FATHER THREATENS LEGAL ACTION IN DAUGHTER'S ECSTASY DEATH

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Brandy French's pals thought they were doing her a favor.
With Brandy strung out on Ecstasy, they took her to a friend's house,
telling their friend's mom that the 16-year-old drank too much booze and
just needed time to sleep it off.

But Brandy's first time using the drug would be her last.

While a man accused of selling the pill that killed Brandy faces a homicide
charge, Brandy's father has hired an attorney, who has already filed a legal
notice of his intention to sue the woman who let Brandy into her home. The
lawyer says she did too little to prevent Brandy's death - and her father is
considering suing his daughter's friends as well, making the same charge.

The growing popularity of Ecstasy, particularly among teen-agers and young
adults who take it during all-night dance "raves," has sparked its share of
legal and law enforcement reaction. There have been busts all over the
nation, including nearly a dozen arrests recently as part of an alleged ring
in State College.

And in a couple of civil cases - like the one Don French says he will file
and one involving a 21-year-old woman who died in Las Vegas - families want
to blame those they say stood by while their loved ones died.

"He doesn't understand how no one could do anything over several hours,"
said French's lawyer, John Gismondi. "We're talking about a 98-pound child."

Brandy French died May 19, a day after a concert at a pavilion near
Pittsburgh. She went with two friends, one of whom, Michelle Maranuk, admits
buying Ecstasy pills for each of them. Michelle, says her lawyer, Greg
Schwab, had done the drug a few times.

There was no fear about Brandy trying it, said Schwab, because Ecstasy is
considered nonlethal by many who use it. The Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration says participating medical examiners in many
major U.S. cities reported only 27 Ecstasy deaths between 1994 and 1998.

"There is a misrepresentation out there that this is a recreational thing
that can't harm you," Schwab said.

At a coroner's inquest, Brandy's friends said she started throwing up at the
concert, which her friends considered a normal reaction. By early evening,
she was sluggish and pale. She had trouble talking.

They took her to the house of a friend, Lewis Hopkins, in nearby Sewickley -
in part, said Schwab, because they didn't want her to get in trouble at
home. They told Lewis' mother, Rosalind Hopkins, Brandy drank too much.

They put her in a bedroom upstairs.

According to testimony at the inquest, it was hours before an ambulance was
called, and, during that time, Brandy had trouble breathing and once fell
out of bed. Mrs. Hopkins washed her face with a rag. Friends say Brandy may
have stopped breathing. When paramedics came, they could not find a pulse.

She died the following day. The Allegheny County coroner said the cause was
an Ecstasy overdose, which slowly shut down her nervous system, affected her
breathing and stopped her heart.

Gismondi has filed a legal notice to Mrs. Hopkins' insurance carrier that he
plans to sue her for negligence. He said Don French is also considering
cases against Brandy's friends.

Mrs. Hopkins refused to be interviewed, and so did her lawyer. At the
inquest, she said she thought she did what was right and eventually called
for the ambulance. She said she asked Brandy's friends several times if all
she had done was drink alcohol.

In the Las Vegas case, the parents of Danielle Heird are suing a casino and
the C2K nightclub where she partied before she died in July 2000, saying
operators should have done more to stop Ecstasy use at the club and that
employees should have been trained to deal with overdoses.

"She gets sick, disoriented," said her parents' attorney, Brent Bryson. "No
one from the club offers any assistance."

The family is also suing two men they say took Heird from the club to a
residence, laid her down on a bed, and went back to the club.

An attorney for Silver Hammer, the company which operates C2K, wouldn't
comment, but has said there is a tape showing Heird leaving the club under
her own power that night.

In general, the law doesn't require a person to help anyone else. But that's
not always the case.

Bryson may be able to convince a jury that a club owes customers a
reasonable amount of care, said Joseph Page, a professor at the Georgetown
University Law Center.

In the Pittsburgh case, Page said, a judge would have to determine if Mrs.
Hopkins or Brandy's friends took on a responsibility for her by trying to
help.

Mike Streib, a professor at Duquesne Law School in Pittsburgh, said even if
people aren't required to help others, the law requires a person to do all
he or she can after deciding to get involved.

"Once she (Mrs. Hopkins) brought the child into her home and assumed custody
and care of that child, she had a duty to use due care," Streib said. Even
if she thought Brandy had been drinking, she might have known it posed a
risk and could have called Brandy's father, or emergency personnel, sooner,
he said.

"My instinct (about the cases) is 'Good,'" said Sue Rusche, executive
director of National Families in Action, a drug prevention organization
based in Atlanta. "I think the parents should sue and hold them
accountable."

She said anytime you have a child with a physical condition possibly brought
on by drug or alcohol use, you should get medical attention.

Ecstasy's growing popularity makes that even more important, Rusche said,
noting research that indicates the drug may cause brain damage, even though
users believe it is safe.

"The kids who are using Ecstasy now are the first-generation guinea pigs,"
she said.