Utah
Couple sue over firm’s negative review charge
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah couple have sued an online retailer over a $3,500 charge the company assessed after one of them wrote a negative review concerning its customer service.
John and Jennifer Palmer of Layton filed the lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City against KlearGear.com based in Grandville, Mich.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday.
According to the complaint, the couple’s problems began when John Palmer’s order of less than $20 for a desk toy and a key chain for his wife in December 2008 never arrived.
The couple said the order was canceled after they were unsuccessful in attempts to reach KlearGear, and Jennifer Palmer then posted a critical review about the company’s customer service on RipoffReport.com.
KlearGear informed the Palmers in 2012 they had 72 hours to remove the negative review or pay $3,500 because the couple violated a “non-disparagement clause” in its terms of use with customers, the suit states.
Ripoff.com has a policy of not removing posted reviews, the suit adds, and KlearGear later hurt the couple’s credit rating by reporting their failure to pay the $3,500 to credit bureaus.
The couple said their poor credit rating delayed a car loan and prevented them from securing a loan for a broken furnace. They also have been deterred from refinancing their home or selling their house and buying a new one, the suit says.
Texas
Sentences vary for drunk teens in fatal wrecks
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Nearly a decade before giving a 16-year-old boy probation for a drunken crash that killed four people, the same Texas judge sentenced a teen in a similar case to 20 years.
Prosecutors continue looking for a way to get a stiffer sentence for Ethan Couch after state District Judge Jean Boyd sentenced him to 10 years’ probation for the June wreck in North Texas. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported (http://bit.ly/19Gt3i6 ) that Boyd handed down the 20-year term to another teenage boy in a 2004 drunken driving case.
The confidentiality of juvenile cases makes them difficult to compare. Huyen Pham, a criminal law professor at Texas A&M Law School, says each case is decided on its own merit. Factors could include whether the defendant shows remorse or has substance abuse problems.
But the similarity between Couch’s case and that of 16-year-old Eric Bradlee Miller could fuel critics who say Couch received special treatment because of his family’s wealth.
On Feb. 13, 2004, Miller left home with $10 and told his grandfather he was going to rent a movie — but instead went to buy a bottle of vodka and hopped into a pickup truck that someone had left running outside a convenience store. Miller later crashed into a 19-year-old motorist, killing him.
Miller, whose father was not in his life and whose mother was addicted to drugs, lived with his grandfather. The fact that Miller had already committed a felony by stealing the truck he was driving weighed against him in the case. He went to trial as a juvenile with a court-appointed attorney and lost.
“The court is aware you had a sad childhood, but you are fortunate to have a grandfather who is so committed and loves you,” Boyd said during the sentencing. “. I hope you will take advantage of the services (offered by the Texas Youth Commission) and turn your life around.”
And with that, Boyd gave Miller a 20-year term. He was paroled from a Texas Youth Commission facility in November 2008.
Miller got into trouble again in 2011, this time for running from police. He was sentenced to prison and won’t be up for parole again until 2017.
In Couch’s case, he had been drinking with friends on June 15 and had seven of them in his pickup that night when he lost control of his vehicle and plowed into a group of people helping a stranded motorist. Four people were killed and two teens riding in the back of Couch’s truck were critically injured.
Couch, like Miller, was not certified as an adult. But he admitted responsibility for four counts of intoxication manslaughter and two counts of intoxication assault causing serious bodily injury.
“Ethan, you are responsible for what you did, not your parents,” Boyd told the teen on Dec. 10 before explaining her decision. “The court is familiar with the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (formerly the Texas Youth Commission) and has sent numerous teens to programs there, and sometimes they don’t even get into the program we designated for them.”
Couch got probation. Prosecutors had asked for 20 years in detention.
His parents offered to pay $450,000 per year for him to attend a private rehabilitation center in California.
Nevada
Hospital accused of deceptions by parents of child
RENO, Nev. (AP) — The Reno parents of a young girl with leukemia are suing Renown Regional Medical Center and its former pediatric oncologist, claiming they misrepresented the hospital’s ability to care for their child and violated the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
Clint and Rebecca Echevarria say hospital officials falsely suggested it was the only facility in northern Nevada that could treat their 3-year-old and told them she wasn’t stable enough to move to Children’s Primary Hospital in Utah.
The suit, filed last week in Washoe District Court, says the Reno hospital also misrepresented its affiliation with the Children’s Oncology Group — a group of experts who set treatment protocols for the disease and oversee clinical trials for children with cancer.
After watching their daughter’s health deteriorate and learning of the alleged false statements by the hospital, the family moved her to the Children’s Specialty Center of Nevada in Reno for treatment, and she is doing well, he told the Reno Gazette.
Victoria Castaneda, who joined Renown’s Children’s Hospital in April 2012 as the center’s only hematologist/oncologist, resigned her position and left the hospital effective Dec. 5, Rambo told the newspaper.
Castaneda could not be immediately reached for comment.
Rambo acknowledged that Renown Children’s Hospital is not affiliated with COG, which claims on its website that they are “the world’s childhood cancer experts.” She said, however, that Renown works with other COG-affiliated hospitals.
The Children’s Specialty Center of Nevada in Reno, where the Echevarrias’ daughter was treated after going to Renown, was opened in March 2012 by three former Renown doctors. The facility, a member of COG, is in the Echevarrias’ health care network, but Renown did not tell the family about that option, the lawsuit said.
