Huse Culinary is pushing back hard on claims that St. Elmo's overserved Mark Sanchez before his October arrest in Indianapolis, as relayed by Awful Announcing.
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Sanchez was in town to call the Raiders-Colts game for Fox when everything spiraled. In the early morning hours of Oct. 4, he got into a parking-spot confrontation with 69-year-old delivery driver Perry Tole.
Surveillance video shows Sanchez throwing Tole to the ground. Tole responded with pepper spray and a knife, later telling police he feared the former quarterback was going to kill him.
Sanchez was arrested and hit with a felony battery charge involving serious bodily injury. Tole then filed a lawsuit against Sanchez and Fox. And last month, Tole's legal team added Huse Culinary, alleging Sanchez had been overserved at St. Elmo's before the incident.
Huse Culinary has now responded in a court filing, according to Los Angeles Magazine. The company argues it was incorrectly named, saying the famed Indianapolis steakhouse is technically a separate entity called St. Elmo Incorporated. Still, Huse Culinary lists St. Elmo's on its website as one of its restaurants.
The filing also acknowledges Sanchez had been served by the restaurant but "denies that it sold, furnished or served alcoholic beverages" to anyone who was visibly intoxicated. Attorneys went a step further, claiming Tole's "own negligence" contributed to the altercation and calling Sanchez's actions after leaving the restaurant "unforeseeable."
Tole's attorneys haven't yet addressed the response. Sanchez still faces a misdemeanor count of public intoxication, though investigators haven't said how much alcohol, if any, was in his system that night.
