press

Jury awards $2 million for bar attack. Banana Joe’s found negligent; patron lost eye

Star Tribune, August 2003
Warren Wolfe: Star Tribune staff writer

A Minneapolis Jury has awarded $2 million to a former University of Nebraska football player who lost an eye after he was attacked two years ago outside a downtown bar.

Banana Joe’s Sports Bar & Grill was negligent in refusing Dorick Roy’s request to leave by the front door, away from the crowd departing at closing time, shortly after a confrontation between Roy’s friend and another man, the jury found.

Instead of following its policy of forcing participants in fights to leave from separate doors, the bar sent Roy and several friends out a side door about 1 a.m. June 30, into a crowd of about 600 people.

Roy was attacked by a man wielding a bottle, the same man who had fought with his friend, said Roy’s attorney, Paul Downes.

The Hennepin County District Court jury made the award Wednesday.

As a result of his injuries, Roy, now 28, was unable to take a graduate assistant football coaching job at the University of Wyoming, where he was scheduled to start three weeks after the attack, Downes said.

Roy has been living with his mother in Inglewood, Califorinia and despite sending out 90 resumes has been unable to find a graduate-assistant coaching job, “which is the normal way you get into college coaching,” Downes said. Instead, Roy began work several weeks ago as a volunteer assistant to football coaches at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, he said.

Attorney Timothy Leer, who represented Banana Joe’s, would not say Thursday whether the bar would appeal.

Banana Joe’s, 15 S. 5th St., closed in February and reopened for a time as the Ocean Club.

Downes said the jury award included $500,000 for past pain and suffering, $650,000 for future pain and suffering, disfigurement and emotional distress, and $750,000 for future lost wages.