Arrest of Stanford student journalist covering barricaded pro-Palestinian protest gets pushback

Arrest of Stanford student journalist covering barricaded pro-Palestinian protest gets pushback

Jun 25, 2024

Suzanne Phan | ABC 7 News | June 21, 2024, 11:45 PM PST

STANFORD, Calif. (KGO) — When pro-Palestinian protesters occupied the office of Stanford’s president, a student journalist followed them inside.

That student reporter did what journalists do–documented the news as it happened.

However, the journalist could now face criminal charges. His attorney and free speech organizations are pushing back.

“His job was to report. He had no criminal intent,” said Nick Rowley, the attorney representing Stanford student Dilan Gohill.

Police arrested the 19-year-old freshman on June 5 as he was covering a protest for the school newspaper, the Stanford Daily.

Police say a dozen pro-Palestinian protesters barricaded themselves inside the university president’s office and did extensive damage.

The protesters were arrested and booked on suspicion of felony burglary, vandalism and conspiracy.

Gohill, who was reporting and wearing his press badge at the time, could also face charges.

“Charges have not been filed. But Stanford is pushing to have charges filed against him, which is wrong. It’s unethical. It’s unconstitutional,” Rowley said.

On Thursday, the First Amendment Coalition based in San Rafael, along with two dozen journalism groups sent a letter to Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen, asking him not to prosecute the student journalist.

“It was clear that Mr. Gohill was there at the scene to cover the news. There’ s no evidence he was there conspiring with any of the protesters or that he was there for any other reason other than to report the news,” said David Snyder with First Amendment Coalition.

ABC7 News reached out to Stanford University for comment but did not hear back. In a statement previously released, the university said:

“We believe that the daily reporter reporting from inside the building acted in violation of the law and university policies.”

The DA’s office says it has not received the case yet and cannot comment.

Gohill’s attorney says this case is straight forward.

“Dilan didn’t do anything wrong. He didn’t vandalize anything. The protesters, they may have committed crimes. That’s for a jury to decide they had the intent. They wanted to barricade themselves in. This is a young reporter who got stuck in the middle of it all–trying his best to ethically do his job. He didn’t do anything of those things,” Rowley said.

Red the entire article here: ABC 7 News Bay Area
SUPPORTERS OF TORT REFORM IN IOWA ACCUSED OF MANUFACTURING A CRISIS

SUPPORTERS OF TORT REFORM IN IOWA ACCUSED OF MANUFACTURING A CRISIS

Jan 11, 2024

By 

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Billionaire Charles Koch’s political network won a major state legislative victory last year when Iowa passed a bill that limits damages in medical malpractice lawsuits. Now, a new court filing claims that an insurance company deliberately lost a major medical malpractice case instead of agreeing to a settlement, with the explicit goal of spurring the Iowa Legislature to take action on the issue.

The case involved severe brain damage to a child due to a botched delivery, which in 2022 resulted in a $97.4-million jury verdict, the largest in Iowa’s history.

In response, the Iowa Legislature passed a so-called “tort reform” bill that Republican Governor Kim Reynolds — who won reelection in 2022 with Koch’s backing — signed into law on February 16, 2023. House File 161 limits “noneconomic” damages for pain and suffering that a jury can award a plaintiff to $1 million (or $2 million if the civil action includes a hospital) in cases of medical malpractice if there is substantial or permanent loss or impairment of a bodily function, substantial disfigurement, loss of pregnancy, or death.

Legislators cited the record-high jury verdict as a reason for supporting the cap on damages. Prior to passage of the new law, there were no limits on jury awards for medical malpractice cases in Iowa involving severe injury or death.

Tyler Raygor, director of Iowa’s American for Prosperity (Iowa AFP), and Drew Klein, director of the group’s Des Moines branch, lobbied in favor of the bill while its members sent legislators letters of support. Charles and David Koch founded AFP, which relies on Koch funding vehicles for most of its revenues. 

Nationally, the Koch astroturf operation claims 4 million members and 36 state chapters, with plans to expand to all 50 states.

AFP’s super PAC, AFP Action, recently endorsed former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley in the GOP presidential primary.

AFP state chapters have long pushed tort reform, and last year Florida’s AFP chapter congratulated Governor Ron DeSantis and the state legislature for limiting what it called “frivolous” lawsuits. AFP also endorses candidates who support limiting the rights of plaintiffs to collect damages.

