Posted: July 1, 2009

A guy gets drunk on beer, climbs on a motorcycle and his female passenger dies in a crash.

His favorite tavern, Fatties on the Lake, plans a fund-raiser.

For him. For Jay F. Taylor, the guy in jail facing drunken homicide charges.

And it's featuring free beer part of the day, though the flier makes no mention of safe rides home for everyone.

Even by Wisconsin drinking standards, this is messed up. And it has enraged relatives of the victim, Crystal Daly.

"Why are they sponsoring drinking and driving?" wondered Kari Hartl of Milwaukee, Daly's cousin.

The prosecutor on the case, Kimberly Tenerelli, put it bluntly, making it clear she was speaking personally and not for her office.

"I would hope in that situation that a bar would be collecting money for the victim and the victim's family, and not the person who killed them," she said.

Maybe the bar could skip the bikini motorcycle wash, too. And the bachelor auction might come off as insensitive, considering that it was Taylor's girlfriend who was killed. Taylor couldn't go to the party even if he made bail; the court ordered him to stay away from taverns.

The crash happened May 24 on Highway 67 in southern Fond du Lac County. According to the criminal complaint, the borrowed motorcycle careened into a ditch and tossed both riders. Daly, 31, flew into a pole and died at the scene.

Taylor, 32, who also is charged with having no motorcycle license, was injured. His blood registered an alcohol level of 0.14, a little under twice the legal limit for driving. He has a 2004 OWI conviction in Milwaukee County.

Even in his condition, Taylor understood that he faced dire consequences. The complaint says he told one of the cops that he might as well "shoot him right now and get it over with."

But then there's this aggravating detail: After he was treated at the hospital, Taylor was accidentally freed rather than handed over to sheriff's deputies. When they caught up with him later, tests showed he had been drinking again, Tenerelli said.

Taylor had a Campbellsport residence, but after his arrest, he changed it to a Bay View address where his family lives. Daly was going through a divorce and had moved out of her husband's place in Cudahy and into a West Allis apartment. They had no children.

License records in Fond du Lac County show that Taylor was a bartender at Fatties on the Lake, near Campbellsport on Lake Bernice.

On the fliers it posted around that area, the bar says Taylor was in a "very bad and tragic bike accident" but doesn't mention his role in that crash or say exactly how the money will be used.

The flier says he can't work or get insurance. "We hope that you will join us for some of the fun activities that we are going to hold to help our friend down this long, hard road ahead of him," it reads.

The party is on July 11, and the bar opens bright and early at 8 a.m. The person who answered the phone at Fatties quickly told me never to call again.

I wanted to ask if she understood the twisted irony of a beer-fueled tavern blowout to break the fall of a beer-fueled driver accused of causing a woman's death.

I'm not surprised she hung up on me. It's easier than explaining why an all-day drinkfest does anything but mock the terrible thing that's happened.