National Roundup

Minnesota
Court reinstates sex misconduct conviction

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Supreme Court has reinstated a sexual misconduct conviction for a St. Paul priest accused of having sex with a woman who was seeking his spiritual advice.

Christopher Wenthe was convicted in 2011 of third-degree criminal sexual conduct for incidents dating back to 2003 while he was working at Nativity of Our Lord church in St. Paul. Last year, the Minnesota Court of Appeals reversed his conviction and ordered a new trial, but on Wednesday the Supreme Court disagreed and reinstated his conviction.

State law makes it a felony for clergy members to have sex with people they are spiritually advising.

Wenthe didn’t dispute the relationship, but denied the encounters occurred while he was providing spiritual aid.

Wenthe has not been in active ministry while the case was pending.

Pennsylvania
NFL concussion awards on hold through this fall amid appeals

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Retired NFL players seeking payouts from the potential $1 billion NFL concussion settlement could be waiting until next year based on appeals being weighed this fall.

Dozens of ex-players are appealing the final settlement approved this year by a federal judge in Philadelphia.

The settlement covers about 21,000 NFL retirees. Younger men battling Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease or Lou Gehrig’s disease could get up to several million dollars.

The settlement includes medical monitoring to check for neurocognitive symptoms that some link to concussions.

The court schedule posted this week in federal appeals court in Philadelphia sets deadlines for written briefs through September.

It’s not clear yet if the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments on the appeals. That could add months to the timeline.

Missouri
Satanic group’s suit: abortion law violates beliefs

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A group of Satanic worshippers are suing Missouri’s governor and attorney general in federal court, alleging that the state’s abortion restrictions violate their religious beliefs and should be scrapped.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in St. Louis on behalf of The Satanic Temple and a Missouri member identified only as “Mary Doe,” also alleges the law violates the establishment clause meant to bar governmental endorsement of religion.

Missouri law requires abortion providers to give pregnant women information about the physical characteristics of the fetus and the fetus’ ability to feel pain by at least 22 weeks, and it requires a 72-hour waiting period after providing the woman with an opportunity to view an ultrasound and hear the fetus’ heartbeat.

But according to the lawsuit, Missouri wrongly regulates abortion “to promote some, but not all, religious beliefs that human tissue is, from conception, a separate and unique human being whose destruction is morally wrong.”

A spokesman for Gov. Jay Nixon deferred questions Wednesday about the lawsuit to Attorney General Chris Koster, whose office did not immediately return a message by The Associated Press.

The lawsuit, describing the temple as “an association of politically aware Satanists, secularists, and advocates for individual liberty,” says Mary Doe is a follower of the Satanic Tenets that deny that life begins at conception or that having an abortion is morally wrong. Those tenets insist among other things that a follower “makes decisions regarding her health based on the best scientific understanding of the world, even if the science does not comport with the religious or political beliefs of others,” and that “she alone decides whether to remove human tissue from her body.”

Missouri’s “informed consent” counseling and waiting period are not medically necessary for any believer in the Satanic Tenets to make an informed decision on an abortion, the lawsuit claims.

The lawsuit claims that the law causes Mary Doe, who previously terminated a pregnancy at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Missouri and may again decide to have an abortion, and “pregnant members of The Satanic Temple to endure delay, doubt, guilt and shame when they exercise their religious beliefs to abort human tissue in accordance with the Satanic Tenets.”

“All women who are contemplating getting an abortion in Missouri have the right, pursuant to the First Amendment, to exercise their freedom to believe when human life begins and act upon their belief without interference or influence by the state of Missouri,” the lawsuit submits.


Virginia
Jury awards $500k after anesthesiologist mocked patient

RESTON, Va. (AP) — A Virginia man was awarded $500,000 in court after being mocked and insulted by an anesthesiologist during a colonoscopy in 2013.

The Washington Post reports the Fairfax County jury ordered 42-year-old Tiffany Ingham and her practice to pay the man after a three-day trial last week.

Officials say the man, who wanted to remain anonymous, recorded the incident in April 2013 while being prepped for the procedure so it would capture the doctor’s
post-operation instructions.

But when he listened to recording while on his way home, he discovered that he had recorded the entire examination and that the doctor and the rest of the surgical team had insulted and mocked him once he fell asleep.

Ingham was recorded saying “after five minutes of talking to you in pre-op, I wanted to punch you in the face and man you up a little bit.” When a medical assistant noted the man had a rash, the anesthesiologist warned her not to touch it, saying she might get “some syphilis on your arm or something,” then added, “It’s probably tuberculosis in the penis, so you’ll be all right.”

The lawsuit states the recording captured Ingham mocking the amount of anesthetic needed to sedate the man and a gastroenterologist, 48-year-old Soloman Shah, commented that another doctor they both knew “would eat him for lunch.” Shah, who performed the colonoscopy, was dismissed from the case. The procedure took place at a large medical suite in Reston, Va.

The jury awarded the man $100,000 for defamation - $50,000 each for the comments about the man having syphilis and tuberculosis - and $200,000 for medical malpractice, as well as the $200,000 in punitive damages.

One of the jurors, Farid Khairzada, said that there was not much defense, because everything was on tape.

“We finally came to a conclusion,” Khairzada said, “that we have to give him something, just to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”