Iowa Wrongful Death Case
Iowa Wrongful Death Article
As is common in other states, Iowa wrongful death lawsuits are generally originated by a surviving family member. It is necessary to contact an Iowa personal injury attorney to handle these cases, which can be generated from a number of causes including accidents, medical malpractices, criminal attacks, and work or play related activities.
Damages in an Iowa wrongful death lawsuit can include loss of income, loss of spousal relations, loss of past, present and future expected income, medical costs, emotional distress, and other damages from the time of the action that resulted in death.
Many Iowa wrongful death lawsuits are settled for lesser sums out of court. Juries can mete out criminal punishment if warranted. Common causes for wrongful death include falls, drowning, poisoning, vehicular accidents, workplace accidents, and fires. Consult a licensed Iowa attorney for guidance if you feel you have a potential cause for a wrongful death case.
Wrongful death lawsuit against former Central Texas minister Baker pushed back
It will be at least fall before a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of a Hewitt elementary school teacher who died mysteriously in 2006 makes it to trial.
The Nebraska wrongful death lawsuit, which alleges that former Central Texas Baptist minister Matt Baker killed his wife, Kari, and tried to make her death appear to be a suicide, had been set to go to trial in April.
At a hearing Thursday, Judge Ralph Strother of Waco’s 19th State District Court granted more time for Matt Baker’s Kerrville attorney, Richard L. Ellison, to investigate and take depositions from expert witnesses called by the plaintiffs.
The purpose of the hearing was for Strother to rule on Ellison’s motion asking the judge to throw out the lawsuit, citing a lack of evidence to support the allegations against Matt Baker. That decision has been pushed to a later pretrial date.
Matt Baker, who now lives in Kerrville, was not at the hearing.
About a half-dozen members of Kari Baker’s family were seated in the court.
The family’s attorney, Bill Johnston, said the family is ready to see the case go to trial but is being patient and understanding of the judicial process.
Kari Baker’s death initially was ruled a suicide by sleeping pills, and she was buried without an autopsy or further investigation. Her parents, James and Linda Dulin, pushed investigators to look into their daughter’s death, as they became convinced that their son-in-law had killed her.
After her body was exhumed and the investigation was reopened, Justice of the Peace Billy Martin changed his cause-of-death ruling to “undetermined.”
The McLennan County District Attorney’s Office continues to work on the criminal case against Matt Baker. First Assistant District Attorney Crawford Long said the office is waiting for forensic evidence to be returned.
The case has not gone before a grand jury.
“The civil action is a way of figuring out what happened, alleging it, and then proving it,” Johnston said.
Ellison said he intends to prove that expert witnesses called by the plaintiffs are biased and that their testimony will be based on hearsay.
Family of Boy Mauled by SF Tiger Files Suit
The parents of a 17-year-old killed in a tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo last Christmas sued the city and the zoo Tuesday.
Marilza and Carlos Sousa filed a wrongful death suit Tuesday in San Francisco Superior Court almost a year after Carlos Sousa Jr. was killed when a Siberian tiger escaped its enclosure.
The suit claims the enclosure's wall was lower than the recommended national standard and alleges zoo officials ignored employees' warnings that the wall was not tall enough. The family is seeking unspecified damages.
Their lawyer, Michael Cardoza, said the family hopes they can reach a settlement with the zoo. "It will never bring total closure to this, but it will begin their healing process because they won't have to relive this again through a lawsuit," he said.
The 243-pound tiger, Tatiana, also injured the San Jose teenager's two friends, Kulbir and Paul Dhaliwal, before police shot the animal dead.
Matt Dorsey, a spokesman for City Attorney Dennis Herrera, said Tuesday the city's agreements with the nonprofit San Francisco Zoological Society mean the zoo must decide whether to settle.
"We do hope that all of the parties involved in the case can reach a just resolution," Dorsey said. "We also recognize what a difficult tragedy this has been for the Sousa family and our hearts go out to them."
Lora LaMarca, a zoo spokeswoman, said Tuesday the zoo had not seen yet the suit and declined to comment on pending litigation.
