Andy and Lee Park v. Hayden Duran

## Synopsis

In 2010, Sydney Park invited classmate Jesse Duran to hang out at the Parks’ home. Both children were 11 years old. The Parks keep a gun in their home. That morning, the gun was discharged, killing Sydney. Sydney's parents have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Jesse's parent, Hayden Duran.

## Details

*Park v. Duran* is described as being a civil case of Parental Negligence and Intentional Shooting. It mainly centers around events occuring in the suburb of Fairview, Midlands in 2010.

Andy and Lee Park lived in Fairview with their daughter Sydney. The Park family lived next door to the defendant, Hayden Duran and Hayden's child, Jesse Duran. Hayden Duran was a single parent who adopted an embryo at a fertility clinic. Hayden raised Jesse alone, without the help of a spouse or family. The Parks and the Durans were very good friends, and Sydney and Jesse would hang out at each other's houses regularly.

Throughout Jesse's childhood, Jesse had developed a fascination with guns. Starting with military related toys at a young age, Jesse eventually grew an interest in violent video games featuring guns, which Hayden allowed Jesse to play, even though Andy Park refused to let Sydney play those very same games in the Park household. While at the Duran home, Jesse and Sydney would play these violent games together, with Hayden even seeing a time where Jesse and Sydney were shooting each other in the game. Along with the violent games, Jesse also showed a fascination of guns in school. For example when asked to draw what Jesse's "best friend" was, Jesse drew a drawing of a gun titled "Me and My Gun." Jesse also showcased violent tendencies in school, with an example given being a dodgeball game, where Jesse rushed down a kid and reportedly tried to bite the kid, all while screaming, "I hit you, you're dead. You need to fall down and die."

All of these behaviors, along with others, such as a time Jesse attempted to flush a cat down the toilet when Jesse was only 5 years old, led expert witness Emerson Couples to diagnose Jesse Duran with childhood psychopathy, meaning that Jesse would have had no guilt or empathy in regards to committing awful or violent acts against others.

While the Duran family did not own a gun, the Parks did. They owned a 9mm Baker Revolver that was kept in a safe with a combination. However that combination was kept only a room away in an unlocked filing drawer. This security for the gun was insufficient according to expert witness Ash DeRosa. DeRosa notes that this is not what is expected out of responsible gun ownership and could lead to easy access for anyone, including Sydney or Jesse.

On August 17th, 2010. Both Jesse and Sydney were only 11 years old. Jesse had been staying at the Park home, as Hayden had been busy working, and Jesse's summer camp was suspended for a few days. Jesse and Sydney were supervised by the Park's babysitter, Danny Brooks. However Danny expressed immediate concern, after Jesse began screaming "I want the gun, I want the gun!" "Fake gun games are boring! Syd, let's play real games with the gun in the safe!" After hearing that, Danny warned Hayden that Jesse knew where the Park's gun was, and that Jesse shouldn't be allowed to stay at Sydney's anymore. Danny claims that Hayden brushed Danny off, saying that Jesse was Hayden's child, and that Danny couldn't tell Hayden where to let Jesse play.

The next day, August 18th. Danny had to call off babysitting due to a family emergency. Without Danny, there would be no one home to supervise Jesse and Sydney. Both Hayden and Andy met, and they decided to let Jesse and Sydney stay in the Park home alone. After being left alone, Jesse and Sydney entered the Park's filing drawer and retrieved the combination to the safe. After getting the gun, they began to play with it. However, the gun discharged and shot Sydney, killing her instantly. What caused the shooting is not set in stone, as Jesse has two depositions with two alternate explanations. In one deposition, Jesse claims that Sydney tossed the gun at Jesse, the gun then accidentally discharged when Jesse caught it. The other deposition states that Jesse and Sydney played Russian Roulette together. After Sydney pulled the trigger aiming it Jesse, Jesse then did the same towards Sydney. Except when Jesse pulled the trigger, the gun fired. Jesse claims that Jesse didn't know the gun was loaded, and that Jesse didn't intend to kill Sydney.

Regardless of Jesse's explanation, after Sydney was shot, nearby neighbor Terry Chapin heard the gunshot and came to investigate. After finding Jesse standing over Sydney's dead body, Terry comforted Jesse and called 9/11. After the police arrived, they asked Jesse to write a statement. Jesse then wrote on a piece of paper "I shot Sydney Park in the head. No one told me how dangerous real guns could be. Hayden Duran told me that real guns are just like the ones in video games. Sorry." Andy and Hayden were both informed of what happened and arrived back at the Park home. When they learned about how Jesse had shot Sydney, Andy screamed at Hayden, "This is all your fault! Jesse is a murderer!" afterwhich Andy had to be forcibly restrained and carried out of the house.

