Ind. State Fair stage collapse settlement reached

A settlement was reached in the deadly stage collapse just before a concert at the Indiana State Fair back in 2011. Seven people were killed and dozens were injured in the accident that was captured on video.

Alisha Brennan was one of the injured survivors and her partner was killed in the collapse. Friday's settlement comes just before trial and for Brennan it is an attempt to step into a new future.

Brennon wept as her lawyer outlines the details of a $50 million settlement for the seven dead and 57 injured from the 2011 Indiana state fair stage collapse

"I played professional football for the Chicago Force and I can't ever play again," she said.

Brennan has trouble concentrating and cannot hold down a job after suffering a traumatic brain injury when wild winds tore down the stage at a Sugarland concert in August three years ago.

Brennan's civil union partner, Christine Santiago of Chicago, died in the accident. Santiago was a well-known leader and activist in the LGBT community.

"A lesbian widow will recover for the wrongful death of her wife," said attorney Kenneth J. Allen. "That is historic and we believe something that Christina Santiago, if she were here today, would be proud of."

The settlement apparently marks the first time a same-sex beneficiary will receive the proceeds from a successful wrongful death lawsuit in the United States.

Of the $50 million, $11 million has already been paid out by the State of Indiana. The settlement reached Friday morning comes in lieu of going forward with a federal class action lawsuit.

Allen says between 66 to 80 percent of the proceeds will flow into victims hands, but nothing can compensate them, he says, for enduring the "ocean of sadness" that drowned Alicia and so many others due to negligence on that fateful day.

"The accident has definitely put a damper on being able to get a job because of the time off I had from recovering. No one likes to see that," Brennon said.

One of the reasons the case took so long to resolve is that there were so many defendants, including the band, the Indiana State Fair, the staging company and the people who made the trusses for the staging company.

The lawyers said that those organizations used every corporate and legal maneuver in the books to change their identities and blame each other for the disaster. All the maneuverings are done, the settlement is complete, and a lot of people can at least try to have a new future.