Wrongful-Death Suit Defendant Has Not Given Deposition
12/22/08 -- A no-show defendant in a civil North Dakota wrongful death suit is given more time to explain his absence.
Mickey Patterson still has not given a deposition in a lawsuit filed four months ago by the families of two women who went missing in August of 2006.
The civil suit claims Patterson killed former state school co-workers Kay Harrelson and Peggy Merimon.
Harrelson's body was found near Shallowater.
Merimon's whereabouts remain unknown.
Patterson was initially ordered to appear before a judge December 19th, and now has until January 23rd, under a new court order.
In addition, lawmen are authorized to arrest Patterson and bring him before a Lubbock judge to explain why he should not be held in contempt.
Court records show Patterson's last known address is in Oregon.
Wrongful death suit appealed
A federal appeals court will hear arguments in a Wisconsin wrongful death lawsuit filed against Carroll County in 2006 by the estate of a woman who died in the back of a sheriff's deputy's squad car.
The family of Debbie Loggins had sought $10 million from the county. The Wisconsin Wrongful Death lawsuit was dismissed in May by a federal judge in Aberdeen.
U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock ruled in May that Loggins' death did not result from force used by three deputies when they arrested her Sept. 17, 2005.
A $15 million lawsuit against the deputies - Michael Spellman, Charles Jones and David Mims - was dismissed in 2006.
Loggins' family appeared to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has placed the case on its docket for arguments on Feb. 2 in New Orleans.
Carroll County attorneys had argued that Loggins' death had nothing to do with the actions of the deputies.
Loggins, 33, of North Carrollton, had been charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. She was unconscious when she arrived at a private prison in Grenada, authorities said.
Deputies had arrested Loggins, the mother of six, after responding to a report of two women fighting. Two hours later, Loggins was dead.
Authorities said an autopsy showed no signs or evidence of trauma.
Loggins' family contended the victim's civil rights were denied while she was in the custody of the sheriff's deputies.
Authorities contended that Loggins fought and struggled from the time deputies arrived until somewhere near Grenada.
The complaint alleged a deputy had Loggins' hands cuffed behind her back and her feet shackled, and that the officers "hog-tied" the woman by taking a set of handcuffs and linking the cuffs on her wrists to the ones on her ankles.
Then, the complaint said, the deputies placed Loggins face-down on the back seat of Mims' car and took her to the Carroll County Sheriff's Department, where Loggins was transferred to another patrol car. When Loggins arrived at the Grenada jail, the complaint said, she didn't have a pulse.
Ferry-crash death suit is settled for $2.4M
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The estate of a New Brighton woman killed in the 2003 Staten Island Ferry crash has settled its wrongful-death lawsuit against the city for $2.4 million.
Carmen Rochel Huertas, 42, a wife and the mother of a 10-year-old girl, was killed when the ferryboat Andrew J. Barberi slammed into a maintenance pier near the St. George Ferry Terminal. Ten others died and scores were injured in one of the worst mass-transit accidents in city history.
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"The city continues to express its sympathy and hopes the settlement would bring a measure of closure to the family," a spokeswoman for the city Law Department said yesterday in confirming the agreement.
Stephen P. Markus, the Garden City, L.I.-based lawyer for the Huertas estate, did not return telephone calls seeking comment.
Mrs. Huertas' family did not want to comment after her death, but neighbors praised her as a wonderful parent and friendly person.
"She's an excellent mother," Eula Martin, a next-door neighbor, told the Advance. "You couldn't find a better mother than her."
Jury selection for the trial in Brooklyn federal court had been slated for Dec. 8, but was postponed to allow for settlement talks to continue, court records show.
The settlement was the 10th of the 11 wrongful-death cases. To date, the city has settled 133 cases for just over $60 million, the spokeswoman said. The payout jumps to more than $78.3 million for resolved cases, factoring in an $18.3 million award after trial for former Staten Islander James McMillan Jr., who was rendered a quadriplegic in the crash.
Still pending are 38 cases, including one wrongful-death claim.
