$21 Million Settlement for Family of Mother of Three Killed by Drunk Driver in Las Vegas
Won by Eglet Law.
Melissa Newton, a 36-year-old mother of three, was killed in May 2019 when real estate broker Scott Gragson crashed his Range Rover while drunk in The Ridges, a gated Las Vegas community. Settlement documents filed in her family's wrongful-death suit put the payout at $21 million, with $12.8 million coming from Gragson personally and $8.2 million from his insurer. Gragson pleaded guilty to DUI causing death and DUI causing substantial bodily harm.
What happened
On the afternoon of May 30, 2019, Melissa Newton, a 36-year-old mother of three, was riding in a Range Rover driven by real estate broker Scott Gragson in The Ridges, a gated community in the Summerlin area of Las Vegas. Police were called to the intersection of Granite Ridge and Grey Feather drives at about 4:50 p.m. Newton died in the crash. Three other people in the vehicle were injured. Home surveillance video, according to the arrest report, showed Gragson climbing out of the Range Rover and rushing to one victim's side.
Gragson had spent about five hours at a charity golf event that day. His arrest report said he told officers he drank four to five mixed drinks and some beers. A blood draw taken three hours after the crash measured his blood alcohol content at 0.147 percent, nearly twice Nevada's legal limit for drivers. Just before the wreck, a security guard at the community gate reported that he smelled of alcohol, spoke with slurred speech and had bloodshot eyes. He told the guard he was headed to an after party and asked that the vehicles behind him be waved through. Police then said he accelerated down Granite Ridge Drive at a high rate of speed without slowing.
Newton's family and the other people in the vehicle each filed civil suits against Gragson. Robert Eglet represented the Newton family. Two of the injured passengers settled before Gragson entered his criminal plea in February 2020, and a third passenger's suit was set for trial that September.
Settlement documents filed in the Newton case in May 2020 set the family's recovery at $21 million. Gragson's insurance company was to pay $8.2 million, and Gragson was to pay the remaining $12.8 million himself. His payments were scheduled in five installments running through Sept. 1, 2020, the first of them $2.4 million due on May 15.
In the criminal case, Gragson pleaded guilty to one count of DUI resulting in death and one count of DUI resulting in substantial bodily harm. At the February hearing he said he would take responsibility by working to settle financially with those affected. Eglet declined to comment on the settlement when it became public.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Las Vegas Review-Journal, 'Gragson fatal crash settlement includes $21M to family of woman killed', May 16, 2020·Archived copy
- 2.KLAS 8 News Now, '$21 million partial settlement reached in Gragson case', May 2020·Archived copy
- 3.KSNV News 3 Las Vegas, 'Las Vegas businessman Scott Gragson reaches $21 million settlement in deadly crash', May 19, 2020
- 4.KNPR, 'Las Vegas Businessman Reaches $21M Settlement In Fatal DUI Crash', May 18, 2020·Archived copy
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