|
|
|
N.Y. man guilty of killing family, burning home
Court News |
2008/03/03 19:26
|
| A Dutchess County jury Saturday convicted Charles Gilleo Jr. on 30 of 31 murder charges in the Jan. 19, 2007, shootings of Manuel and Tina Morey and the stabbing and bludgeoning of their three boys in their Fishkill home.p class=inside-copyThe jury's verdicts capped more than 37 hours of deliberations over a four-and-a-half days in the Dutchess County Courthouse, in Poughkeepsie./pp class=inside-copyGilleo, 33, of Hopewell Junction, N.Y., also was convicted on five counts of armed robbery, two counts of conspiracy, one count of perjury and two counts of arson./pp class=inside-copyA co-defendant, 30-year-old Mark Serrano, was convicted last year on 31 first- and second-degree murder charges, in addition to arson, robbery, conspiracy and perjury charges./pp class=inside-copyGilleo and Serrano were accused of going to the Morey home on Route 82 in Fishkill and robbing Manuel and Tina of cash and cocaine, killing all five members of the family and setting fire to their house and car in an attempt to cover up the crimes./p |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Venezuelan pleads guilty in suitcase scandal
Court News |
2008/03/03 19:25
|
| A Venezuelan pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in the alleged cover-up of a plot to smuggle $800,000 into Argentina to fund a presidential election campaign, officials said on Monday.span id=midArticle_byline/spanspan id=midArticle_0/spanpCarlos Kauffmann, 35, was one of five men accused of acting on behalf of Venezuela's anti-U.S. government in a case that touched off corruption allegations in Argentina and diplomatic tensions between the Washington, Caracas and Buenos Aires./pspan id=midArticle_1/spanpKauffmann entered a guilty plea on Friday to a charge of conspiring to act as an agent of Venezuela without registering with the U.S. government and could face five years in prison. He agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, according to a plea agreement released by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami./p |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Kid Rock Pleads Not Guilty to Battery
Court News |
2008/03/03 19:25
|
| Kid Rock has pleaded not guilty to a charge of battery from a fight at a Waffle House in Atlanta. Robert James Ritchie, better known as the musician Kid Rock, was not present for the plea. His attorney, Darryl Cohen, waived an arraignment hearing and entered the plea on Ritchie's behalf in DeKalb County State Court, according to Cohen's office.pRitchie and five members of his entourage were arrested October 21st on a misdemeanor charge of simple battery. The charges stem from a fight at a a metro-Atlanta Waffle House, where they had stopped following his performance at The Tabernacle./ppOfficials say a fight broke out after another customer recognized a woman in Kid Rock's party and exchanged words with her, prompting Ritchie to exchange words, too./p |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Doctor-lawyer project tackles malpractice
Legal Opinions |
2008/03/03 19:23
|
| pDoctors and lawyers in Montgomery County are doing something unusual: working together. pMembers of the county's bar association and medical society, along with Abington Memorial Hospital, tomorrow are launching a pilot project they hope will keep more malpractice disputes out of court. pLawyers and doctors will work in teams to mediate conflicts between patients and the hospital or doctors. The hope is that the new approach will resolve problems more quickly and humanely, without the demonization of both sides that can occur in malpractice battles. pWhether it will save money remains to be seen. Project leaders say that is not the primary goal. pJohn J. Kelly, Abington Memorial's chief of staff, said he wanted to avoid the harshness of litigation. At the end of the day, I think everybody walks away feeling like it's a much more productive process, and it's a healing process, he said of mediation. pI think litigation makes everything so much more painful for everyone, and I'm not sure healing ever occurs. pPlanning for the project started three years ago after a nudge from the state Supreme Court. It encouraged counties to look at alternatives to traditional court battles as doctors threatened to leave Pennsylvania because of skyrocketing malpractice-insurance rates. Not much has happened elsewhere in the state, but doctors and lawyers here pursued it because there's got to be a better way to do things than the way we've been doing them, said Mark Lopatin, a rheumatologist, who led the medical society's part of the effort. pPeople on both sides say the current system is emotionally draining, even when you win. pClients hate courtrooms, said Robert