Lemcke released on bail
BENSON — Andrew Gordon Lemcke, 34, formerly of Appleton, appeared Friday afternoon before District Judge David Mennis in Benson to face a Swift County grand jury’s indictments on first-degree, premeditated murder and second-degree, intentional murder in the Sept. 12, 2004, shooting death of his wife, Nichole Riley-Lemcke, 26.
Lemcke’s family was able to post $10,000 bail for him by late afternoon and allow for his conditional release, according to his attorney, Brian Wojtalewicz of Appleton.
Minnesota Assistant Attorney General William Klump asked the court to set bail at $1 million, but Judge Mennis offered Lemcke two options. He could post a $100,000 bond or $10,000 cash and be released on conditions that require he not leave the state without the court’s approval. Or, he could post $1 million bond or $100,000 cash bail and be released without conditions.
In asking for $1 million bail, Klump argued that Lemcke represented a flight risk due to his connections in Arizona and the possibility of fleeing into Mexico, as well as the seriousness of the charges against him. A first-degree murder conviction carries the possibility of life in prison, while a second-degree murder conviction could result in a 40-year sentence.
Wojtalewicz called the $1 million bail request “absurd.’’ He said Lemcke desperately wanted to be reunited with his 5-year-old daughter and poses no risk.
He told the court that Lemcke was returning from Scout camp with his daughter and was only one hour from the Mexican border when Wojtalewicz called him on Nov. 16 to tell him that a grand jury had indicted him on murder. Within two hours of the phone call, Lemcke had arranged for his daughter’s care and turned himself in to the sheriff in Pinal County, Ariz., according to Wojtalewicz.
He also pointed out for the court that a Swift County grand jury had heard testimony in the case in April 2005 and had returned no bill of indictment. Lemcke has been working for the past two years as a corrections officer with Corrections Corporation of America in Florence, Ariz., owns a home there, and has not represented a threat to others or a flight risk, Wojtalewicz said.
Attorney Klump told the court that new evidence was presented to the grand jury convened in November and that led to the recent indictments. That evidence has not yet been disclosed. Klump offered some information to the court, but did not describe its significance.
He said that blood was found inside the gun involved in the shooting, on some ammunition and was collected from clothing and the car in which Lemcke transported his wife to the Appleton hospital. He told the court that expert testimony based on the new forensic evidence and presented to the grand jury “pokes some holes’’ in the defendant’s version of events.
Lemcke maintains the 2004 shooting of his wife in their Appleton home was accidental. He said she had come into the living room where he was asleep and was wielding a gun, that she fired a shot and shouted the name of a former boyfriend. They wrestled and the gun accidentally discharged as they fell, according to the defendant and his attorney.
Lemcke transported her to the Appleton hospital, where she died.
Lemcke had been incarcerated since turning himself into authorities in Arizona on Nov. 16. He was transported on Wednesday to the Meeker County Jail in Litchfield.
In his appearance, he waived his right to a plea hearing on the charges within seven days. He is asking that a public defender be appointed to represent him. Wojtalewicz said Lemcke is on the verge of losing his home in Arizona and the family has exhausted its financial resources on legal expenses previously incurred in this matter.
Lemcke appeared in court in an orange Meeker County jail suit and wearing ankle cuffs while under the guard of Swift County sheriff’s officers. His mother, Linda Lemcke, was present, as were the parents of Nichole Riley-Lemcke.
Gary and Kim Riley of Montevideo have been pressing for criminal charges against Lemcke, and had filed a wrongful death suit against him in 2007. That suit alleges that the couple’s marriage had soured, and that their daughter had told a number of people prior to her death: “If anything ever happens to me, you know where to look.’’
Riley-Lemcke was the mother of three children. The defendant is the father of the youngest child and has legal custody of her.
Government Implicated in Wrongful Death Suit
TUCSON, Az—After two federal trials resulting in hung juries, the parents of Francisco Javier Dominguez-Rivera have filed a $7.5 million wrongful death lawsuit against Border Patrol Agent Nicholas W. Corbett, and the government, for a fatal shooting that witnesses say could have been avoided.