After the incident, the police decided not to pursue criminal charges against Jesse Duran. However, Andy initiated a wrongful death lawsuit against Hayden on behalf of Sydney. The Plaintiff can pursue one of two potential charges in trial, either Parental Negligence or Intentional Shooting.

With a Parental Negligence charge, the Plaintiff asserts that Hayden was negligent for not properly disciplining Jesse over Jesse's fascination with guns and that Hayden should not have left Jesse alone with Sydney in the Park house. The defense can either argue against liability straight up, or raise one of several affirmative defenses, including Comparative Fault, asserting that the Park family's lackluster security for their gun was more negligent than Hayden's actions. Other affirmative defenses that can be raised include Assumption of Risk, Intervening and Superseding Causation, and Consent.

With an Intentional Shooting charge, the Plaintiff claims that Jesse purposefully shot Sydney with the revolver, making Hayden vicariously liable as Jesse's parent. The Plaintiff can present evidence of Dr. Couples diagnosis of childhood Psychopathy in Jesse along with other instances of Jesse's violent tendencies, to prove that Jesse, despite being only 11 years old, absolutely had the ability to kill Sydney intentionally. The Defense denies the claims stating that there is no way Jesse would intentionally shoot Jesse's best friend Sydney. Defense teams can also raise the affirmative defense of Intervening and Superseding Causation and Consent like in a Parental Negligence round. However they cannot raise the affirmative defenses of Comparative Fault and Assumption of Risk, pursuant to case law Riley v. Jones.

## Witnesses

### Plaintiff

* Andy Park
* Emerson Couples
* Jules Sebastian
* Campbell Solo

### Defense

* Hayden Duran
* Jesse Duran
* Logan Bashir
* Ash DeRosa

### Swing

* Dale Williams
* Shannon Ellis
* Terry Chapin
* Danny Brooks

## Other Persons of Interest

* Sydney Park
* Lee Park

## Other Case References

* A piece of case law in this case, *Estate of Hamilton v. Walton* is a direct reference to the events of Walton v. BNN.
* Jesse Duran states that two of Jesse's former babysitters were Brett Miller and Peyton Bralow. These are witnesses from Davis v. Happyland and State v. Perry respectively.
* It's stated that District Attorney Ryan Sullivan declined to press charges against Jesse for the shooting of Sydney. Ryan Sullivan is the parent of the deceased Vanessa Sullivan from State v. Dawson.
* A piece of case law in this case is *Longstreet v. Floyd*. This is a reference to two witnesses from State v. Bowman.
* The Parks' gun is an AD Baker 9mm revolver, the exact same make and model that Kerry Bell-Leon owns in State v. Hendricks.
* Another reference to this case in State v. Hendricks occurs when Bailey Bell-Leon references the shooting of Sydney, and how Bailey knows not to touch guns after going through several gun safety presentations in school as a result of the shooting.

## Trivia

* The original 2014-15 case problem was supposed to be *Lee v. Sawyer College*, but was changed to *Park v. Duran* after AMTA received too many concerned complaints.
* This was the first general competition case released by AMTA that *wasn't* also used for NCT.
* This case has two options for which liability theory the plaintiff can pursue -- Negligent Parental Supervision, or Intentional Shooting. The Plaintiff team decides which charge will be pursued during the round at Captain's Meeting. In a Parental Negligence Round, Couples cannot be called as a witness, and in an Intentional Shooting Round, Solo cannot be called as a witness.
* This case has three different depositions for Jesse Duran to testify based on. The Defense team chooses which Deposition the trial will be based around during Captain's Meeting. Depositions 1 and 2 provide alternate explanations for the shooting, along with other changes in details throughout. Deposition 3 is simply Jesse asserting Jesse's 5th Amendment Rights, and is only used when a Defense Team chooses not to call Jesse as a witness.
* This case also features the unique aspect of witness striking. During Captain's Meeting, the Plaintiff Team has the ability to strike one of three swing witnesses from appearing at trial, meaning neither side can call them. These witnesses include Terry Chapin, Dale Williams, and Danny Brooks.