South Florida Personal Injury Lawyers

Authorities said a man fatally shot himself in the day care center he co-owned as investigators showed up to serve him a search warrant on child abuse allegations Thursday. Sheriff’s officials said 51-year-old Jan Ritchie locked himself in a bathroom at Patti’s Day Care where he suffered a bullet wound to the head.Six children in the day care center were moved to a secure location when investigators arrived. Authorities forced their way in the bathroom when they heard a gunshot.

Maj. Larry Donaldson with the sheriff’s office said none of the children were in proximity of the gunshot.

Authorities have not released details regarding the child abuse allegations against Ritchie.

On Sept. 5, 2004, plaintiff Ralph Currier, 18, lawn maintenance, was a passenger in a Subaru STI driven by Taylor Quinn, 17, who was traveling west on Route 12 in Pomfret. Reaching speeds of 130 mph and 140 mph, Taylor lost control of the vehicle, drove off the road, struck a fence and hit a propane tank beside a veterinary clinic located 100 feet off the roadway. The propane tank acted as a ramp and propelled the vehicle into the second floor of the structure.Claiming negligent entrustment, Currier sued Taylor and her mother, Suzanne Schipper, who both stipulated to liability.Prior to trial, National Grange Mutual Insurance Co., defendants’ insurer, entered into a stipulated settlement for its $300,000 policy limit with Currier, the two other passengers in the vehicle and the owner of the veterinary clinic.

Quinn served 10 months in prison with four to 10 years suspended for gross negligent operation of a vehicle with seriously bodily injury resulting.

Currier was flown to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. He sustained fractures of his cervical vertebrae at C5, C6 and C7, which resulted in quadriplegia. He was stabilized and placed in a drug-induced coma, and then transported to The University Hospital in Newark, N.J., where he had decompression and fixation of the spinal chord on Oct. 22.

On Oct. 27, Currier was taken to the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in West Orange, N.J., and underwent treatment through Jan. 27, 2005, continuing outpatient care until April 2006, and began several months of physical therapy in March 2005 at Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center in Windsor, Vt. Currier sought $862,999 in past medical expenses.

Through written reports, Robert Harry, the plaintiff’s treating neurosurgeon, said that Currier suffered from incomplete quadriplegia, as he experienced limited use of his hands. Daniel Wing, Currier’s current treating physical medicine and rehabilitation physician, reported his need for ongoing medical care.

In a written report, urologist Anne E. Gormley stated that Currier would experience future urological and respiratory infections, and that renal evaluation would be necessary to avoid kidney dysfunction and possible shutdown. Gormley also said Currier would need to follow up with evaluation of neurogenic bowel complications, and that he would need a Baclofen pump infusion, implantation and replacement.

Pediatrician Michael Kilcullen stated in a written report that Currier would need to monitor for contractures of his upper and lower extremities and signs of kyphosis and/or lordosis.

Currier’s parents added a 20-foot-by-24-foot room to accommodate their son’s wheelchair, special bed and equipment. Currier’s parents must provide routine daily care for their son, including showering and stretching him and changing his catheter every two hours, which caused their son embarrassment. He sought $22,125,610 for a future life care plan that included medication, evaluations, therapy, home modifications and surgical procedures.

Prior to the accident, Currier was an outgoing, athletic 6-foot, 3-inch-tall, 240-pound teenager who became withdrawn and depressed from his condition, and attempted to commit suicide despite his family’s efforts to have him see a psychologist. Currier, who dropped out of high school before the 11th grade, had a gifted mechanical ability and aspired to become an auto mechanic like his father and older brother. The accident was a death of a person and rebirth of an individual who would not be able to engage in activities of normal daily living for the rest of his life.

Not only was this a debilitating injury to Currier, but also to his family, namely his parents, who would not be able to always care for Currier, as he would eventually rely on governmental services. Despite his paralysis, Currier experienced a lot of pain and discomfort that resulted from phantom pains, according to plaintiff’s counsel. He sought an unspecified amount in past and future pain and suffering.

Lawrence Foreman, the plaintiff’s vocational rehabilitation expert, reported that Currier was unemployable and permanently disabled. Currier sought $1,230,061 in future lost wages, which was based on an auto mechanic’s annual salary of $30,221, according to the state Department of Labor, and a working life of 41 years.

During a bench trial, Judge Theresa DiMauro awarded Currier $21,751,308.

Pilot Scott Crossfield, the first man to fly at twice the speed of sound, and an air traffic controller were blamed Thursday for the crash of a single-engine plane during a thunderstorm last year that killed Crossfield.A test pilot who personified “the right stuff” during the 1950s, Crossfield knew he was flying his Cessna 210A into rough weather but did not ask for a weather update, and the air controller did not offer one, the National Transportation Safety Board found.

