The latest round of legal action against the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) reached a significant point today, with the plaintiff in the Portland, Ore., case being awarded an additional $18.5 million in punitive damages.

This ruling comes as part of the second round of this case. BSA was ordered to make the payment to plaintiff Kerry Lewis, who claims to have been abused at the hands of former Scout Master Timur Dykes. Lewis' attorneys had requested a judgment of at least $25 million in punitive damages, pointing out that the jury already had agreed that the Scouts' behavior was reckless and negligent.

The central argument of the case hinged on the secret records BSA leadership kept on unsuitable volunteers and leaders. In particular, there was a large section of the files dealing with people admitted or suspected to be sexual offenders. Ostensibly, the list was used to exclude offenders from having contact with the scouts, but the plaintiff's lawyers successfully argued that the secrecy around the files allowed offenders repeated contact as they moved from place to place, and led to such tragic stories as Lewis' tale. Rather than a benevolent organization quietly keeping children safe, the BSA came across as more of a secret society protecting its reputation.

Just more than a week ago, a jury ruled that BSA was negligent in permitting Dykes to continue associating with the organization despite having evidence he was a sex offender. The judgment included the BSA itself, the Cascade Pacific Council and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Both the Council and the Church are significantly involved in scouting activities.

This case is the first in which the so-called “perversion files” have been required as evidence in a trial. Six other cases also are pending against BSA. If private mediation fails, they too might go to court and there's nothing to suggest they couldn't also receive compelling punitive judgments.

Related Pages:  Las Vegas Sexual Abuse Lawyers

The parents of Daniel Kelley, a special education teacher from Annandale, N.Y., have filed suit against the owner and the allegedly impaired driver of the car that struck him three months ago.

Kelley, then 23, suffered severe injuries including chest and head trauma when Gypsy Porfirio of Brooklyn drove a car into him. The injuries killed Kelley five days later. Kelley and his girlfriend, Gina Siclari of Eltingville, were running along Hylan Boulevard around 4:45 pm when the car struck them. The area in question does not have many streetlights, and there are no sidewalks. Ms. Siclari was hospitalized with leg and ankle injuries.

Porfirio claims she blacked out due to a series of prescribed medications she took throughout the day. In particular, she said that she had taken four pills less than an hour before the accident. The police allegedly found narcotic painkillers and a prescription antidepressant in Porfirio's possession.

Kelley's parents, Daniel J. Kelley and Debra Ferrer, are seeking as-yet-unspecified monetary damages. The suit has named Ms. Porfirio as well as Helmut Gurdemir, who is said to own the car involved.

The Kelley's case is not the only one Ms. Porfirio will have to deal with in the next few weeks. She also has been charged with a number of felony counts of second-degree assault and vehicular assault, as well as misdemeanors stemming from driving while intoxicated and driving under the influence and impairment of drugs. Interestingly, the highest count against her is third-degree criminal possession of the narcotics.

Attorneys for Ms. Porfirio and the Kelleys both declined comment on the case, although Porfirio's counsel did say that the freelance model is deeply sorry for what happened. It is interesting to note that there are no manslaughter charges on the table, despite the fact that Daniel Kelley did, in fact, die as a result of his injuries.

No date has been set for hearings as of the time of writing.

Related Pages:  Las Vegas Impaired Driving Lawyer

A federal agency recently made a critical decision to revise rules regarding the design of pool and hot tub drain systems, prompting a furious response from parents of children killed by drain incidents.

Between 1999 and 2008, there were 83 reported incidents in which pool drains trapped someone beneath the water. 69 of these cases resulted in serious injury, and in 11 cases the victims drowned. Pool drains can generate hundreds of pounds of force, leading to situations where even four adult men were unable to pull a child free of a pool drain before she perished.

In 2007, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) established guidelines for safety compliance in pool drainage systems. The rules detailed requirements for backup systems and rounded, non-suction-producing covers. The goal was to reduce reliance on a single point of safety, and provide more assurance that such incidents would not happen again. For example, a rounded drain cover is less likely to create suction, since less of the cover is in contact with the skin or the clothing than would be true of a flat cover.