Corbett’s history of violence made this case national news, but the lawsuit and Cochise County attorneys say that this case points to larger problems in the Border Patrol, the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security.
On November 4th, after seventeen hours of deliberation, an all white jury – comprised of five women and seven men – ended in a second hung jury against Corbett. This second mistrial sealed the deal for Corbett to return to the field after over a year in an administrative position within Customs and Border Protection.
Sometime during the morning of January 12, 2007, Dominguez-Rivera, his two brothers and his brother’s girlfriend crossed a barbed-wire cattle fence that runs east and west, dividing the United States/Mexico border.
According to Federal Court testimony by Francisco’s two family members, and his brother’s girlfriend, Sandra, Corbett sped through the desert toward their direction. They considered running, but Sandra was tired from walking several miles early that day, so the four stayed together as others in the group fled back to Mexico. They reasoned they would all get arrested and deported together so they could cross again, perhaps at a later date.
At approximately 3 P.M., a video camera – stationed on a security tower about a mile away – caught the agent’s high speed chase on camera. The poor quality of the video recording depicts Agent Corbett, speeding north from Border Road at mile marker 7.5, cutting off the undocumented crossers. Agent Corbett, towering 6 feet 4 inches and weighing approximately 265 pounds to Francisco’s five foot four inches and 140 pound frame, exited his vehicle and went around the rear end of his vehicle, near the bumper, where he fatally shot Francisco.
According to two jurors, the vote to acquit Corbett was 11-1, a reversal from the first trial where the prosecution indicated a vote between 10-2 or 11-1 to convict.
Despite the second mistrial, questions remain regarding the United States Justice Department denying resources to Cochise County to try the case.
Parents of woman killed in crash with deputy settle with county
The family of an 18-year-old woman who was killed in 2007 in an automobile crash involving a retired Portage County Sheriff’s Department deputy settled its wrongful death lawsuit against the county.
According to Blair Ward, the county’s deputy corporation counsel, the parents of
Mindy Erickson settled with Wisconsin County Mutual Insurance for about $366,000. Mindy was killed in October 2007 in a three-car crash near the intersection of Nebel and Division streets in Stevens Point.
Patrick Dunphy, an attorney for James Erickson, filed the notice of dismissal Nov. 17.
“The Erickson’s attorney and the insurance company reached a settlement in exchange for dismissal of the lawsuit,” Ward said. “This is how most civil suits are resolved.”
Messages left with Dunphy were not returned.
Erickson’s parents filed a wrongful death suit seeking $300,000 separately or $600,000 together, plus an additional $50,000 for each parent, alleging the Sheriff’s Department’s did not have a driving policy that could have prevented the crash and around $16,000 for funeral expenses.
Sgt. Ken Tschudy was responding to a call in Plover and driving at excessive speeds, according to an investigation conducted by the Wisconsin State Patrol, when his car
struck Erickson’s. A third driver in the crash was treated for minor injuries.
This fall Tschudy pleaded no contest to failure to drive under safe and appropriate conditions as the operator of an emergency vehicle and failure to obey a traffic signal. Felony reckless homicide by negligent operation of a vehicle charges were dropped.
Other stipulations within the plea agreement included a forfeiture of $674 and restitution of $4,700. Tschudy also was required to make and release a statement, and conduct a forum focusing on driving laws, with Mindy’s mom Nancy for Portage County law enforcement and emergency personnel.
Wrongful death lawsuit filed in inmate’s suicide
The Lakeville mother of a state prisoner who committed suicide is suing the state of Minnesota, alleging wrongful death.
David A. Laugerude, 28, died Jan. 25 while on a suicide watch and in a locked-down security area at the state prison in Rush City after taking an overdose of prescription and over-the-counter drugs, according to a suit filed against the state.
Deb Laugerude said her son had been diagnosed with bipolar and schizophrenic disorders and was known to be suicidal, yet he had about 700 pills of various kinds, administered by the prison, in his cell when he died. The suit, filed last month, alleges that David Laugerude died as a result of negligence, which included prison employees allowing him to have so much mixed medication.
The suit seeks at least $50,000 in damages for Laugerude's survivors.