Court Digest

Alabama
Retired Supreme Court Justice Hugh Maddox dies
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A longtime member of the Alabama Supreme Court, retired Associate Justice Hugh Maddox, has died.

An obituary published by a funeral home said Maddox died Friday at his home in Montgomery. He was 90. No cause of death was given.

Maddox, a native of Covington County, was first appointed to the court in 1969 and then won five terms before retiring in 2001 because of the state’s mandatory age limit for judges.
He also was a legal advisor to three governors and retired as a colonel from the Air Force Reserve.

Maddox is survived by his wife of 62 years, Virginia Roberts Maddox, and two children. A private graveside service is planned because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Indiana
Appeals court upholds $112 million verdict to spine surgeon
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana appeals court has upheld a $112 million jury verdict in favor of a Carmel spine surgeon who sued medical device maker Medtronic over devices he invented and sold to the company.

Dr. Rick Sasso sued Medtronic, alleging that it violated a contract by not paying royalties he was due for spinal implants and screw-implant systems he invented and sold to the Ireland-based company.

Medtronic had appealed the verdict reached in 2018 by a jury in northern Indiana’s Marshall County.

The state appeals court panel rejected Medtronic’s arguments that the lawsuit should have been dismissed on jurisdictional grounds.

The judges ruled that sufficient evidence supported the jury’s decision that Medtronic shortchanged Sasso on royalties from the implant systems that became one of its largest product lines, with sales of more than $200 million a year.

Kentucky
Doctor, wife sentenced in opioid sales scheme
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky doctor has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for illegally distributing pain pills.

Dr. Scotty Akers, 48, of Pikeville, Kentucky, was sentenced last week in federal court in Lexington. He also was ordered to forfeit $12,275. Akers’ wife, Serissa Akers, 33, who served as his office manager, was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison, news outlets reported.

The defendants admitted to using social media messaging applications to sell prescriptions for opioids.

According to their plea agreements, Serissa Akers exchanged prescriptions written by her husband for cash in parking lots around Pikeville. No physical exams were performed.

Prosecutors said the illegal distribution came at a time when the defendants did not have a legitimate medical practice and occurred up until the time when Scotty Akers’ medical license was suspended.

Idaho
Man arrested on multiple sex crimes charges
SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. (AP) — A 37-year-old Athol man was arrested by the U.S. Marshalls Greater Idaho Fugitive Task Force on Friday night and charged with multiple sex crimes against minors.

The Coeur d’Alene Press reports  Kenneth Bernard Kimberly III was arrested at the Clock Tower Village Apartments in Spokane Valley on two outstanding felony warrants issued by the State of Idaho, the U.S. Marshals Service reported.

In August 2019, the Bonner County District Court in Sandpoint issued a warrant for Kimberly stemming from the charges of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor under the age of 16.

In June, Kootenai County District Court in Coeur d’Alene issued a warrant for Kimberly on the charge lewd conduct with a minor with a deadly weapon.

Kimberly was in his late 20s at the time of the alleged sex crimes against minors ranging between 6 and 11 years old, the U.S. Marshals Service reported.

Kimberly allegedly fled from Athol to Washington and assumed a new alias, the Marshals Service reported. He allegedly lived with his girlfriend, Arin Johnson, 40, who was charged with rendering criminal assistance in the second degree.

It wasn’t immediately known if Kimberly had a lawyer.

The Greater Idaho Fugitive Task Force in Coeur d’Alene is comprised of deputy U.S. Marshals and investigators from the Coeur d’Alene Police Department, Post Falls Police Department, Idaho State Police and Kootenai County Prosecutor’s Office.

Kentucky
Former teacher sentenced to 30 years for child pornography
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — A former Kentucky teacher was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for his guilty plea to producing child pornography.

Larry Dale Foley Jr., 49, of Berea, was sentenced last week in federal court in Lexington, news outlets reported.

Based on a tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, law enforcement officers seized electronic devices at Foley’s home that contained child pornography, according to court records.

In his September guilty plea, Foley admitted to knowing the images and videos he created with a minor were shared by computer and cell phone.

Prosecutors said none of the images seized involved any of Foley’s former students.

Louisiana
Federal judge  OKs hurricane lawsuit plan
LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) — A federal judge in western Louisiana has approved a plan on how to settle thousands of lawsuits expected to be filed against insurance companies over damage from a pair of hurricanes that hit the region six weeks apart.

Insurance companies and the parties who sue them will have to share information with each other as quickly as possible and then meet — online or on the phone if they agree — within a month of the deadline to share information and discuss a possible settlement, U.S. District Judge James D. Cain Jr. wrote in his order.

If the two sides can’t agree on a settlement, the case will go to mediation, Cain wrote in the order obtained by The American Press.

Anyone involved in any hurricane damage case who wants to opt out of the process will have to file motions with a judge.

The process is similar to what judges in Texas used after Hurricane Harvey and New York used after Superstorm Sandy.

