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# Saga continues for director who crashed into Q’s
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/saga-continues-for-director-who-crashed-into-qs/
- Published: 2003-11-24T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T03:15:56.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Crime, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Director won’t testify in wrongful death suits*

*By DAVE DANFORTH Daily Press Staff Writer*

WEST LOS ANGELES — A movie director who tried to escape liability for killing two people in a May 2000 incident in which he crashed his car into a local sports bar won’t testify while a Santa Monica jury decides how much to assess him.

Eric Red, 42, did not face criminal charges after his Jeep Cherokee plowed into Q’s Billiard Club and Restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard, killing two patrons. Red claimed he suffered from bouts of Syncope, a fainting syndrome, and that he had blacked out just before his car rammed into the establishment, stopping only at the bar itself.

But after a Texas judge harshly rebuffed his bid to use a bankruptcy filing to shield himself, Red is now facing the families of the two men who died in the mishap. Red, who claims director credits for such films as 1991’s “Body Parts,” is the defendant in wrongful death suits by the families of Noah Baum, 34, and David Roos, 26.

The jury in the case was limited to the job of deciding how to compensate the families after Judge Lorna Parnell last week decided to accept the decision of an Austin U.S. Bankruptcy judge that established Red was liable for the mishap.

The lack of criminal charges in the case has drawn attention.

Prosecutors and West L.A. police “handled him like they had a celebrity in the car,” charged Eric Baum, whose brother Noah, an attorney from Berkeley, was killed in the crash.

The precise cause of the bizarre mishap remains unknown. Red claimed that on the afternoon of May 31 he hadn’t eaten after working at his apartment, writing. He argued in the Texas case that, after looking for a parking space at a nearby McDonald’s restaurant, he was stopped, eastbound on Wilshire at Westgate behind a white Honda. Red said he began seeing yellow spots and next remembers waking up inside the bar.

> “outright lie.” — Judge Monroe called a statement by Red’s doctor that he’d been under continuous care after fainting in 1990 and 1994 an

But Judge Frank R. Monroe ruled in Austin on February 4 of this year that Red’s story was fabricated. Noting that if Red had fainted, his foot would have slipped off the brake and his car would have lightly tapped the car in front of him. Monroe ruled that Red, instead, deliberately plowed into the bar after ramming the Honda in what one witness termed a fit of road rage. The witness noted Red’s engine had revved after hitting the Honda, and estimated his speed upon entering the sports bar at 35 miles per hour.

The judge’s ruling noted that Red had attempted suicide after emerging from his car by cutting his neck with a piece of glass. He also held that Red exhibited no remorse, appearing “defensive, somewhat combative and reticent” under cross examination in the Texas case.

Judge Monroe called a statement by Red’s doctor that he’d been under continuous care after fainting in 1990 and 1994 an “outright lie.” Monroe noted that Red’s former wife said the director was subject to depression, but had never heard about his fainting episodes.

The bankruptcy filing, which Monroe said was likely a charade to escape the California case, could have discharged Red’s debts, including a judgment in the Q’s Billiards case. But the law holds a bankrupt individual liable for debts resulting from “willful and malicious injury.” Monroe ruled that Red acted with “objective substantial certainty” that harm would occur in the crash. He also found “doubtful” Red’s insistence that the bankruptcy filing, in October 2001 after a short move to Texas, had nothing to do with the crash.

When Parnell, the Superior Court judge hearing the case in Santa Monica, decided that Red was liable for the deaths, she substantially streamlined the case, but appeared to confuse one of the plaintiff’s lawyers, who was preparing to attack Red’s character in a bid for damages.

Parnell on Friday repeatedly admonished Carlos Lloreda, the lawyer for David Roos, whose Chilean-born mother Nilda has sued Red for the loss of her son. In one exchange, Lloreda harshly objected after Red’s lawyer, John Doherty, told jurors that Red was remorseful. Judge Parnell upheld the objection, which was based on the Texas judge’s findings, but reminded Lloreda liability wasn’t at issue in the case.

“I have 12 people thinking he was remorseful,” Lloreda complained.

The attorney for Willa Baum, Noah’s mother, is Noah’s brother Brandon. He questioned his mother and sister by refer-ring to himself in the third person, avoiding the use of “I” and “me.”

Doherty wouldn’t comment after noting that Red wouldn’t testify. Red’s motives and explanation are no longer at issue in the unusual case, in which a Texas judge did most of what would otherwise be decided in a Santa Monica courtroom.

Closing arguments are expected today before the case is sent to the jury.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 24, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/112403.pdf?ref=smdp.com)