Jan. 1: Rum, whiskey, vodka, beer, more

Amanda Jax's fateful night of drinking with friends to celebrate her 21st birthday started with a beer or two at an apartment, then more beer at a Mankato bar, then a whiskey shot, a shot of rum and a cherry schnapps drink, according to a report from the Blue Earth County attorney's office. Even after Jax started passing out, someone bought her a "stoplight" made with vodka.

When the young woman from Mayer, Minn., lay down on a bar stool next to a bartender, he and another person carried her out to a car, and Jax's friends declined an offer of more help. By the next morning, Jax was dead and tests later showed her blood-alcohol level was 0.46 percent.

Friends later told authorities that Jax had gotten drunk "over a hundred times" in the past year and that they had seen her drink more at other times. "We're used to her being like this," one of the friends said.

The county attorney's office declined to file criminal charges in the case, but the summary of facts released recently gives a glimpse into the partying that night and why, perhaps, her friends didn't see her death coming on Oct. 30.

One friend was surprised that Jax's alcohol consumption that night was enough to kill her " 'cause she has drank so much more than this ... " previously.

A prenursing student at Minnesota State University, Mankato, between 2005 and the summer, Jax had been accepted into the nursing program in the spring.

Nationwide, about 1,400 students a year died after drinking, with fewer than 300 of those from alcohol poisoning or choking in their sleep, a 2002 federal study showed.

No case can be proven

Along with the summary, the county attorney's office said it is declining to charge anyone connected with Sidelines, the bar where Jax and her friends drank. Nor, the office said, will it charge her friends with any crime.

"The state cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that any particular person was [criminally] responsible" for the alcohol that was served to Jax, Blue Earth County Attorney Ross Arneson wrote. "Likewise, companions are not committing a crime for failure to take alcoholic beverages away from a friend if the friend becomes intoxicated."

Arneson said Monday that he understands that prosecuting cases such as this are rare, saying he was at a meeting recently of fellow county attorneys and that none of the dozen or so he questioned said they had pursued this type of case. He also said this was the first time in his 26 years of prosecuting that a case such as this had been referred to him for charges.

Jax's mother, Jenny Haag, said Monday that she is pursuing civil action against the bar. She referred further questions to her attorney, Alan Milavetz, who said that he believes the bar is "primarily culpable" in Jax's death and that a suit should be filed "within a couple of weeks."

Not only can he meet the lower civil standard of guilt of "more likely than not," Milavetz said, but "we can prove [the criminal standard of] beyond a reasonable doubt" that the bar is liable.

He pointed to the amount of alcohol served to Jax, the fact that the bartender bought her a drink and that Jax was passing out and showing other visible signs of drunkenness.

"Talk about a red flag," he said.

The Mankato city attorney's office said Monday it is weighing whether to sanction Sidelines' liquor license, which is granted by the City Council.

Sidelines management declined to comment Monday.

Detailed account

The county attorney's office summary includes a detailed account of the night at the bar, including the many drinks that Jax consumed leading up to her death.

According to the bartender on duty:

Jax, two women and three men entered Sidelines before 10 p.m. on Oct. 29 and sat at the bar. Jax, who companions said had a beer or two at a friend's apartment earlier, started with more beer at the bar. Someone else bought a round of whiskey for the bar, and Jax drank a shot.

Later, Jax started passing out.

One of her female friends bought her a shot of rum. The bartender bought her a drink, cherry schnapps mixed with an energy drink. One of the men in the party bought her a "stoplight" (a vodka-based drink), and she drank part of it.

Jax lay down on a stool next to the bartender, and he and another man carried her out to a car.

At that time, Jax's friends declined an offer of further help, saying that she gets drunk a lot.

At this point, the bartender determined that Jax -- who weighed 100 pounds -- had a beer or two before entering the bar, as well as four shots and two to three glasses of beer at the bar. Friends told authorities that she also drank from a Long Island Ice Tea pitcher that the group had ordered.

Friends also said it was difficult to know whether she was sober because of how much she drank in the past year.

Once at the apartment of one of her friends, Jax was still breathing as late as 1:30 a.m., soon after they had laid her down and she vomited.

911 call made the next day

About 7 a.m., a female friend of Jax's got up for school and checked on her, finding her cold and not breathing. The friend called 911.

Thinking back on Jax's pattern of heavy drinking, the female friend told authorities: "That's why we just don't understand 'cause she has drank so much more than this, and we just don't know what ... we don't know if she ate anything that day. We have no idea. ... All I know is that she came to our apartment, and she wanted to go out, so we went out."

State crime records show that Jax, while enrolled at Mankato and still too young to legally drink, was twice convicted of drunken driving: once in 2005 in Hennepin County and in 2006 in McLeod County.

In 2005, a Maverick Health university newsletter lamented "21st birthday celebrations [that] include birthday rituals that can lead to serious consequences and, in some instances, death."

The Mankato campus suffered another alcohol-related fatality about three weeks after Jax died, when 22-year-old student Rissa Amen-Reif of Eden Prairie was struck and killed by a car in Mankato. Amen-Reif had left a sorority semi-formal at a VFW post with friend and fellow student Corinne Overstake, 21, of Loretto, Minn., when they apparently got lost far from their destination.

Amen-Reif apparently fell in the street and was being helped up by Overstake when they were struck on Nov. 18 at 12:47 a.m.

Police say alcohol played a role in the accident, but they have yet to release specifics. The 17-year-old Mankato boy at the wheel of the car that hit the two did not appear to have been drinking, authorities have said.

To the east in Winona, 20-year-old Jenna Foellmi, of Brownsville, Minn., died on Dec. 14 after steadily drinking for more than 12 hours with friends in what police called "a classic case of binge drinking." The Winona State University sophomore was a 2006 honors graduate of Caledonia High School in far southeastern Minnesota. She belonged to the high school's chapter of Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD).

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482