However, the CPSC recently held hearings on a new series of single-part systems boasting rounded designs that claim to be safe enough without the mandatory backups. The commission heard the case and agreed with the matter, ruling that pools could be compliant with “unblockable” requirements without the backups, a decision that has astounded the parents of children killed in these cases.

The parents of Zachary Cohn point to their son’s case. In this instance, the drain cover had come off entirely, so a “safe design” did not matter, though a backup system might have protected Zachary from what happened.

Even the CPSC chairman dissented with the commission’s decision, citing a refusal to gamble that every single-part drain cover would be inspected and reinstalled properly following maintenance, when a backup system could be installed for extra security.

The parties involved have not ruled out lawsuits to counter the decision, but no such plans have been formally announced, either.

In Decatur, Ill., a man was arrested on multiple charges after leading police on a high-speed chase with his 9-year-old son in the car.

The Decatur police received a report on Wednesday evening that the man was a suspect in a domestic battery incident. Shortly afterwards, they noticed the 33-year-old driving past and pulled him over for questioning. The suspect came to a complete stop, but as police approached the vehicle he took off rapidly.

The chase lasted approximately five minutes. The driver went well above 70 miles per hour in a 30 miles per hour zone as he attempted to evade the police. The driving portion of this incident ended as he pulled into a driveway in the 1000 block of West Cerro Gordo Street, but the chase itself didn’t stop there. Incredibly, the driver left the car and his son in an attempt to outrun police on foot.

One officer was injured in the chase, hurting his knee when he fell during the pursuit, but the suspect was apprehended a few moments later around the 1000 block of West Green Street.

The boy thankfully was not injured in the incident, and safely was returned to his family.

The suspect is being held in the Macon County Jail on a $40,000 bond. The charges against him are numerous, including endangering the life and health of a child, domestic battery, aggravated fleeing from police, resisting/obstructing police in a way that caused injury to an officer and driving on a revoked license.

Most of these offenses are considered class A misdemeanors in Illinois. This means they can result in imprisonment for up to one year each if applied consecutively, and each carries a fine of up to $2,500 dollars. However, driving on a revoked license can be upgraded to a felony offense in aggravated circumstances, and the endangerment of a child is automatically a felony with a term of 10 or more years in prison.

In most places, drunk driving no longer is treated as casually as it once was — and rightfully so. In the thirty years since Mothers Against Drunk Driving began its campaign to take impaired drivers off the roads, attitudes about drunk driving have undergone a tremendous transformation. Designated drivers and people requesting the car keys of friends who have been drinking, once unheard of, now are commonplace.

In the Maryland legislature, however, there is a battle brewing over what is viewed by some as the coddling of drunk drivers. Maryland’s General Assembly has before it legislation that would require the installation of an ignition interlock in the cars of convicted drunk drivers. The device would require that the driver blow into it to determine his/her blood alcohol level. If that level is too high, the car won’t start.

These devices have proven very effective in reducing the number of alcohol-related accidents and deaths on the roads. But there are those in Maryland’s legislature that are trying to weaken and undermine the bill, possibly as a result of pressure from the alcohol lobby in the state. We will have to wait and see what emerges to judge how far attitudes in Maryland have evolved.

However, in the “unbelievable coincidence” category, a retired Montgomery, Maryland county judge was hit by a drunk driver whose sentence for drunk driving he had suspended in a previous case!

In 1998, Rene E. Fernandez was in court in Maryland facing drunk driving charges in two separate cases — and in front of two separate judges — within three months. He pleaded guilty to both charges.  In the first case, he was sentenced to probation before judgment, which is not treated as a conviction.

In the second case, this time in front of Judge Edwin Collier, Fernandez was convicted with a sentence of 60 days in jail, but Collier suspended his sentence.  Even though it was Fernandez’s second drunk driving incident in only three months, he received no jail time.

