Kentucky: Man sent to prison for 20 years in baby shaking
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — A judge in Lexington has sent to prison a man who admitted shaking a baby into unconsciousness.
Eric Sylvester Martin was accused of seriously injuring 5 1/2-week-old Kalei Martin in November 2008.
The Lexington Herald-Leader cited court records in reporting the child suffered seizures, unconsciousness, a subdural hematoma and retinal hemorrhaging.
Fayette Circuit Judge Ernesto Scorsone sentenced the 24-year-old Martin on Thursday, giving him 10 years on a second-degree assault guilty plea, but enhancing it to 20 years on Martin’s guilty plea to being a persistent felony offender.
Nebraska: Judge wants Omaha to mull settlement with retirees
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A federal judge has ordered the city of Omaha to consider a settlement with roughly 1,100 retirees who’re fighting increases to their health insurance premiums.
Three workers unions filed a lawsuit in May after the Omaha City Council approved an ordinance that increases retirees’ premiums. The measure was to go into effect July 1, but U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon blocked it from taking effect.
Now, Bataillon has set an Oct. 5 settlement conference for both parties.
The unions say in their lawsuit that rules for retirees’ insurance premiums are included in collective-bargaining agreements between the unions and the city, so the ordinance impairs the contract in violation of state and federal constitutions.
North Carolina: Some question lab accreditation group’s ties
GARNER, N.C. (AP) — The accrediting agency that missed significant problems at North Carolina’s crime lab for years shares office space with a for-profit consulting firm that coaches labs on how to meet accreditation standards, The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Sunday.
The state’s crime lab has been reviewed by the nation’s largest accreditation group for forensic labs since 1988, according to the newspaper.
A recent report said State Bureau of Investigation analysts failed to properly report lab results to courts during that period.
The American Society of Crime Lab Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board is based 40 miles south of Raleigh in a strip shopping mall where it shares an office with a for-profit consulting business that coaches labs on how to meet accreditation standards, the newspaper reported.
At the same address are a trade association for forensic lab directors and the chief national forensic science lobbying group that helps shape the future of the field.
“I think it’s questionable that they have all these organizations that claim to be separate running out of what appears to be the same office,” said Amy Driver, a forensic scientist in Washington, D.C., who has blogged about the issue.
Two leaders of the accreditation agency are retired SBI agents who had key management roles at the state lab at the time problems persisted.
Leaders of ASCLD say the interests of the consulting group and the accreditation group are separate and say they share office space as a convenience.
“They are not run out of this office,” Ralph Keaton, who directs the accreditation agency, said of the consulting business.
Joseph Bono, contract manager for the consulting group, said his group is independent.
“The implication that the two are in any way affiliated in any other way than to better forensic science ... I don’t agree with that implication,” Bono said. “That’s where the mail goes. That’s it. There’s no connection.”
The consulting business was created three years ago by the trade association for forensic lab directors to help lab directors across the country meet new international standards.
Greg Matheson, who is president of the association, says any profits from the consulting business, which have not been much so far, would be returned to the association.
A spokeswoman for the SBI said the agency has not yet decided whether to hire consultants before its next accreditation.
Some legislators said earlier this month that the SBI should look for another group to do the accreditation review of the North Carolina lab.
Arkansas: Couple get $20 million in suit over surgery
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A Pulaski County jury has ordered a hospital to pay $20 million to a couple whose son had brain surgery done on the wrong side of his head.
The panel of seven men and five women took just under two hours Friday to reach its unanimous verdict against Arkansas Children’s Hospital. The decision was 11-1 in favor of the award, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.
Kenny and Pam Metheny wept after the verdict was read. They sued the hospital on behalf of their son, Cody, 19, who underwent a procedure in 2004 to remove faulty brain tissue believed to be the source of a seizure disorder. During the operation, Dr. Badih Adada, then-chief of pediatric neurosurgery at the hospital, removed matter from the wrong side of Cody’s brain before operating on the correct side.
The couple argued in their lawsuit that the mistake turned their vibrant teenager into an emotionless husk of a man who has psychotic delusions, continuing seizures and deteriorating intelligence.
“If he had seizure disorder before, it doesn’t mean they have a right to tear up his brain,” the couple’s attorney, Grant Davis of Kansas City, Mo., told jurors during closing arguments. “He had a right to live his life with the brain he had, and they came in and changed that forever.”
Attorney Jason Hendren, who represented the hospital’s insurance carrier Medical Insurance Co., told jurors the Methenys had built their case on overheated legal rhetoric and mercenary experts. Hendren argued that Adada is solely to blame.
“Metheny was injured by the mistake, but healed and his mental faculties improved,” Hendren argued. “If this case ... were about sympathy for Cody Metheny, we would not be here. To speak truth, your verdict has to be about evidence, not sympathy.”
With Adada admitting wrongdoing, his insurance company paid $1 million. Under Arkansas law, the hospital couldn’t be found liable if the jury had decided Adada was solely responsible for the error.
Davis argued that hospital nurses weren’t adequately prepared and administrators didn’t thoroughly investigate Adada’s mistakes and promptly disclose them to the family, who didn’t learn for months the extent of the damage.
In a statement released by Arkansas Children’s Hospital, officials said the safety of their patients is always the top priority, but they acknowledged that a wrong-sided surgery had occurred.
“We deeply regret this happened. We wish only the best for this young man and his family,” the statement read.
