The family of Tanya Hendry, a 34-year-old California woman, has reached a confidential settlement in a lawsuit against a party host accused of negligence in her 2020 death. Hendry drowned after plummeting off a San Luis Obispo County cliff in an ATV driven by an impaired guest during a nighttime event. The suit claimed the host provided drugs and alcohol and failed to warn about the hazard.
In December 2020, Tanya Hendry died after an all-terrain vehicle drove off a beachside cliff during a party hosted by Jonathan Spano in San Luis Obispo County, California. The event, described in the lawsuit as a "Burning Man"-style gathering amid the COVID-19 pandemic, involved the use of a high-performance Can-Am vehicle at night near a sheer drop.
The driver, Maria Arayza-Alvarez, who had no prior experience with such vehicles, was under the influence of drugs and alcohol allegedly supplied by Spano and the property owner, Harmony Bluffs LLC. The family's 2022 civil complaint accused the defendants of permitting the impaired operation of the ATV without warnings or guards against the known cliff danger. It stated: "Each defendant furnished a component of this activity, thereby acting in furtherance of it: the premises, the vehicle, and permission for the use of each by an individual under the influence."
Arayza-Alvarez faced criminal charges of driving under the influence causing injury or death and gross vehicular manslaughter. She was convicted and served four months in jail, according to reports from the San Luis Obispo Tribune. She had previously settled with Hendry's family.
Spano, a helicopter and jet film stunt pilot who contributed to the 2022 movie "Top Gun: Maverick," and Harmony Bluffs also settled the suit on confidential terms. Hendry's attorney, Nicholas Rowley, commented to the Tribune: "In life, we all make mistakes. What defines us is what we do with our mistakes and whether or not we accept responsibility and how and when we accept responsibility. I see this as the defense accepting responsibility, and that's all the family wanted."
The complaint detailed that Hendry "died a horrific and excruciating death by drowning in the ensuing minutes" after the fall.