Eleven years later, in Gaithersburg, Maryland, Fernandez drove his Chevy Tahoe into the lane of a Honda Accord and struck it head-on. In the Honda were Judge Collier, now 86 and retired, and his wife, Ellen, 82. Ellen suffered multiple serious breaks and fractures and now must use a walker, and the former judge also suffered a broken leg and fractured ribs, and now must use a cane.

After that crash, Fernandez was tested and found to have more than twice the legal limit of alcohol in his system.

Not that anyone deserves to be hit by a drunk driver, but do they believe in karma in Maryland?

Related Pages:  Las Vegas DUI Victim Lawyer

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) organization was handed a stinging judgment in a lawsuit pertaining to their handling of a child molestation case.

On April 14, a court in Portland, Ore., found several organizations negligent in allowing a sex offender to serve with the organization in close contact with children. The suit focused on former leader Timur Dykes, who confessed in 1980 to molesting at least one 12 year old boy while serving as a leader. Despite this, Dykes was permitted to continue volunteering, moving among several locations.

The judgment came following a court-ordered release of the BSA’s records on scout leaders and volunteers who were guilty of various offenses, with the majority consisting of sexual misconduct. Dykes’ case was included in these long-secret “perversion files.”

The jurors in the case awarded a $1.4 million judgment to the plaintiffs, holding a total of three organizations negligently responsible for the incident. The Boy Scouts of America was held to be 60 percent negligent in the case. The Cascade Pacific Council was deemed 15 percent negligent; the Council oversees all scouting activities in the Oregon region. Finally, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) was found to be 25 percent negligent in the matter. The LDS church is a major contributor to and organizer of scouting events, providing the lion’s share of the organization’s funding.

In addition to the core judgment, the jurors also found substantial merit for punitive damages. These will be decided in an additional phase of the trial.

Other lawsuits continue to follow the organization now that the files have been released. Parallels have been drawn between the BSA’s situation and the newest slate of lawsuits surrounding the Catholic Church and its treatment of sexual offenders in the priesthood. This not-insubstantial judgment may end up setting the tone for future prosecutions.

Related pages:  Las Vegas Sexual Abuse Lawyers

Escherichia coli, or E. coli, is a dangerous bacteria to be exposed to, even for healthy adults. Very young children have virtually no defense against an E. coli infection, and can more readily succumb to its effects, which include abdominal pain and cramping, diarrhea — even kidney failure and death. This, unfortunately, was the case in Washington State where one young child passed away and three others were sickened by an E. coli infection at their daycare.

The infection lead to the temporary closing of the home-based daycare as of April 2nd, pending an investigation. The source of the infection is currently unknown. None of the food, water or facilities at the daycare has been identified as the source, and officials stress that while E. coli infection can take up to 10 days to manifest in visible symptoms, it is contagious much earlier.

While one child did succumb to the illness, the other three children who were sickened have been released from hospital care. Most people exposed to E. coli do recover within approximately a week. Still, at least seven of the 22 children regularly attending the daycare tested positive for E. coli infection, as did several of the staff. While the risk of further deaths is extremely low, there is some concern that the still-contagious patients might infect others. Following so close on the events of H1N1, officials are rightly cautious about ensuring the daycare does not restore its normal operating procedures too soon.

The daycare was not immediately closed when the infection was discovered. The first signs were noticed on March 19th, but the closure order came April 2nd. There was a fear that closing the daycare would send the kids elsewhere, and expose others to the illness prematurely. The facility is not to reopen until at least two consecutive tests of all 22 children and all daycare staff show no trace of the bacteria.

Related Pages:  Las Vegas Child Daycare Lawyers

Attorneys have filed a lawsuit on behalf of a man who lost his leg when a motorist struck him after driving onto the sidewalk at 90 mph. The lawsuit alleges that Shepherd's Beach Resort in Clearwater, Florida, served Joshua West an "inordinate" amount of alcohol before escorting him to his car and letting him leave the premises. A short time later, West’s car mounted the sidewalk and struck Andrew Hall. The impact shattered Hall's pelvis and severed his left leg. West attempted to flee the scene, but was apprehended a short distance away by police. Three hours after the accident, his blood alcohol content tested at .188, more than twice the “presumed impaired” limit in Florida.

