August Busch offers settlement to the son of his deceased girlfriend
Just as well the former A-B CEO August Busch IV did not seek re-election as Director of AB-InBev. His legal woes, which have dogged him for the past six months following the death of his girl-friend at his home on 19 December 2010, aren’t going to be over any time soon. On 7 June 2011 St. Louis media reported that a judge had postponed indefinitely a USD 1.5 million wrongful-death lawsuit settlement offered by Mr Busch to the young son of his deceased girlfriend.
The proposed settlement was to benefit Blake Martin, 8, the son of Adrienne Martin, who was found dead of a drug overdose at Mr Busch’s mansion.
The suit had been filed on the boy’s behalf by his father, Adrienne Martin’s ex-husband, Dr Kevin Martin.
The judge was set to consider the settlement later this month, but that was cancelled early in June to give a higher court time to review. No future settlement hearing is scheduled. A routine status conference is scheduled for 8 August 2011, it was reported.
Authorities had ruled that Ms Martin’s death was accidental and that she showed physical signs of "several months to a year of cocaine use."
An autopsy put her cause of death as an overdose of the painkiller oxycodone; it also detected a lethal level of cocaine in her blood.
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert P. McCulloch has said the death was clearly accidental and there was no information on which to base any prosecution.
