Ecstasy Death Leads to Lawsuit

S E W I C K L E Y, Pa., April 12 -- Like many parents of teenagers, Don French was reluctant to let his only daughter go to a daylong concert with her friends. But when he finally gave in and let 16-year-old Brandy go, he never imagined how much he would regret the decision.

"She begged me forever," remembers French, who had been raising Brandy alone since her mother's death two years ago. He finally gave in when Brandy said she'd be with two of her older friends, 17-year old Michelle Maranuk and 18-year-old Paula Wilson, whom French knew and considered responsible.

He never considered that his daughter — an honor-roll student whom he describes as "a really good kid" — would try Ecstasy for the first time at the May 2001 concert..

After taking the drug, Brandy started getting "really sick," according to her friends. She became progressively ill as hours passed, but her friends did not seek medical help until she lost consciousness. By then it was too late. Brandy died later that night.

Now her father is taking the unusual step of suing her friends for wrongful death, vowing to make an example of what he says was their fatally bad judgment and failure to get his daughter medical attention in time to save her life.

"My daughter's life was just a phone call away," says French.

The First and Last Time

The night before the concert, Maranuk suggested the girls score some Ecstasy, a popular hallucinogenic that Brandy and Wilson had never tried.

Using Maranuk's contact, they got three pills for $20 each. Maranuk hid them in her bra as they walked past security into the concert. Once inside, they waited for Brandy to call her father, letting him know she was OK.

"As long as she was there, I thought she was fine," says French. "She was with her friends, she made it there, she was fine."

He never suspected his daughter was about to begin her first Ecstasy experience.

Maranuk told her two friends to only take half a pill, saving the other half for later. "They were dancing around," she says, "happy, exuberant. They wanted to take their other half."