While the lawsuit does name West as a defendant, it also claims that the bar bears a substantial responsibility and liability in the case. Hall's attorneys claim that the bar staff should have been aware of how much West had to drink and that they had evidence that he was “habitually addicted” to alcohol. The suit claims that Shepherd’s employees ordered West to leave because he was heavily intoxicated and that additionally there had been a prior incident that further illustrated the danger West’s drinking posed. The fact that he had such a high BAC a full three hours after the accident is evidence of how inebriated he was.

Florida's laws in these cases are less restrictive than those in other states. In short, drinking establishments can only be held liable if they serve patrons they know are “habitually addicted to alcohol,” which the defendants claim is a difficult standard to prove. Furthermore, Florida does not mandate any sort of server training that enables waiters, waitresses or bartenders to spot an intoxicated patron or how to identify a habitual alcoholic.  Nevada's laws, however, do not provide for any liability for bars or other drinking establishments.

Andrew Hall was hospitalized for seven months following being hit by West. He currently is hoping to move from using a wheelchair to the use of a prosthetic leg. West was sentenced to eight years in prison for the hit-and-run incident.

Two police officers from Allen, Texas, are facing prosecution for the methods the married couple used to discipline their son. Melissa and Robert Darin Smith were arrested Feb. 18 after Melissa was accused of spanking her 11-year-old son so hard with a belt that the contact left visible bruises. Furthermore, there were red marks on the boy's face that investigators were not able to explain or identify. Melissa Smith is a corporal with the Allen Police Department, while her husband Robert is an investigator.

Officers investigating the case say that it seems Robert handcuffed his son after the punishment and drove him to the police station to teach him a lesson. He spoke to his son in the car before driving him back home, according to witnesses.

The two actions are being charged separately, as each involves a different offense. Melissa is being charged with injury to a child, which is a felony. Robert is only being charged with a misdemeanor, termed official oppression. Under Texas law, official oppression is when an authority figure uses their position to intimidate or coerce an individual to some end.

At issue is the definition of reasonable corporal punishment. Texas state law allows parents great leeway in disciplining their children but stipulates that the punishment must be reasonable. When investigators saw the bruises on the Smith's son, they felt justified in filing their initial charges.

The case has prompted a number of actions by the APD. The Smiths have both been placed on leave with pay while the matter is addressed. They are the subject of a criminal investigation into their actions and an independent internal review by the APD itself. Both Melissa and Robert are free on bail pending the commencement of proceedings.

Related Pages:  Las Vegas Child Injury Lawyers

A railing gave way the morning of Thursday, April 1, in Antioch, California, injuring three. Two women and a young girl were leaning against their apartment balcony railing when it came loose, sending all three falling fifteen feet to the ground below.

Andra Mellinger, a resident of the apartments, said it was “like waking to a nightmare.” Mellinger awoke when she heard the impact of the three individuals, a sound she described as similar to someone knocking on her door.

Apparently, the area the three fell into is thick with bushes over dirt, which may have cushioned their fall and prevented more serious injury, though it appeared one of the women suffered head and neck trauma and may, in fact, have lost consciousness. She was in bad enough condition that she was airlifted for medical treatment.

At first, there was no indication as to what might have caused the railing to come loose. Further investigation revealed that the apartment building in question suffers from dry rot. The rot is extensive enough that many of the residents are to be relocated until questions of building safety are sorted out. Whether the railing itself gave way because of the rot is undetermined at this point, but it is a matter that is to be investigated further.

A single-story fall can be fatal if bones are broken, especially if the trauma is focused at the head and neck. Even a broken rib can puncture a lung with bone fragments, causing life-threatening injury. The fact that all three in this incident survived borders on the incredible, particularly when one considers that the youngest is a child under 10 years old.

The three victims have not been identified, and all were taken to hospitals. No word has been released on their conditions.

Related Pages:  Las Vegas Broken Bone Lawyers