Pennsylvania - Drug results in death is considered a third-degree homicide

February 12, 2002

Ecstasy Overdose Kills. Who Should Be Held to Account?
By SARA RIMER

Ten months after Brandy French, 16, died of an overdose of the drug Ecstasy, law enforcement officials here and Brandy's father, Don French, are beginning to formally apportion blame.
Mr. French, 36, who works in a food warehouse near here, is about to file a negligence lawsuit against some of the people with his daughter the night last May when she became fatally ill from the drug at a rock concert. He is not looking for revenge or money, Mr. French says, but accountability.
Mr. French's lawyer, John Gismondi, says he has filed a notification of his intention to sue with the insurance company of the mother whose house Brandy's friends took her to after the concert and who waited several hours, until after Brandy had stopped breathing, to call for medical help. Mr. Gismondi says he will also sue several of Brandy's friends and acquaintances, who were at the house, for failing to get help. They were apparently afraid they would get into trouble.
Greg Ludwig, 19, who sold the Ecstasy, at $20 a pill, that killed Brandy, will be formally arraigned on third-degree homicide charges on Friday in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas here. A 1998 Pennsylvania law says delivery of a drug that results in death is considered a third-degree homicide.
Mr. Ludwig's lawyer, Patrick Thomassey, has filed a motion to have the charges dismissed, saying his client ''had no idea this would ever happen.''
While reliable figures are hard to come by, Ecstasy-related deaths are relatively rare. There were only 27 nationwide from 1994 to 1999, according to the latest figures from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. In comparison, there were about 100 heroin-related deaths in Allegheny County alone last year, said Joseph T. Dominick, the chief deputy coroner.
Even as new medical evidence shows that Ecstasy, a mildly hallucinogenic stimulant, can cause memory loss and brain damage, its use among teenagers continues to rise. In a survey released in December, the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research found that from 1998 to 2001 Ecstasy use among teenagers had about doubled.
Here in Pittsburgh, and about 15 miles northwest, in Sewickley, the town where Brandy French grew up, the county coroner, administrators at her high school and the parents of her friends are indicting the larger culture for popularizing Ecstasy as the ultimate low-risk high.
Brandy, who was a 10th grader at Ambridge Area High School and dreamed of opening a beauty salon, had not used illegal drugs until the night she swallowed an Ecstasy pill. She had never been in any trouble. While her parents, Don French and Anita Bosh, had never married -- Ms. Bosh died of brain cancer in June 2000 -- she grew up in a close, extended family.
After she begged her father for more than a year to let her go to a rock concert, Mr. French finally gave her permission to attend an all-day concert at an outdoor pavilion in Washington County, south of Pittsburgh. One reason he relented, Mr. French said, was that she would be going with Michelle Maranuk, 17, and Paula Wilson, 18, both of whom he had met.
''I thought, She's going with older kids, they'll take care of her,'' he said.
Ms. Maranuk said at the inquest that the Ecstasy was her idea. She had used it before, she said. Though Brandy told her she had never tried Ecstasy, Ms. Maranuk said in court, her friend said, 'I don't want to be the only one not doing it.' ''
Ms. Maranuk said she told Brandy only about the drug's positive effects, like the euphoria and heightened sensory awareness, because ''I really didn't know about the negative ones.'' She did warn Brandy to drink a lot of water so she would not become dehydrated, she said.
The night before the concert, Ms. Maranuk said, she bought three Ecstasy pills -- a double dose -- from Mr. Ludwig, a casual acquaintance. At the concert, she gave the pills to Ms. Wilson, who gave one to Brandy. Ms. Maranuk said she recommended that they each take only half a pill ''because I didn't think they could handle it.''
Brandy took the first half of her pill about 4 p.m., Ms. Maranuk said. Soon after taking the second half, about three hours later, Brandy became violently ill, vomiting repeatedly, slurring her words and stumbling around, Ms. Maranuk and others who saw Brandy that night testified at the inquest. She drank enormous quantities of water, which she then threw up.
At the inquest, Ms. Maranuk said she had not been disturbed by the vomiting ''because I have seen people vomit on Ecstasy, so I didn't really think anything of it.''
Ms. Wilson was not particularly concerned, either.
''Everyone said, 'Keep on throwing up, Brandy, that's what it's supposed to do, you are supposed to do that, and it will kick in better,' '' she said at the inquest.
Finally, about 8 p.m., Ms. Maranuk, Ms. Wilson and three acquaintances took Brandy to the home of Lewis Hopkins, 16, so she could sleep off the drug there. They told Mr. Hopkins's mother, Rosalind Hopkins, that Brandy was drunk. Mrs. Hopkins, they said, told them to get Brandy into dry clothes and put her in bed in a bedroom upstairs.
There are varying accounts about what happened that night, but there is generally agreement that Brandy fell out of bed and stopped breathing for an undetermined period. According to some testimony, Ms. Wilson performed CPR, and Brandy began breathing again. Mrs. Hopkins wiped her face with a wet washcloth.
Shortly after midnight, Brandy's friends carried her out of the house to take here to the hospital. She stopped breathing. According to testimony, Mrs. Hopkins and Ms. Wilson began CPR. Moments later, Mrs. Hopkins called paramedics.
Mrs. Hopkins said she had not called paramedics sooner because she believed that Brandy was drunk and not in any serious trouble.
''I did eventually call for help,'' she said.
Brandy was pronounced dead at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh a day after the concert. The coroner ruled that the cause was an overdose of methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or Ecstasy, which had caused irreversible brain damage. Some of the water she drank might have backed into the lungs, contributing to her trouble breathing.
''Had she received prompt medical intervention, there was a reasonable medical certainty that she would have survived,'' the coroner, Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, said.
After a public inquest in late August and early September, Dr. Wecht ruled that Brandy's death had been a homicide.
Brandy and Ms. Maranuk had been friends since kindergarten.
Ms. Maranuk's lawyer, Greg Schwab, said his client ''feels extremely remorseful and devastated.''
''It was her best friend,'' Ms. Schwab said. ''They didn't know this thing could cause death. They thought it was like sleeping off a hangover.''
Brandy was Don French's only child. He is saving money to buy a headstone for her grave. ''It's the last thing I'll be able to buy for her,'' he said.
At Ambridge High, students have planted a tree as a memorial to Brandy. School officials, along with local law enforcement officials, have mounted a campaign against Ecstasy. But not even Brandy's death has sufficiently dimmed the enthusiasm for it, said Carol Miloszewski, a counselor at the school.
''Some kids just say, 'She didn't do it right; she should have drunk more water,' '' Ms. Miloszewski said.

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