Morris, president of the Montgomery County Bar Association. I haven't ever had a client that wanted to get in the witness stand. pThe project deals with unhappy patients and their families through a two-step process. In the first, doctors and nurses at Abington have been trained to listen to such patients and explain what happened in as much detail as possible. Project leaders say many people who sue do so primarily to find out what happened. pIf that is not enough, patients can move to mediation, a process that helps them hammer out a settlement with their doctors. The mediator shuttles between the sides, bringing their positions together. Unlike a judge or arbitrator, the mediator does not decide the case. Instead, the patient and doctor - or more likely their attorneys - determine an acceptable outcome. Usually that involves money, but patients also often want an apology and assurance that steps will be taken to prevent future mistakes. pIf the sides are still fighting, patients still have the option of going to court. pIn this region, Drexel University College of Medicine's doctors have the longest-running mediation program. Theirs often uses a team approach, pairing lawyers who typically represent patients with those who defend doctors. Abington's new program creates even more unusual teams. A lawyer with health experience will be the lead mediator, and a doctor will be his medical partner. pIt's precedent-setting, this project, said Jane Ruddell, a former health-system lawyer who now runs a company devoted to alternative dispute resolution. It's really trying to change a culture. pRuddell ran a training session last week in the bar association's Norristown office to train about 30 doctors and lawyers to be mediators. Many of the lawyers had previous experience with mediation, but the daylong program was an eye-opener for the doctors, who understood for the first time how hard and time-consuming it was to sort through strong emotion and find common ground. pIn a training exercise, the doctors and lawyers were split into groups for some role-playing. Abington Memorial obstetrician-gynecologist Robert Michaelson played the mediator for one. The bar association's Morris was an angry woman with cancer, and Mark Pyfer, president of the Montgromery County Medical Society, was her even angrier husband. pThe patient in the case had had foot pain, which the doctor thought was caused by a pinched nerve. The patient decided not to have surgery the doctor recommended and later lost part of her leg after the cancer was discovered. pMichaelson got into trouble almost immediately, waiting too long to separate the warring parties. He ran out of time without getting close to a settlement, but Morris, who is a trained mediator, and Pyfer, a novice, proved a good team. pI thought she was negligent because she never paid much attention to me, Morris said petulantly. pDr. Reynolds can say she's sorry, but I don't think she has any idea what it's like to go through life with one leg, Pyfer chimed in. Then he asked for $10 million. pDoctors came away from the experience understanding why the lawyers will take the lead in mediations, at least in the beginning. pThe most striking thing about this was . . . how difficult this is, said Lopatin, the rheumatologist. pFrank Murphy, a lawyer who attended the training, said it might be harder than the hospital anticipated to avoid malpractice filings and to persuade lawyers to be totally open with one another. Legal-filing deadlines, strategy, and payment agreements give lawyers an incentive to file in court and, sometimes, to stretch out the proceedings. pAdvocates of mediation say it is often cheaper than court because there are fewer exhibits and medical experts to pay for. pParticipants usually sign confidentiality agreements, a step that supporters say spares everyone embarrassment. The downside of the secrecy is that mediated cases create no legal precedent and leave no public record. Monetary settlements are reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank. But its information is available only to hospitals and professional groups, not consumers. pSome doctors also worry that mediation will be just one more step on the way to court. That has not been Drexel's experience. Of 40 cases that have gone to mediation, only three were unresolved. pThose involved in the Montgomery County experiment say it is more likely to give patients what they really want: early action, an apology, and information. Patients want answers. That's what they want more than anything, said Sheila Stieritz, a former director of patient safety at Abington Memorial, who consulted on the pilot project. And if it's something really serious, most patients want it not to happen to anybody else./p |
|
|
|
|
|
Legal Marketing News RSS