The legislation supported by AFP in Iowa passed because legislators reacted to this one very large court judgment, fearing that more verdicts awarding such high damages would prevent doctors from practicing and force hospitals to close down. But in their belief that the case had been manipulated to create a manufactured crisis calling for tort reform, the doctors at Obstetric and Gynecological (OB/GYN) Associates of Iowa City, who were the defendants, sued their insurance company MMIC — one of the nation’s largest medical malpractice insurers — and its lawyers, claiming that they conspired to refuse to settle the lawsuit even though the plaintiffs (the parents of the child born with brain damage) were willing to do so. 

It’s not the first time MMIC has been accused of refusing to settle a medical malpractice case. In 2019, the insurer was sued for bad faith over a $12-million verdict involving the unnecessary removal of a man’s prostate. That case was dismissed in February 2023.

According to the current lawsuit, MMIC’s motivation was to let the OB/GYN case go to jury trial and hope for such a large judgment that state legislators would be forced to limit huge jury awards for noneconomic damages in the future. 

In fact, at the same time MMIC was representing the OB/GYN doctors, it was simultaneously holding seminars for lawmakers and lobbying for limits on medical malpractice awards. The pending state lawsuit brought by the doctors and clinic — which was forced into bankruptcy by the record-breaking award, even though it was subsequently reduced to $76 million by a judge — claims that Shuttleworth Ingersoll, the law firm MMIC hired, did not represent them and instead delivered on a political favor for the insurance company. 

OB/GYN and its doctors allege that MMIC and its lawyers used them as political pawns to advance their legislation, acted in bad faith, and presented a sham defense.

The lawsuit, brought by the clinic’s and doctors’ new legal counsel, also claims:

The lawsuit also alleges that MMIC wanted to get such a high jury verdict that the defendants would be forced into bankruptcy.

MMIC and its lawyers, according to the lawsuit, “knew that the story of a $97 million verdict and three female OB/GYN physicians having to file bankruptcy and close their practice because of a large jury verdict would give [the insurer] what it needed to convince Iowa lawmakers to vote to pass the cap [on med-mal judgments].” 

AFP Action is not the only Koch-founded group pushing limits on medical malpractice judgments. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has developed dozens of model bills that limit liability for medical malpractice, unsafe products, damage to the environment, and workplace safety. Those bills include one to cap noneconomic damages and one to limit what kind of evidence juries are allowed to hear when considering damages for pain and suffering.

View the entire article at Exposed by CMD

RESILIENCE IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY: MITCH CARTER’S INSPIRATIONAL JOURNEY

RESILIENCE IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY: MITCH CARTER’S INSPIRATIONAL JOURNEY

Dec 24, 2023

A newly filed lawsuit claims an insurance company engineered a record-setting medical malpractice judgment in Iowa to spur state legislators into passing tort-reform legislation.

In March 2022, a Johnson County jury awarded more than $97.4 million to the family of a boy who sustained serious brain damage during his birth at an Iowa City hospital. The award, believed to be the largest medical malpractice judgment in Iowa history, was later reduced to $75.6 million.

The boy’s parents, Kathleen and Andrew Kromphardt, had sued Obstetric and Gynecologic Associates of Iowa City and Coralville and others, alleging their son’s brain damage was caused by negligence in the hours leading up to his birth in August 2018.

Court filings by parties on both sides of the case suggest that the clinic, the doctors and the family were interested in settling the case out of court for an amount that would be covered by the clinic’s insurance policy. The insurance company resisted, however, and rejected proposals to settle the case for any amount, which resulted in the malpractice case going to trial.

This week, the clinic’s attorney, Nick Rowley, filed a lawsuit in state court arguing that the insurer, MMIC Insurance/Constellation Inc., and its attorneys, Shuttleworth & Ingersoll of Cedar Rapids, acted in bad faith.

MMIC, the lawsuit claims, used the lawsuit and the resulting jury award to persuade state lawmakers to pass tort-reform legislation that would save insurance companies millions by capping damages for malpractice that could be paid out to patients and their families.

“Once a jury decided the case was worth $97 million, MMIC/Constellation used the jury’s verdict to convince Iowa politicians to put a cap on non-economic damages in place in the state of Iowa,” the lawsuit claims. “MMIC/Constellation unreasonably chose not to settle and make the lawsuit and verdict go away, and then used OB-GYN Associates’ financial and reputational demise as propaganda to pass tort reform in Iowa. MMIC/Constellation had been attempting to get a hard non-economic damages cap put in place in Iowa for many years … MMIC/Constellation knew that the story of a $97 million verdict and three female OB/GYN physicians having to file bankruptcy and close their practice because of a large jury verdict, would give MMIC/Constellation what it needed to convince Iowa lawmakers to vote to pass the cap.”

