One Charge In The Deaths Of Local Teens Dropped In Case Against Store Clerk Who Sold Alcohol To The Teens Before Fatal Crash

The gas station clerk that sold alcohol to Fond du Lac County teens back in January of this year that were later involved in a single car crash in a rural part of the county, killing
two of them was in Fond du Lac County Circuit Court yesterday.

In the proceedings, the judge in the case dropped one count of providing alcohol to a minor resulting in death against Sanju Paudel as the wording in the statute didn’t directly relate to one of the deaths.

The charge for the death of Thomas Koenigs, who was the driver in the crash, will remain but the charge for the death of front seat passenger Nevins Zoch was dropped.
Judge Tricia Walker explained that Zoch died as a result of a traumatic head injury as a result of the crash, so the relation to the consumption of alcohol wasn’t there.

Judge Walker compared it to a situation saying if a minor was sold alcohol and then struck and killed a pedestrian, the person who sold the alcohol wouldn’t be charged
in the death of that person. However the cause of death to Koenigs was related to driving under the influence of alcohol so that charge will remain.

The charge stems from allegations of that Paudel sold one of the teens two 30-packs of Busch Light and a bottle of Captain Morgan on January 20. This led to a single vehicle
crash later that night resulting in the death of two of the three kids in the vehicle.

A date has yet to be set for the trial in this case.