The board concluded that the two failures led the 84-year-old Crossfield to fly on instruments into a severe thunderstorm that sent his plane straight into the ground in mountains 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Atlanta, the Georgia state capital, on April 19, 2006. It said the storm he flew into contained supercells that produce sudden, strong downdrafts.

The investigation found no mechanical malfunctions that could have caused the crash.

Alone at the time, Crossfield was flying his Cessna from the southern state of Alabama to his home in Virginia just west of Washington, D.C.

In the 1950s, Crossfield, a civilian working for the predecessor to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Chuck Yeager, an Air Force pilot, dueled for supremacy among the nation’s Cold War test pilots. They regularly climbed into the most powerful, dangerous and complex aircraft of the time, including the X-1 and X-15 rocket planes.

Crossfield later became an executive for Eastern Airlines and the British company Hawker Siddeley Aviation and a technical consultant to the House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology. He was inducted into the U.S. National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1983.

Before he took off on his final flight, Crossfield told an acquaintance he might have to fly around some severe weather. “However, by the time the airplane encountered the weather, the pilot had been airborne for over an hour and had not requested any updated weather information from air traffic controllers,” the NTSB said.

As the plane entered a level 6 thunderstorm, the severest type, Crossfield requested and received permission from air traffic control in Atlanta to turn to escape the weather. About 30 seconds later, his plane disappeared from radar.

Wreckage was found in two places less than a mile apart suggesting “low altitude, in-flight breakup,” the safety board said. The main wreckage created a 4.5-foot crater and limited damage to heavy overhead foliage suggesting “a near vertical descent.”

The thunderstorms were visible on the controller’s radar scope, and there were no excessive air traffic, radio frequency congestion or controller workload problems “that would have prevented the controller from issuing pertinent weather information to the accident pilot,” the investigators concluded.

Federal Aviation Administration rules require controllers to give top priority to separating aircraft and issuing safety alerts and to perform first the action most critical to safety, the safety board noted. It concluded the controller “should have recognized that the adverse weather represented an immediate safety hazard to the accident flight and should have provided appropriate advisories to the pilot.”

Without naming the controller, the board quoted him as saying he believed the weather displayed on his scope “can be between 6 and 15 minutes old and is widely viewed as being unreliable. He stated that pilots have a better idea of where adverse weather is and that he expects them to inform him on what actions they need to take to avoid it.”

After the accident, Yeager recalled that during their days as test pilots Crossfield, “being a civilian, had a lot more freedom than we did, as military guys. … Sometimes he exceeded his capability and got in trouble.”

Asked for an example, Yeager said: “Flying in weather that he should have never been in.”

In “The Right Stuff,” a history of the early space age, author Tom Wolfe portrayed Crossfield, Yeager and other test pilots as possessors of “the right stuff” – “the ability to go up in a hurtling piece of machinery and put his hide on the line and then have the moxie, the reflexes, the experience, the coolness, to pull it back in the last yawning moment – and then to go up again the next day, and the next day, and every next day.”

The Broward Sheriff’s Office is investigating a fast-food restaurant drive-through pepper spray attack that left several employees irritated. BSO deputies said a blue Toyota Solara with five females inside pulled up to the McDonald’s drive-through window at 3073 W. Oakland Park Blvd. at about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.The driver ordered a 69-cent soda, but when the employee told the customer through the intercom that it wasn’t available, she became verbally abusive, according to the BSO. The driver then pulled up to the take-out window, and the left back seat passenger pulled out a can of pepper spray and sprayed the inside.

Three employees went to the hospital for treatment, while eight other employees complained of residual pepper spray effects but required no treatment.

The driver of the car is described as a thin black female with large earrings. The front seat passenger was dressed as a woman, but BSO deputies said the passenger might have been a cross-dressing man with red, white and blue hair accessories. Three other females were in the back seat of the car.

Anyone with information is asked to call Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS.

Two people have been arrested and accused of practicing plastic surgery without a license in Miami.Gladys Yera Villarejo and Ismael Labrador were arrested at the Picasso Clinic at 8506 S.W. 8th St.

The pair was allegedly performing cosmetic surgery on patients at the clinic. Labrador is a licensed medical doctor, but not a surgeon.

Villarejo, who posed as a licensed medical doctor specializing in female oriented reconstructive surgery, was charged with the unlicensed practice of medicine.

A long-term investigation found that Villarejo was conducting major invasive surgeries at the Picasso Clinic.

Labrador was implicated in a similar incident at the same clinic in September 2006, when as a result of a separate investigation, was found to be aiding and abetting in the unlicensed practice of health care. He was arrested in March 2007 and is currently enrolled in a deferred prosecution program, according to Miami-Dade Police.

The Picasso Clinic is highly promoted and advertised for cosmetic surgery, according to investigators. Their frequently aired infomercials and online advertisements insist that they employ board-certified doctors.

