Utah: Salt Lake County DA giving up evidence fee policy
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Salt Lake County district attorney is abandoning a fee charged to defense lawyers to obtain evidence in criminal cases.
A settlement announced Wednesday ends a Utah Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers lawsuit filed in October challenging the constitutionality of the practice.
The Deseret News reports District Attorney Sim Gill agreed to pay the association $3,000 for lawsuit costs. Gill had promised to eliminate the fee.
Former District Attorney Lohra Miller began the policy about a year ago. A similar system charging lower fees in other counties was upheld by the Utah Court of Appeals.
Lawyers association head Kent Hart says charging $25 up-front to offset copying costs, plus 25 cents per page after 100 pages was an unfair burden on criminal defendants.
Maine: Jury awards $244K in methadone lawsuit
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A Maine jury has awarded a Portland woman $244,000 from a methadone clinic that repeatedly gave her high doses of methadone.
Sharon Pratt filed a civil lawsuit in 2008 against Dr. Steven Keefe, the former medical director at CAP Quality Care in Westbrook, for giving her high doses of methadone although she had overdosed several times and other doctors had warned the clinic to lower her prescription.
According to the Portland Press Herald, a jury Tuesday found that both Keefe and Pratt were at fault for Pratt’s overdoses, but that Keefe had breached standards of medical care and his negligence outweighed Pratt’s.
Pratt was being treated with methadone in 2001 and 2002 for her addiction to painkillers, which she had taken during years of cancer treatment.
New York: Settlement reached in Rikers Island inmate death
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City has agreed to pay more than $500,000 to settle a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of a Rikers Island inmate who died after a scuffle with guards.
The medical examiner had determined that Clarence Mobley’s death was a homicide. He was found dead in his cell at the Anna M. Kross Center on May 3, 2009.
Family lawyer Rudy Velez told The New York Times that the $525,000 settlement was finalized last month in Bronx County Surrogate’s Court.
The district attorney’s office says no criminal charges have been field against the correction officers named in the suit.
The lawsuit claims that the guards failed to provide Mobley immediate medical help after he was subdued by three officers.
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