Woman sues after being burned by flaming rum drink

<p>An Indiana woman who was burned after being doused with a flaming rum drink has filed suit against five men who were at the restaurant table where the beverage was ignited.</p><p>Aimee Zoeller, 24, said in the lawsuit that while attending a convention in Atlanta on Aug. 15, 2003, she went to the Atkins Park Restaurant, where one of the men tossed the flaming rum over his shoulder.</p><p>Zoeller fell to the floor as flames spread to her back, hip and hair, and suffered second- and third-degree burns, according to her lawyer, Lloyd Bell.</p><p>Bell, who is asking for $1.5 million to settle the suit out of court, said no one at the table will admit tossing the drink.</p><p>"Somebody knows who did this," Bell said. "It is clear their strategy is for everybody to stand united and keep their code of silence."</p><p>The suit said none of the men tried to help Zoeller. Her friends took her to the hospital.</p><p>The men were identified in the lawsuit as Michael Hanelin, John C. Lantz, David Zanaty, Thomas H. Crowe and Theodore Trapp.</p><p>Hanelin's attorney, Thomas Brennan, said that as soon as his client realized Zoeller was injured, he tried to help her. One of Trapp's lawyers, Hall McKinley, said a woman who witnessed the incident said his client did not look like the man who threw the drink.</p><p>Attorneys for the other defendants declined to comment.</p><p>Atkins Park has filed papers asking to be left out of the lawsuit. The restaurant said the waitress who served the shots of 151-proof rum did not light the drinks. That would violate restaurant policy, the restaurant said.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x286639c)</p>