Police would like to hear from anyone who was treated by the pair. Call Miami-Dade police at 305-477-1616.

The Food and Drug Administration issued a warning today about the risk of potentially fatal overdoses with Fentora, a narcotic painkiller manufactured by Cephalon. The action comes less than two weeks after the company sent a letter to doctors notifying them of three drug-related deaths.

Off-Label Use Dangerous

Last October, the FDA approved Fentora for use in cancer patients who experience intense bursts of pain. However, the drug is also sometimes prescribed to treat migraines and short-term pain in non-cancer patients.

According to the government warning, using Fentora for off-label, or non-approved, purposes could lead to deadly overdose, particularly in patients who are not taking narcotic painkillers on a regular basis.

All three reported deaths were in patients taking Fentora for off-label uses. Two of the patients were taking the drug to treat migraine headaches.

Cephalon under Investigation

Cephalon has been accused of marketing its drugs for uses not approved by the FDA and is currently the target of state and federal investigations. The company has denied the allegations.

Federal regulators have asked the company to strengthen the drug’s warnings and educate doctors and patients on proper use of Fentora.

Herschel Belt of Kentucky filed an asbestos suit against 46 corporations alleging he was exposed to asbestos while employed by the Heat & Frost Union, Local 37 in Evansville Ind., from 1965 to 1996 as an insulator at various locations.

Belt claims that during the course of his employment he was exposed to and inhaled, ingested or otherwise absorbed asbestos fibers emanating from certain products he was working with and around.

According to the complaint filed Sept. 21 in Madison County Circuit Court, Belt was diagnosed with mesothelioma on July 17.

“The plaintiff’s exposure and inhalation, ingestion or absorption of the asbestos fibers was completely foreseeable and could or should have been anticipated by the defendants,” the complaint states.

Belt claims the defendants knew or should have known that the asbestos fibers contained in their products had a toxic, poisonous and highly deleterious effect upon the health of people.

Belt also alleges that the defendants included asbestos in their products even when adequate substitutes were available and failed to provide any or adequate instructions concerning the safe methods of working with and around asbestos.

He also claims that the defendants failed to require and advise employees of hygiene practices designed to reduce or prevent carrying asbestos fibers home.

Belt also claims that he has sought, but has been unable to obtain, full disclosure of relevant documents and information from the defendants leading him to believe the defendants destroyed documents related to asbestos.

“It was foreseeable to a reasonable person/entity in the respective positions of defendants, that said documents and information constituted evidence, which was material to potential civil litigation-namely asbestos litigation,” the complaint states.

He claims that as a result of each defendant breaching its duty to preserve material evidence by destroying documents and information he has been prejudiced and impaired in proving claims against all potential parties.

“Plaintiff has been caused to suffer damages in the form of impaired ability to recover against defendants and lost or reduced compensation from other potentially liable parties in this litigation,” the complaint states.

As a result of the alleged negligence, Belt claims he was exposed to fibers containing asbestos. He developed a disease caused only by asbestos which has disabled and disfigured him, the complaint states.

He seeks damages to help pay for the cost of his treatment.

Belt also suffers “great physical pain and mental anguish, and also will be hindered and prevented from pursuing his normal course of employment, thereby losing large sums of money,” the complaint states.

He is seeking at least $550,000 in damages for negligence, willful and wanton acts, conspiracy, and negligent spoliation of evidence among other allegations.

“In addition to compensatory damages, an award of punitive damages is appropriate and necessary in order to punish the defendants for willful, wanton, intentional and reckless misconduct and to deter them and others from engaging in like misconduct in the future,” the complaint states.

Belt is represented by Timothy Hulla of the Law Offices of Michael Bilbrey of Edwardsville.

The case has been assigned to Circuit Court Judge Daniel Stack.

Exposure to a microwave popcorn additive linked to a deadly lung disease would be swiftly regulated under a bill passed on Wednesday by the U.S. House of Representatives, defying a White House veto threat. The bill would order quick action by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to limit exposure to diacetyl, which is linked to bronchiolitis obliterans, or “popcorn lung,” a disorder found in popcorn plant workers.

The House bill was approved by a 260-154 vote. No companion bill has been under consideration in the Senate, but Sen. Edward Kennedy praised the House and called for action.

“Too many workers exposed to diacetyl have become ill or even died. The Senate should pass the bill as soon as possible,” said the Massachusetts Democrat.

The Bush administration said on Tuesday it would be “premature” to regulate diacetyl — which gives microwave popcorn a buttery flavor — as proposed in the bill, a view shared by some House Republicans.

“Fundamentally, the science does not exist to state the link between diacetyl and impaired lung function,” said South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson in floor debate.  