Hurricane Laura came ashore near Cameron Parish on Aug. 27, and Hurricane Delta hit the same area six weeks later. The storms are estimated to have done more than $14 billion in damage to west Louisiana and eastern Texas.

Hurricane Laura also heavily damaged the Edwin F. Hunter Jr. U.S. Courthouse in Lake Charles, which may have to be torn down and rebuilt, Cain said.

“The devastation in the parishes of the Lake Charles Division, including to the courthouse itself, is anticipated to interfere with the timely handling of this litigation,” Cain wrote in his order.

Connecticut
Lawsuit: Town discriminated against people who are disabled
WOLCOTT, Conn. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department is accusing a Connecticut town of discrimination and breaking federal law by barring group homes for adults with disabilities.

The agency sued Wolcott on Dec. 7 over a 2016 zoning board decision that prohibited any community residences for adults with disabilities, the Republican-American reported Saturday. The board then used that prohibition to reject a proposed group home for 13 adults with mental health disabilities.

The group home was proposed by Self Inc., which filed a similar lawsuit against the town in February. That lawsuit remains pending.

Mayor Thomas Dunn denied the allegations.

“We do not discriminate,” Dunn said. “The town of Wolcott does not discriminate against disabled persons and we did not violate the Fair Housing Act with respect to the property on Old Bound Line Road and we are vigorously defending the lawsuit.”

After Self Inc. proposed the group home, the local Planning and Zoning Commission changed zoning regulations to limit the number of people allowed in a community residence to seven — all of whom must be juveniles. The previous regulation allowed such residences to house up to 15 adults.


Connecticut
Inmate who gave birth in jail cell settles for  $250K
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut officials are paying $250,000 and admitting no wrongdoing in a settlement of a lawsuit brought by a state prison inmate who gave birth on a toilet in her cell and claimed she was denied medical care, according to details of the agreement obtained by The Associated Press on Saturday.

Attorney General William Tong’s office provided the AP with a copy of the settlement with Tianna Laboy, who said she complained about severe abdominal pain and bloody discharge in the hours leading up to the birth in 2018 but was told medical staff weren’t available.

The settlement was announced last month but the details were not disclosed until now.

Under the agreement, about $83,000 will be subtracted from the $250,000 to pay for attorney fees, said Kenneth Krayeske, one of Laboy’s lawyers. Two-thirds of the remainder, about $112,000, will go into a trust for Laboy’s daughter and one-third, about $55,000, will go into a trust for Laboy, 23, who is serving a seven-year sentence at the state women’s prison for the non-fatal stabbing of a male companion in New Britain in 2017.

The deal does not include any of the reforms Laboy sought, including required medical training for employees that would improve conditions at the York Correctional Institution women’s prison in Niantic.

Krayeske said the settlement is the best option for Laboy’s family at this time, and she likely will file more litigation over the conditions of her confinement.

“It’s only money,” Krayeske said Saturday. “It doesn’t deal with the conditions of her confinement and it doesn’t deal with some of the larger issues. We didn’t get any injunctive relief or promises from the state that this doesn’t happen again.”

Elizabeth Benton, a spokeswoman for Tong, said in a statement, “We believe this settlement serves the best interests of all involved. The Office of the Attorney General is committed to the fair treatment of all incarcerated individuals.”

Laboy gave birth in the toilet of her cell on Feb. 13, 2018, five weeks prematurely, without medical assistance, her lawsuit said.

Laboy’s daughter, now in the custody of Laboy’s mother, spent two weeks in intensive care after being born.

Following the birth, two UConn Health employees, who provided medical care at the prison, were escorted out of the prison and told not to return while the matter was under review. Their licenses are listed as current on the state Department of Public Health website, with no record of disciplinary actions or pending charges against them.

Two weeks after the birth, the state announced it would move responsibility for the inmate medical care from UConn Health to the Department of Correction, in response to growing concerns over the medical treatment given to inmates statewide, including Laboy.

A Department of Correction investigation identified a series of missteps, including the fact that nurses didn’t connect Laboy’s abdominal pain to preterm labor.


Illinois
Man charged in March killing of 15-year-old Chicago boy
CHICAGO (AP) — An Evanston man has been charged in the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old Chicago boy found dead in an alley last March.

A judge on Sunday ordered Eric Gunn, 21, held without bail. He’s charged with one felony count of first-degree murder in the death of Esteban Luvianos, Chicago police said in a statement.

Gunn was taken into custody Friday in suburban Lincolnwood, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

It wasn’t immediately clear if he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Luvianos was found in an alley in Bowmanville on Chicago’s North Side on March 16 with a gunshot wound to the head, authorities said. The youth, who was an Amundsen High School student, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Ald. Andre Vasquez said in a letter to constituents at the time of Luvianos’ killing that his death “is a painful reminder that gun violence is all too present in all our communities, and knows no political or municipal boundaries.”