Blair Blames Restaurant For 'Career-Ending Injury'

Blair Blames Restaurant For 'Career-Ending Injury'

Published: Mar 9, 2006

But he says the blow that hastened the end of his 20-year ring career came from a tray of dirty dishes at a Carrabba's Italian Grill restaurant.

He says he tripped on the tray, injuring his head, shoulder and knee.

"It knocked the dog doo-doo out of me," Blair said in a deposition taken as part of a lawsuit he filed against the Tampa-based restaurant chain.

A civil trial, scheduled for Monday, was postponed indefinitely when Blair's attorneys withdrew from the case.

A Carrabba's attorney said Wednesday that the restaurant was not responsible for Blair's injuries. Court papers the attorney filed indicate Blair was drinking the night of June 2, 2001, when he visited one of the chain's North Dale Mabry Highway restaurants.

In addition, the attorney has questioned Blair about whether he was taking over-the-counter or prescription medications the night he fell. A list of evidence gathered by the attorney includes a DVD that shows Blair wrestling in Japan four months after the fall.

Blair wouldn't say much Wednesday about the lawsuit.

"I'd rather not comment on the issue because it has nothing to do with government," he said. "The only thing I can tell you is it was a career-ending injury."

As for the wrestling match in Japan four months after the accident, Blair said "that was a tag match, rather than a singles match."

The lawsuit was filed in November 2002, three days after Blair lost his first bid for a county commission seat.

According to the lawsuit, Blair was at the restaurant with his two sons when he got up to use the restroom. Blair, "not expecting to find a tray of dirty dishes sticking out from under the bar, fell striking his chin on the counter top and continued to fall, striking his right knee, right shoulder and his head on the ground," the lawsuit says.

Blair "suffered physical handicap and his working ability in the future may be impaired," the lawsuit says. It alleges the restaurant was negligent in its upkeep. Blair is seeking more than $15,000 in damages.

Attorney Don G. Greiwe, who represents Carrabba's, declined to comment.

Greiwe filed medical records with the court two weeks ago showing Blair's blood alcohol level was 0.089 percent when he arrived at St. Joseph's Baptist Hospital about 90 minutes after the fall. Florida presumes a person is intoxicated when his or her blood alcohol level is 0.08 percent or higher.

In the deposition, Blair says he doesn't remember taking more than "a swallow" from a glass of red wine before the fall.

Only a portion of the deposition was available in the court file Wednesday, but the papers show Blair has a history of taking medications, including Vioxx, Xanax and Vicodin.

Blair says in the deposition that he didn't recall taking medication the day of the fall.

"The day I went to Carrabba's I was in the best mood of my life," Blair says. "I was just a happy camper."

Blair, 49, was part of the duo known as the Killer Bees, dressing in black and yellow striped pants and wrestling around the world. Locally, he managed four gyms in the late 1990s and has been active in public affairs.

Since being elected in 2004, he has developed a reputation as a hard-charging conservative commissioner, a job that pays $88,919 a year.

Carrabba's is owned by Tampa-based Outback Steakhouse Inc., which owns and operates Outback Steakhouse restaurants, Lee Roy Selmon's, Cheeseburger in Paradise, Bonefish Grill and Paul Lee's Chinese Kitchen.

Blair's former attorneys, Ron Darrigo and Nadine S. Diaz, withdrew from the case in late January, citing "irreconcilable differences" with their client. Darrigo would not comment Wednesday.

In declining to talk in detail about the case Wednesday, Blair cautioned, "There's two sides to this story."