But Democrats criticized the record of OSHA and the Bush administration on addressing popcorn lung.

“The time has come for Congress to act … We’re all terribly disappointed by the failure of OSHA to engage this problem,” said California Democrat George Miller.

Connecticut Democrat Rosa DeLauro said cases of popcorn lung have been identified over several years in popcorn workers in Missouri, Iowa, Ohio, New Jersey and Illinois.

“Scientists have called diacetyl’s effect on workers’ lungs ‘astonishingly grotesque’ and likened it to ‘inhaling acid’ … The science on this chemical’s danger is clear,” said DeLauro.

The House bill would require the Labor Department to develop interim standards, limiting diacetyl exposure by workers in flavor manufacturing plants and microwave popcorn factories. The interim standard would be in effect for up to two years while a final regulation is prepared.

The Food and Drug Administration said on Sept. 5 it was investigating a report of a man who came down with the life-threatening disease after eating several bags of butter-flavored microwave popcorn each day.

In April, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said workers at factories making food flavorings and popcorn run the risk of contracting the disease, which causes coughing and shortness of breath and steadily worsens.

At least two microwave popcorn makers — ConAgra Foods Inc and Weaver Popcorn Co Inc — have said recently that they would stop using diacetyl.

Months before a fire at a condemned ground zero skyscraper killed two firefighters, a former construction chief wrote memos urging the state owners to add staff and funding to the project to ensure it was safe.The state agency that owns the former Deutsche Bank tower countered Wednesday that it added three new full-time staffers to the site this year and that it never got the latest memo by Charles Maikish, at the time the executive director of the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center.

Several investigations of the Aug. 18 blaze at the building have exposed a litany of safety violations and accidents at the toxic tower and raised questions about which agency in the government-run project is most responsible for the failures.

Maikish, who ran the construction agency that was overseeing the tower’s dismantling since mid-2006, wrote in a May 25 memo that the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which owns the building, needed to put more staff on the project. The 41-story tower has been dismantled down to the 26th floor, while more work continues to remove toxic debris left there by the Sept. 11, 2001, collapse of the World Trade Center’s south tower.

“We have been repeatedly denied resources,” Maikish wrote to Avi Schick, the LMDC’s chairman.

Of the work to dismantle the building, he said, “we also made it very clear that we could not perform it safely or efficiently without being provided the necessary resources.”

Maikish included a copy of a letter that he said he drafted in December to the LMDC but never sent at the request of the office of George Pataki, governor at the time. It expressed similar concerns about staff and funding for the project. A Maikish spokesman said the letter wasn’t sent because Maikish believed after talking with Pataki’s office that more funding would soon be available from the administration of Pataki’s successor, Eliot Spitzer.

Excerpts of the memos appeared Wednesday in the New York Post.

Rebuilding officials and Maikish’s spokesman, Ken Frydman, issued conflicting statements Wednesday about who knew of the letter and who received it.

Frydman said Wednesday that the letter was hand-delivered May 25 to Schick, LMDC President David Emil, Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff and two other LMDC board members. And he said that Bob Harvey, who was Maikish’s deputy in May and now heads the command center, “helped to prepare and review the memo” and put together a chart of work assignments for the project that was attached to it.

LMDC spokesman Errol Cockfield said Wednesday that no LMDC officials or board members “have any record or recollection of having received” the memo.

“I wasn’t aware of the memo or it going out, quite frankly,” Harvey said Wednesday.

The command center, created in 2004 by the governor and the mayor to manage billions of dollars of construction at the Trade Center site and downtown Manhattan, took a greater role in the building once heavier work began last year.

At that time, the LMDC announced it was going out of business and reduced its staff, including two managers who had been on the site of the contaminated skyscraper every day.

Contractors in December began taking down the building floor by floor and continued work removing toxic debris left there by the collapse of the trade center’s south tower.

It has been plagued by safety violations and accidents since then; investigators blame careless smoking for the blaze that killed the firefighters.

Workers at the nation’s fourth-largest port stayed off the job Tuesday, bringing the loading and unloading of ships to a halt, after a longshoreman was crushed to death by a shipping container, officials said.The 15-ton container was being locked onto the top of another container on the deck of a cargo ship at the Port of Oakland when it slipped and fell on the worker Monday afternoon, said John Showalter, spokesman for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

The Alameda County coroner’s office identified the victim as Reginald Ross, 39, of San Francisco.

The nearly 1,500 members of ILWU Longshore Local 10 did not go to work Tuesday as investigators probed the accident. Workers will return to the job pending the outcome of a safety review under way per the union’s contract, Showalter said.

Even if workers return Wednesday, port officials said it would be at least five days before the port could overcome the cargo backlog and return to normal operations.

“Certainly there will be some kind of ripple effect,” port spokeswoman Marilyn Sandifur said.