Myrtle Beach hotel at center of Brittanee Drexel lawsuit responds to claims
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WMBF) - A Myrtle Beach hotel at the center of a civil lawsuit in the Brittanee Drexel case has responded to claims made against them.
Public records show Bar Harbor Resort and Smith Family Partners, LLC filed a response in the lawsuit against them on Dec. 21. It comes nearly two months after legal action was filed against the two parties and Drexel’s convicted killer by her mother, Dawn Pleckan.
FULL COVERAGE | The Brittanee Drexel Case
In the new response, Bar Harbor Resort and Smith Family Partners, LLC claimed that Drexel was not a registered guest when she disappeared, but may have been a friend of another guest at the hotel. Surveillance video captured Drexel leaving the Bar Harbor Resort on April 25, 2009, to visit a friend who was staying at the Blue Water Resort.
It wasn’t until 13 years later that Raymond Moody would confess to approaching Drexel in his Ford Explorer and kidnapping her. Moody told law enforcement he took her to a remote campsite in Georgetown, where he raped and killed her. Drexel’s remains were found in May 2022, and Moody was sentenced to life in prison for her death later that year.
Bar Harbor Hotel and Smith Family Partners, LLC, however, denied allegations that they had no policies in place to alert law enforcement about unaccompanied minors who were without their parents or guardians. The businesses also denied claims in the lawsuit that they created an environment where minors could stay without their parents or guardians as well as any wrongful conduct or proximate cause.
The two parties also said in their response that any punitive damages awarded would be unconstitutional, citing the 5th and 14th Amendments of the Constitution as well as the South Carolina Constitution and other similar court cases.
You can read both the response and the original summons in their entirety below.
Stay with WMBF News for updates.
RESPONSE
Drexel Lawsuit Response 12-21 by Michael Owens on Scribd
ORIGINAL SUMMONS
Copyright 2023 WMBF. All rights reserved.
