Court Roundup

Idaho: Mediation resolves dispute over $5.6M estate
SANDPOINT, Idaho (AP) — Court-ordered mediation has resolved a dispute over management of a $5.6 million estate of a Sagle resident.

Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall tells the Bonner County Daily Bee that the estate’s personal representative and its successor representative have agreed to step aside and appoint a new representative.

A court trial had been scheduled to start next month.

Harpster Frederick Turnbull died in 2007 at the age of 93 after outliving his wife, Dolly. The couple had no children.

Turnbull wanted his money to be held in a trust with the interest used to improve public roads in Bonner County. He appointed Dale Coffelt as his estate’s personal representative, and designated his maternal nephew Jim Carothers, a certified public accountant, as Coffelt’s successor and that Carothers would take  part in decisions involving the estate.

But Carothers contended Coffelt mishandled the estate and sought to have Coffelt removed as estate representative.

Oklahoma: Nurse barred for 20 yrs for sex with home patient
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma Nursing Board officials say a nurse who visited patients in their homes as part of a hospice program has been barred from nursing for 20 years because she had sex with a married patient at his home.

The Oklahoman newspaper says 33-year-old Amber Van Brunt of Shawnee has appealed that discipline to the courts. She said the sex occurred on her own time, not when she was on duty as a hospice nurse, and the punishment is a miscarriage of justice.

The patient was terminally ill, suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, otherwise known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. He died in May.

Kentucky: Judge denies injunction to stop lawyer discipline
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A federal judge has turned down an injunction request from a northern Kentucky attorney and radio personality who sought to stop the Kentucky Bar Association from taking disciplinary action against him.

U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves also gave attorney and WLW radio personality Eric Deters 20 days to explain why he shouldn’t be sanctioned for filing the suit Kentucky Bar and Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice John Minton Jr., among others.

Reeves on Friday said Deters made misrepresentations to the court about the law. The Kentucky Enquirer reported that Reeves said the federal judiciary had no legal authority to intervene in a state bar disciplinary proceeding.

Deters sought to stop a trial commissioner from issuing a public recommendation on six disciplinary charges.