The defendants in the case have yet to file a response to the lawsuit but have denied any wrongdoing in related federal-court filings.

Rowley acknowledged Wednesday that the lawsuit speaks not just to the insurance company’s actions, but to its motives — but, he said, he doesn’t anticipate it will be a difficult case to prove.

“I don’t think it’s going to be that tough,” he said. “A jury is going to see what happened. It’s right there, it’s right out in the open, because that’s how bold they are in Iowa. And wait until I get all their emails and their text messages and everything. We’re going to look at everything and leave no stone unturned.”

LAWSUIT: GOVERNOR AND LAWMAKERS WERE LOBBIED

The allegations in the lawsuit echo those made in court filings related to the original malpractice lawsuit and the clinic’s bankruptcy. In relation to those filings, Rowley claimed the insurer’s decision to take the case to trial, rather than settle, was part of predetermined strategy of forcing the clinic into bankruptcy, enabling lobbyists and lawmakers to claim tort reform was needed to save medical providers from moving out of Iowa.

The bankruptcy element of the plan was almost successful, Rowley claims, until a federal judge in the bankruptcy case stepped in and dismissed the case as fraudulent.

The newly filed lawsuit claims that in the wake of the record-setting judgment, MMIC/Constellation “held seminars and lobbied for the implementation of non-economic caps in Iowa, involving the governor in the process. MMIC/Constellation told the story of three female OB/GYN physicians who had to file for bankruptcy and close down their clinic because of greedy trial lawyers and out-of-control civil litigation in Iowa. What MMIC/Constellation failed to share in these seminars and meetings with Iowa lawmakers is the fact that MMIC/Constellation was the insurer in the case of the $97 million verdict and all of the other large jury verdicts in Iowa — and that each case went to trial because MMIC/Constellation refused to negotiate and settle reasonably.”

House File 161 capped noneconomic damages in lawsuits against health care providers for medical incidents that result in the loss or impairment of a bodily function, disfigurement or death, at $1 million for clinics and individual doctors, and $2 million for hospitals.

Rowley has argued that MMIC/Constellation, in executing the alleged scheme to “bamboozle” state legislators, repeatedly put its own financial and political interests ahead of its policyholder, the clinic, which it used as “a pawn to change Iowa law regarding noneconomic damages – telling Iowans, at best, half-truths and, at worst, straight-up lies … The bad faith runs deep and will prove to be one of the worst cases of bad-faith conduct justifying punitive damages in Iowa state history.”

Rowley said Wednesday that the insurance companies have been “playing the long game” and focusing on long-term profits rather than short-term losses. “They sit up there on their high insurance-company thrones, and they see the world through a whole different lens than the rest of us,” Rowley said.

JUDGE QUESTIONED BANKRUPTCY FILING

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for bad faith, legal malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract.

The new litigation follows an aborted bankruptcy filing by the clinic last fall. The Kromphardts’ attorneys had challenged the filing, arguing it was filed in bad faith to avoid payment of the malpractice award.

On Jan. 20, the conservator in the bankruptcy case filed a motion with the court, alleging the clinic was acting in bad faith by filing for bankruptcy and arguing it was a litigation tactic to avoid payment of a bond that would secure some of the clinic’s assets.

In a March 29 decision dismissing the bankruptcy case, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Anita L. Shodeen expressed concern over “the relationship” between the clinic and its insurer, MMIC. The judge suggested the insurance company may have given the clinic certain financial favors in return for the clinic filing for bankruptcy as part of an effort to shield MMIC from having to make a $12 million policy payout.

She noted that MMIC paid fees to the clinic’s bankruptcy professionals and offered the clinic favorable terms on its insurance coverage when no one else would. In addition, the judge stated, MMIC had offered to extend credit to the clinic.

“A question arises about whether the bankruptcy was motivated by a proper purpose or to obtain financial advantages from MMIC in exchange for filing bankruptcy to attempt to protect it from making payment under the policy,” Shodeen stated in her decision.

This article first appeared in the Iowa Capital Dispatch.

BAYER HIT WITH $857 MILLION VERDICT ON TOXIC MONSANTO CHEMICALS

BAYER HIT WITH $857 MILLION VERDICT ON TOXIC MONSANTO CHEMICALS

Dec 19, 2023

Jef Feeley | Bloomberg News | December 19, 2023, 12:12 AM PST
Bayer AG was ordered to pay $857 million to former students and parent volunteers at a Seattle-area school who blamed exposure to the company’s hazardous chemicals at the facility for causing brain damage and other ailments.

