Kentucky Injury Lawyer Blog

A tenth plaintiff has joined a lawsuit against former Louisville Metro Police Detective Crystal Marlowe and former Chief Robert White, claiming he was wrongfully charged with a crime he could not have committed.

Dale Todd, represented by Bahe Cook Cantley & Nefzger PLC joined a lawsuit Monday with nine other people who allege Marlowe lied in court or coerced false identifications from witnesses, leading to their wrongful arrests.

In January 2011, White fired Marlowe after concluding her "blatant disregard" for rules had discredited the department and led police to charge the wrong people. She has filed an appeal with the Police Merit Board. According to an internal investigation of Marlowe, she influenced a witness into picking Todd out of a photo lineup as the man who assaulted him in October 2009 because she believed he was responsible for the crime.

After the victim said he was over 50 percent sure Todd was one of the attackers, Marlowe asked him how much more certain he was, according to an audio of the interview police reviewed. The victim, according to police, said maybe he was 70 percent sure and Marlowe then said he was 75 percent positive and had him sign a form indicating he had identified Todd.

However, Todd, a juvenile at the time, could not have committed the assault because he was in the Louisville Metro Youth Center on another charge when the attack occurred. Police found Marlowe had violated eight counts of standard operating procedure . The charges against Todd were dismissed once it became apparent he had an alibi.

A federal lawsuit filed for eight inmates at North Carolina's Central Prison accuses correctional officers used "blind spots" out of view of security cameras to beat and stomp restrained inmates.

A complaint filed in U.S. District Court says the beatings all occurred in "The Hole," a special unit for inmates kept in solitary confinement for disciplinary infractions. The lawsuit alleges inmates handcuffed and shackled were beaten so badly that one lost sight in an eye and another cannot walk.

The lawsuit names as defendants 21 correctional officers accused of participating in the abuse, and the current and former wardens at the maximum security prison in Raleigh.
Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Pam Walker said the agency would not comment on pending litigation.

Another recall of a compounding pharmacy was announced by the FDA on Monday after they performed an inspection at the facility. This comes in the wake of a deadly meningitis outbreak at a compounding pharmacy that killed 50 and injured more than 700 people.

Pallimed Solutions Pharmacy issued a recall of 16 sterile compound products, including injectable testosterone. Pallime, in Massachusetts, also agreed to stop all sterile compounding activities.

The recall was announced after an inspection by the FDA and the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Pharmacy. The recall is limited to sterile compounded products dispensed on or after January 1.

FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said in an official post that serious problems continue with compounding pharmacies. There have been many calls for tougher laws and regulations to deal with compounding pharmacies.

A sign at the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport announcing arrival and departure times fell yesterday, killing 10 year-old Luke Bresette of Overland Park, Kansas. Luke's mother was severely injured when he sign fell, and two of his siblings were also hospitalized.

The children were treated at Children's Hospital of Alabama. Their mother, Heather Bresette, was taken to University Hospital, where spokeswoman Nicole Wyatt said she is in critical condition.

The panel that fell weighed 300 to 400 pounds according to firefighters who responded to the scene. It was located in a recently renovated terminal that includes two concourses. The terminal opened about a week ago. Today, airport officials took down a similar sign pending the outcome of an investigation.

In this case, it will be important to conduct a full, independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding this tragedy to determine who may be responsible. If the terminal was recently renovated as reported, the airport likely hired contractors to perform the renovation, and those contractors may have hired subcontractors to install the sign. While defective sign manufacture or design cannot be overlooked, it is much more likely that the sign was negligently installed. In this scenario, one or all of the companies may be legally liable for the negligent installation and resulting damages to this family.

We hope the Bresette family gets the answers they deserve. Our heart goes out to them.

Stephen Slevin, a prisoner who spent nearly two years in solitary confinement following a DUI arrest, has been awarded a record $15.5 million in damages for his ordeal by a New Mexico court. Attorneys for Dona Ana County appealed the initial $22 million award, however Slevin was still able to collect $15.5 million. This marks one of the largest awards in federal civil rights history.

The lawsuit alleged that after being arrested for suspicion of drunk-driving in 2005, Slevin was jailed for 22 months in solitary confinement without ever being convicted of a crime or seeing a judge. During that time, Slevin’s mental and physical health deteriorated. He was deprived of showers and as a result developed fungus on his skin. His toenails curled around his foot and he was forced to pull out his own tooth after being denied a dentist. Additionally, he developed bed sores and lost a substantial amount of weight.

In a statement issued by the Dona Ana County’s board of commissioners, they expressed regret for the trauma Slevin endured while he was incarcerated.

The estate of Anthony Ousley, U.S. military veteran, alleges that jail workers and a doctor were responsible for his death at a Richmond, Virginia jail in 2010.

The wrongful-death lawsuits allege that several of the jail's medical staff, as well as Dr. Gregory J. Pleasants -- a doctor responsible for providing medical care at the jail -- withheld appropriate treatment and failed to intervene when Anthony Ousley refused to eat in his cell, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Thursday. He was arrested on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and obstruction of justice charges.

