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| Griffen James Lollis | Four Charged After Prank Victim Dies On Drunken Drive Home-9/21/07 | Article | |
| May 15, 2007 | |||
| Lander University | Written by Griffen's Mother, Kimberly Lollis Parrish | ||
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Article Summaries and Excerpts Below |
Does this need to happen to Griffen and others? |
Four
Charged After Prank Victim Dies On Drunken Drive Home
Authorities say they wrote sexually explicit statements on a 20-year-old man who
passed out at a party.
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of page
Article
Reports that four people were charged with assault after authorities said they wrote sexually explicit statements on a 20-year-old Griffen James Lollis who passed out at a party and later lost his life in a drunken driving crash. Griffen became angry when he woke up around midnight and realized other people at the party had written sexually explicit and graphic statements on his abdomen, chest, face and legs. When he later tried todrive home, Griffen died from a head injury after being ejected from his pickup truck. Griffen's blood-alcohol level was 0.267 percent, more than three times the legal limit for driving. Authorities charged four people with assault and battery. One individual also has been charged with transfer of alcohol to a person under 21. According to the incident report, the partygoers decided to write on Griffen "because they always do that to the first person that passes out," .
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 2008 digtriad.com
Written by Griffen's Mother, Kimberly Lollis Parrish: Top of page
Griffen Lollis was my baby brother. He died tragically on May 15, 2007 after a night of binge drinking.
He went to a birthday party with a group of "friends" near the campus of Lander University. Some were college students and some were not. He drank until he passed out. His "friends" then took a permanent marker and wrote obscenities and sexual innuendos all over his body. One of those innuendos was indicative of a sexual assault. When he awoke he was very angry so these "friends" told him he had to leave.
One of these "friends" drove Griffen either home or almost home and then left him out in the vehicle with the keys. Griffen wound up about a half a mile from home, dead, on the side of the road. He had massive head and neck injuries. His BAC was .267. According to some, with a level that high, he could have already been dying from alcohol poisoning. We will never know, since there was no autopsy or investigation.
Griffen had just turned 20. In South Carolina the penalty is more severe for cruelty to animals than it is for providing alcohol to a minor. That needs to change. Griffen made a terrible choice and paid for that with his life. His death should open our eyes to a problem that exists in our state and we should all step up and show that we value our youth by protecting them from themselves.
They must as young adults accept responsibility for themselves but we as caretakers must recognize that in some situations a young person is not always going to make the right choice. Just this year 10 young people who lived in upstate South Carolina have lost their lives who were under 21. All of those had been drinking. Those were 10 promising young lives whose deaths could have been prevented.
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In Loving Memory of Kristine Guest
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