A jury in Washington state on Monday found that levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, at the school weren’t “reasonably safe” and awarded $73 million in compensatory damages and $784 million in punitive damages to two parents who volunteered at Sky Valley Education Center along with five former students, according to court filings.

The decision marks the eighth time Washington state juries have found that students, teachers and parents who spent time in the facility were harmed by exposure to PCBs used in fluorescent light fixtures. Jurors have awarded a total of more than $1.5 billion in damages in those cases, which Bayer is appealing.

MONSANTO’S WOES

“Our clients would happily trade all the money they were awarded if they could get their health back,” Mike Wampold, one of the lawyers who represented the students and parents, said in an interview.

Bayer will appeal the verdict and pursue post-trial motions to reduce the damages awarded, it said by email. The company insists that the plaintiffs were not exposed to unsafe levels of PCBs. The stock was little changed in Frankfurt trading.

Bayer, which bought Monsanto in 2018 for $63 billion, has been dealing with a host of legal issues inherited from the US maker of seeds and herbicides, including thousands of lawsuits alleging that its Roundup weed killer causes cancer.

Besides the $16 billion set aside to resolve Roundup cases, the German conglomerate faces mounting liabilities tied to PCBs, frequently found in electrical equipment. The compounds were banned in the US in 1979 after researchers found they posed a cancer threat.

Bayer’s top-end exposure in PCB contamination claims from US states and individuals could exceed $2.5 billion, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. The company has already paid out more than $650 million in settlements of lawsuits filed by US cities and counties over pollution of waterways.

SCHOOL’S LIGHTS

In the most recent Washington state case, a parent at Sky Valley school alleged PCB exposure caused her brain damage, while others in the case blamed the chemicals for neurological disorders and illnesses such as lupus, according to court records.

In the trial, Angela Bard, a volunteer at the school which her daughter Jessica attended, won a total of $119 million for her injuries. Jessica was awarded $127 million in damages.

Jurors found that Monsanto and Pharmacia, a related company, supplied PCB-laced products used in the school’s lighting system and failed to provide adequate warnings about the chemicals’ health risks, according to court filings.

The verdict was reported earlier by the New York Times.

Last month, a separate jury awarded workers at the Sky Valley facility $165 million in damages over their claims that the PCBs caused their cancers and brain injuries. The plaintiffs included six teachers and a custodian.

The most recent case is Bard v. Pharmacia, 21-2-14305, Washington State Superior Court for King County (Seattle).

View the entire article at Bloomberg Law

JURY RETURNS $63M VERDICT AFTER FINDING CHEVRON COVERED UP TOXIC PIT ON CALIFORNIA LAND

JURY RETURNS $63M VERDICT AFTER FINDING CHEVRON COVERED UP TOXIC PIT ON CALIFORNIA LAND

Jun 8, 2023

Published 7:42 PM PST, June 8, 2023

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — A California jury has returned a $63 million verdict against Chevron after finding the oil giant covered up a toxic chemical pit on land purchased by a man who built a house on it and was later diagnosed with a blood cancer.

Kevin Wright, who has multiple myeloma, unknowingly built his home directly over the chemical pit near Santa Barbara in 1985, according to his lawsuit.

Starting in 1974, Chevron subsidiary Union Oil Company of California had operated a sump pit for oil and gas production, a process that left the carcinogenic chemical benzene on the property, court papers said.

Wright bought the land and built the house in 1985. Nearly three decades later, he was diagnosed with the cancer that attacks plasma cells in the blood and can be caused by benzene exposure, court documents said.

The jurors in Santa Barbara on Wednesday returned the $63 million verdict, said Jakob Norman, an attorney for Wright. Norman called the case a “blatant example of environmental pollution and corporate malfeasance.”

Chevron said Union Oil Company would appeal the judgment.

“We strongly disagree with the jury’s decisions to award compensatory and punitive damages,” Chevron said in a statement Thursday.

Wright’s cancer is in remission, his attorneys said, but he regularly undergoes chemotherapy treatments to hold the illness at bay.

“They cut corners, and my life was turned upside down as a result,” Wright said in a statement provided by his attorneys. “Chevron’s continued denial of the harm they caused is a shameful reminder that this company values only profits, not people.”

View the entire article at AP News