National Roundup

Ohio
Hospital denies negligence in transplant case
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — The University of Toledo Medical Center denies a family’s allegations of medical negligence over a botched kidney transplant and wants the Ohio Court of Claims to dismiss the case, according to court filings.
The hospital has said a nurse accidentally threw out a chilled, protective slush containing a viable kidney donated to a Toledo woman by her younger brother in August 2012. The 24-year-old woman, who was suffering from end-stage renal disease, later received a different kidney in Colorado, court records show.
A complaint by the siblings and their family alleged the facility in northwest Ohio was negligent, causing physical and emotional suffering for the patients and emotional distress for their parents. The sister awoke in a recovery area with no incision and initially feared her brother had died in surgery, the complaint said. Her parents worried about their daughter’s prognosis and about their son losing a kidney in vain, it said.
In documents filed Tuesday, the hospital denied the allegations and sought dismissal of the case. In a specific request to dismiss the counts involving the relatives’ alleged losses, it argued that Ohio law doesn’t provide for recovering damages for such losses.
The medical center apologized, underwent internal and external reviews, clarified some procedures and temporarily suspended its live kidney donation program, which has since resumed. It has declined to comment on the pending litigation.
The nurse who disposed of the kidney retired, and another who was present and was suspended then fired has sued for wrongful termination. The surgeon in charge of the case no longer oversees renal transplantation for the hospital but continues to perform transplants and is a professor, according to court records.
The eight family members who filed the case, including the patients, are each seeking monetary damages of at least $25,000.

New Jersey
State OKs atheist license plate for atheist leader
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey has approved a request from a national atheist group’s president for a license plate with the word atheist after a brief flap.
The Motor Vehicle Commission said Thursday a clerk had wrongly told David Silverman of New Jersey-based American Atheists Inc. he couldn’t use the word on his plate.
Spokeswoman Elyse Coffey says the clerk had exceeded her authority.
Silverman says the clerk told him his proposed plate was offensive, which he called “outrageously discriminatory.”
Custom plates with language deemed offensive are prohibited. Coffey says it was determined there was “nothing offensive” about it.
Silverman’s plate will have the number one in place of the letter “i.”
The MVC says “atheist” spelled with an “i” was taken. It’s on an old license plate hanging in Silverman’s office.

New York
Videotaped arrest being investigated
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — The police chief in Rochester, N.Y., says officers showed “tremendous restraint” while subduing a teenage boy and his sister during an arrest that was videotaped and posted on YouTube.
The video was shot Tuesday by the son of a neighbor. It shows the 21-year-old woman resisting an officer’s efforts to cuff her hands behind her back as she repeatedly tells him she’s pregnant. While other officers are trying to handcuff her 16-year-old brother, the officer hits the woman in the head and takes her to the ground.
Police Chief James Sheppard says officers were trying to arrest her brother following a family dispute when the woman pointed a can of pepper spray at them.
Sheppard says the officer’s actions during the arrest will be investigated.

Arizona
Police: 8-year-old boy driving car; sister, 6, killed
PHOENIX (AP) — An 8-year-old boy was driving his mother’s car on a nighttime joyride with his 6-year-old sister when it crashed into a pole, fatally injuring the girl, police said Thursday.
The girl and her brother, who received minor injuries in the crash, were both in their pajamas, said Sgt. Steve Martos.
The children’s mother had put them to bed and then couldn’t find them in their home a half-hour later, Martos said.
The frantic mother went door-to-door in the neighborhood and called police to report her children may have been kidnapped. Meanwhile, the accident had occurred a short distance away.
He said police had received calls about children driving a vehicle and the possible kidnapping. Officers spotted the vehicle, but when they tried to pull it over, the driver veered to the right and collided with a pole, Martos said.

Kentucky
Man says he killed wife to end her cancer pain
LONDON, Ky. (AP) — A southeastern Kentucky man charged with killing his wife says he fatally shot her because she asked him to end her suffering from breast cancer.
Ernest Chris Chumbley told WKYT-TV he fired the shots that killed 44-year-old Virginia M. Chumbley of London — and he said he would have expected her to do the same for him. He told WLEX-TV he loved his wife.
The Laurel County sheriff’s office says Ernest Chumbley called about 2:30 a.m. EDT Wednesday saying he had shot his wife. Deputies found her dead in the bedroom.
The 48-year-old Chumbley was arrested on a murder charge and was being held on $200,000 bond.

Michigan
Minister found hanged in cell
IONIA, Mich. (AP) — The former minister of a small Michigan church who allegedly told police he killed his fiancée’s 24-year-old daughter because he wanted to have sex with a dead body has killed himself.
Department of Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan told the Morning Sun of Mount Pleasant that 56-year-old John D. White hanged himself in his cell at the Michigan Reformatory in Ionia. He says White was pronounced dead early Wednesday after efforts to resuscitate him failed.
White pleaded guilty in March to second-degree murder in the death of his fiancée’s daughter, Rebekah Gay. Police say he said he killed the young mother to fulfill a desire to have sex with a dead body.
White was sentenced to at least 56 years in prison. He was minister of a tiny Deerfield Township church.