- Lawyers suing Tiger Woods in a wrongful death lawsuit say that crucial video evidence was knowingly destroyed.
- The lawsuit says that Nicholas Immesberger, an employee at Woods' restaurant, finished his shift at 3 p.m. on December 10, was served alcohol to the point of intoxication, drove home drunk, then crashed his Corvette at 6 p.m. and died.
- "Our investigation uncovered evidence to show that the bar knew what happened, they knew about the crash that night, and shortly thereafter … video evidence was destroyed," one attorney said, according to The Guardian.
- The lawsuit says the staff, as well as Woods and his girlfriend Erica Herman, respectively the owner and general manager of The Woods restaurant, should have known that the bartender was a "habitual drunkard."
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The lawyers suing Tiger Woods in a wrongful death lawsuit claim that video evidence showing one of the golfer's employees getting drunk was destroyed shortly after he crashed his car and died.
Woods and his girlfriend Erica Herman, respectively the owner and general manager of his flagship restaurant, The Woods, in Jupiter, Florida, were named in a wrongful death lawsuit earlier this week.
The lawsuit alleges that a bartender at The Woods, 24-year-old Nicholas Immesberger, finished a shift a 3 p.m. on December 10, was served alcohol to the point of intoxication, then left the restaurant to drive home.
He crashed his Corvette three hours later, died, and the lawsuit says his blood alcohol content was more than three times the legal limit.
The lawsuit describes Immesberger as a "habitual drunkard" whose alcohol problems were known by those who worked at The Woods. It says Woods and Herman were drinking with Immesberger days before his death.
Speaking on Tuesday, lawyers for Immesberger's family said there was video evidence showing Immesberger drinking at the bar after his shift on December 10, but they claim that it was deliberately destroyed.
"One of the most significant issues we have here is the destruction of evidence," attorney Spencer Kuvin said, according to The Guardian.
"Obviously it shows that somebody knew something had gone wrong and they wanted to get rid of that evidence. We have evidence to show that that video tape, showing Nick at the bar that night after he got off at 3 p.m., drinking for three hours at the bar, was destroyed shortly after the crash had occurred.
"So we have through our investigation uncovered evidence to show that the bar knew what happened, they knew about the crash that night and shortly thereafter that video evidence was destroyed and deleted off the servers they had there at The Woods."
It is not clear from the lawsuit whether Woods and Herman were at The Woods on December 10, but it states that the golfer "reasonably should have known" that the bartender was "habitually addicted" to alcohol.
Woods was honored by Donald Trump with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House earlier this month.
Trump called Woods "an extraordinary athlete who transformed golf" and said he's someone who embodies "the American spirit of pushing boundaries."
Woods received the medal just three weeks after completing one of the greatest comebacks in sporting history when he won the 2019 Masters, his fifth championship at Augusta National Golf Club but his first major title in golf for more than a decade.
He has a chance to win a 16th major this week as he competes in the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black Course from Thursday.