Families sue smoke shop, fraternity after crash that killed twin sisters

The families of twins killed in a wrong-way, head-on crash and the family of the driver who was in the car with them are suing a Raleigh smoke shop and a local fraternity.

Raleigh police said Griffin Alexander Curtis, 24, was going southwest on Avent Ferry Road on Jan. 9, 2022, when he crossed the center line into on-coming traffic and hit a car driven by Brennan Callen. Callen was severely injured. His passengers, Kayla and Morgan Kushner, were killed.

Curtis, 23, pleaded guilty to two counts of felony death by vehicle, three counts of felony serious injury by vehicle and driving while impaired.

Now the Kushner and Callen families want to put Smoke Rings Smoke Shop and the Sigma Pi Rho fraternity on trial. In the lawsuit filed this week in Wake County, they allege that the smoke shop should be held responsible for selling the nitrous oxide that intoxicated Curtis and the fraternity "had an established practice of allowing fraternity members ... to illegally use nitrous oxide, marijuana and other drugs and alcohol at the chapter fraternity house."

The families call the fraternity house a public nuisance and allege that national leaders should have known that members used drugs, allowed underage drinking and "repeatedly violated state and federal laws and fraternity policies."

The families also named Curtis, his parents, Clifton E. and Page G. Curtis, and his passengers John R. Faulkenberry and Harrison Hosse as defendants in the case. Also named are Ben Mull, who was the ranking officer of the Sigma Pi Rho fraternity at the time of the crash.

The suit claims that Curtis' parents and fraternity brothers "knew that he was an illegal drug user" and that Faulkenberry and Hosse had used fake IDs to purchase and consume alcohol.

The families are asking for a jury trial and compensatory damages from each of the defendants and for punitive damages from Curtis, Faulkenberry and Hosse and from the owner of Smoke Rings Smoke Shop.