Ouseley had been at the jail for two weeks. He had not eaten for three days until he was finally transferred to VCU. The lawsuit state that he spent long periods of time at the jail lying on his cell floor naked, with no mattress or running water within the cell. Ousely was treated for acute kidney failure and his right leg was amputated. He then became comatose and died Sept. 10, 2010.

Tragically, it has been reported that there have been 80 deaths in the jail over the course of the last 20 years.

Glenwood Gardens, a senior living facility in Bakersfield, California, is coming under fire after a nurse refused to administer CPR to an elderly resident that had collapsed. In a 911 call released this week, the dispatcher can be heard pleading with a nurse to administer CPR to the elderly woman. The nurse responded that company policy did not allow her to do so.

The dispatcher can be heard asking, "Is there anybody there that's willing to help this lady and not let her die?" The nurse coldly replied, "Not at this time."

The elderly resident was finally taken by ambulance to Mercy Southwest Hospital, where she died.

Glenwood Gardens released a statement confirming its policy prohibiting employees from performing CPR. Glenwood Gardens is a for-profit nursing home owned by Brookdale Senior Living, one of the largest nursing home operators in the U.S.

In a case that has lasted for long past the time one would normally spend in college, thirty-eight (38) former Duke University lacrosse players ended a 2008 lawsuit alleging the institution lent its credibility to rape allegations against three other team members who were later vindicated.

An agreement to drop the case against the university, President Richard Brodhead and other officials was filed Feb. 27 in federal court in Durham, North Carolina. That document referenced a Feb. 20 accord that doesn’t appear on the court’s electronic docket.
“My clients settled their lawsuit with Duke,” a representative for the players said in a telephone interview. The terms are confidential, he said.

Michael J. Schoenfeld, a spokesman for the university, said yesterday the case had been resolved. In a phone interview, he too declined to elaborate on the resolution.
The prosecution of players David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann began in 2006 with a stripper’s claim she had been attacked after dancing at a team party.
State prosecutors took over the case in 2007 after the original prosecutor, Michael Nifong, was accused of unethical behavior during the investigation. Charges against the players were later dropped and Nifong was disbarred.

The accused players filed a separate lawsuit against the school in 2007.
The 38 settling players will continue to press claims against the city of Durham, public officials and police for“inappropriate and illegal conduct,” Thompson said today.
If any readers are interested in reading the details the case is Carrington v. Duke University, 08-cv-119, U.S. District Court, Middle District of North Carolina (Durham).

A man and two Philadelphia women filed suit Thursday against four Philadelphia Police officers recently removed from an elite drug unit, accusing the officers of arresting them on bogus charges after raiding the wrong apartment. The federal civil rights suit is the first filed against the officers since Dec. 3, when the District Attorney's Office informed the police that it would no longer prosecute drug cases handled by the four members of the Narcotics Field Unit South and two of their colleagues.

All charges against the plaintiffs were dismissed in December, four days after the six officers were transferred from the unit. The officers named as defendants in the suit are Michael Spicer, Thomas Liciardello, Brian Reynolds, and John Speiser, as well as several additional officers.

Since Dec. 3, prosecutors have withdrawn at least 260 criminal cases involving the six transferred officers. That is more dismissals than in any of the city's police scandals in at least four decades.

The lawsuit states that the narcotics agents raided the Bustleton Avenue apartment of Angel English, using a that warrant wrongly stating that it was the home of a woman who didn't live there.

After finding no drugs, the suit said, one officer "planted a bag of narcotics in the apartment and claimed to have found it there." It did not identify the officer supposedly involved in planting drugs. Reynolds is listed as the arresting officer in Barksdale's court record.
The complaint charges that the police department and the District Attorney's office knew for years that some of the officers were involved in "integrity, corruption and civil rights violation issues."

The Washington Supreme Court ruled last week in the case of a deputy who says he found spit in his Whopper that state law allows compensation of consumers who suffered emotionally because of a product failure. Deputy Edward Bylsma has sued Burger King and a Vancouver-area franchise holder, claiming sputum found in his Whopper in 2009 left lasting psychological scars.

The case was previously dismissed after a lower federal court found Washington law did not support such suits. The latest ruling will presumably allow it to go forward, though the state court was clear that a plaintiff must show the emotional distress is a reasonable reaction to circumstances and has manifested in a measurable way.

Bylsma sued Burger King in federal court claiming an employee with a criminal record ruined his late-night snack by spitting a "slimy, clear and white phlegm glob" into his burger. Heclaims to suffer "ongoing emotional trauma from the incident, including vomiting, nausea, food anxiety and sleeplessness."

DNA testing showed employee Gary Herb to be the source of the sputum. Herb was sentenced to 90 days in jail after pleading guilty to a related assault charge.
"Common sense tells us that food consumption is a personal matter and contaminated food is closely associated with disgust and other kinds of emotional turmoil," the Court wrote.