Mississippi: Sentencing date set in Katrina fraud case
GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) — An Alabama woman is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 30 on charges she conspired to defraud the federal government by preying on Hurricane Katrina victims who needed their properties rebuilt.
Federal court records show Joyce E. Jordan of Gadsden, Ala., pleaded guilty this past week in Gulfport.
Jordan faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Prosecutors say she has agreed to make restitution to the victims.
Jordan and two family members were indicted in 2008. The indictment alleged the company signed contracts and accepted payments but did not do the work it was hired to do or didn’t do the work properly.
Her husband was sentenced to six months in prison in April. Charges were dismissed against Jordan’s son.
New York: Hospital sued over destroyed fertilized embryos
NEW YORK (AP) — A couple has sued a Long Island hospital where they went for fertility treatments, claiming it destroyed their fertilized embryos without their permission.
Abida and Sajid Mahmood filed the malpractice suit in Nassau County Supreme Court.
The lawsuit says their doctor extracted 18 eggs last November, and 16 of them were successfully fertilized. The New York Post reports that four of the embryos were later implanted into Abida Mahmood but failed to produce a pregnancy.
The couple says when they decided to change doctors in May, they were told to pick up the remaining embryos. But after waiting for an hour at the hospital, they say they were informed that the embryos had been thawed and destroyed.
Hospital spokesman told the Post the problem “was some kind of misunderstanding.”
California: Diver abandoned at sea for hours awarded $1.68M
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A scuba diver abandoned at sea for hours by a boat crew six years ago was awarded $1.68 million in damages, ending his legal battle against two Los Angeles County companies.
A Superior Court jury ruled for Daniel Carlock Friday in his lawsuit against Venice-based Ocean Adventures Dive Co. and Long Beach-based Sundiver Charters.
The jury heard testimony that Carlock, who was 45 at the time of the 2004 incident, suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and developed skin cancer from exposure after floating in the ocean 12 miles off Long Beach, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Carlock, an aerospace engineer from Santa Monica, said he prayed to God not to let him die.
Carlock was eventually rescued after being spotted by Boy Scouts passing by on a boat.
He filed suit for negligence, infliction of emotional distress and fraud after the crew of the dive boat Sundiver left him in the water when he got separated from his diving buddy.
The Sundiver, carrying 20 divers, was near the oil rig Eureka when Carlock surfaced 400 feet from the vessel after having trouble equalizing the pressure in his ears.
Despite his absence, a dive master for Ocean Adventures marked him on the dive roster as present on the boat.
Then, to escape strong currents, the vessel moved to a second dive site 7 miles away. Once the Sundiver was there, Carlock was again marked on the roster as having taken a second dive, even though he was floating alone miles away.
After a 23-day trial, the jury assessed total damages in the negligence suit at $2 million. The panel then reduced Carlock’s award on the grounds that he was partly responsible because he had been told to surface closer to the boat.
“Dan has changed the industry’s safety standards so that other divers won’t be left out in the ocean and endure this kind of terror,” said Carlock’s attorney, Scott Koepke.
Koepke said industry standards had previously lacked specifics on how to count divers. “Now they have to have visual verification and redundancy,” he said. “And the dive boat captains, not just the dive masters, are responsible for the count.”
A man answering the telephone at Ocean Adventures said owner Stephen Ladd was unreachable because he was diving off Thailand. Sundiver Charters did not respond to messages.
“It has been an ordeal,” Carlock told the Times as he celebrated the award at a Newport Beach restaurant with his wife, Anne. “But I wanted to seek changes in the scuba industry. Others will benefit.”
Connecticut: Hurt high school gymnast settles suit for $625,000
MILFORD, Conn. (AP) — A former high school gymnast from Milford whose feet were severely injured when plywood boards fell on them as she set up a temporary floor for practice has settled with the school department for $625,000.
Kaylee Ritchie was 14 when 10 to 12 boards, weighing between 10 and 20 pounds each fell on her bare feet in December 2004 at Jonathan Law High School. Her lawyer told The New Haven Register that her injuries curtailed what had been a promising athletic career in soccer, softball and gymnastics.
Her lawyers said in a lawsuit that the gymnastics coach told the students to set up the floor in direct violation of school policy, which said only custodial staff were allowed to.
The town’s insurance will cover most of the settlement.
California:2 receive reduced sentences in bar fight killing
STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) — Two men behind bars for their role in a fatal stabbing during a bar fight in Stockton will be serving less time in prison.
Frank Prater and Robert Memory both agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges Friday in connection with the stabbing in 2004.
The Stockton Record reports after previously being sentenced to 16 years to life for second-degree murder, the 41-year-old Prater will spend a little more than five years in prison for voluntary manslaughter.
The 36-year-old Memory had been serving nine years for attempted voluntary manslaughter, but he will be released in less than a year on a lesser charge of assault with a deadly weapon.
The deal came after the 3rd District Court of Appeal overturned their convictions.
Both men were part of motorcycle club, but the court ruled they had been wrongly linked to the Hells Angels.
