A Cape Girardeau judge denied a deposition request on Tuesday in the wrongful death hearing of Adrienne Martin, the 27-year old woman who died of a drug overdose in August Busch IV’s mansion in 2010.
Martin’s mother, Christine Trampler, requested depositions of Busch and three others. But Judge William Syler denied her request because it would further drag out the year-and-a-half old case.
The next step is a hearing in November to determine how to carve up the 1.5 million dollar settlement among Martin’s family members, who say they will use the money to benefit Martin’s young son, Blake.
Busch’s attorney Maurice Graham says his client wants to finish the case as soon as possible.
“The judge said that he wondered whether Miss Tramper’s interest was getting some money or getting information,” Graham said. “If she’s not interested in getting some money, that makes it easy because Mr. Busch would prefer that Blake receive all of the settlement proceeds.”
Martin’s ex-husband first filed the wrongful death lawsuit. A Missouri appeals court later allowed her parents to join the lawsuit.
Andrew LeRoy is the attorney for Martin’s mother. He says he does not know how much money his client will seek.
“At this point we have yet to determine the amount. We were hoping to conduct additional discovery because, frankly, we weren’t able to tell our client whether its fair and reasonable to settle and what she should ask for due to the fact we were never allowed to conduct any discovery in this case,” LeRoy said.
Martin’s father, George Eby, dismissed himself from the case after reaching a $200,00 out-of-court settlement with Busch. That money will go into a trust for Blake Martin.