National Roundup

Alabama
Court clears way for suit over woman’s death
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The Alabama Supreme Court cleared the way Friday for a lawsuit over the death of a Texas woman who killed herself after claiming she was raped while attending the University of Alabama.

The court said that a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of Megan Rondini was not barred by the fact that she took own life. The decision came in response to a question from a federal judge who is considering the suit against T.J. Bunn Jr., who the young woman accused of sexual assault before taking her own life months later in 2016.

Bunn maintains the two had consensual sexual relations, the decision said, and his attorneys argued that a wrongful death suit can’t go forward because Rondini killed herself. But the possibility that the suicide was linked to Rondini’s allegation meant the suit can continue, the state court ruled.

Rondini, then a 20-year-old junior who planned to attend medical school, met Bunn at a Tuscaloosa bar in July 2015, according to the complaint. She was later sexually assaulted at his home, possibly after being drugged, the suit contends.

Bunn, who is from a prominent family in Tuscaloosa, was not charged with a crime. His attorneys placed a full-page advertisement in The Tuscaloosa News publicly identifying Bunn and stating that messages sent by Rondini before the encounter showed it was consensual.

The lawsuit was filed by Rondini’s parents, Michael and Cindy Rondini of Austin, Texas. She had returned to Texas and was living there when she died.

With the Supreme Court decision, U.S. District Judge David Proctor can now continue with the federal case. The parents have presented “sufficient evidence” for a jury to conclude that Bunn’s actions led to Rondini killing herself, Proctor wrote last year in asking the state court to clarify a legal question.

West Virginia
Sentencing set in insulin injection deaths of patients
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Sentencing is set this week for a fired nursing assistant who admitting to killing seven elderly veterans with fatal doses of insulin at a West Virginia hospital. Still a mystery is what provoked Reta Mays to commit the crimes.

Mays pleaded guilty last year to intentionally killing the patients with wrongful insulin injections at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg. She faces up to life in prison for each of seven counts of second-degree murder when she is sentenced Tuesday in federal court.

Mays, 46, of Reynoldsville, admitted at a July plea hearing to injecting the veterans with unprescribed insulin while she worked overnight shifts at the northern West Virginia hospital between 2017 and 2018. Hospital officials reported the deaths to the VA inspector general and fired Mays.

The motive of Mays, who served in the Army National Guard in a noncombat position in Iraq and Afghanistan, is still unclear. Then-U.S. Attorney Bill Powell had said authorities did not receive a “satisfactory response” to questions about the reasoning behind her actions.

Among Mays’ duties included measuring patients’ vital signs and blood glucose levels. VA nursing assistants are not qualified or authorized to administer medication, including insulin, prosecutors said. The hospital’s nursing assistants also were not required to have a certificate or license as a condition of continuing employment.

Powell said there were about 20 suspicious deaths at the medical center during the time Mays worked there, but charges were only brought in cases where the government thought it had sufficient evidence.

Some family members are expected to make statements during the sentencing hearing.

The second-degree murder charges involved the deaths of Army veterans Robert Lee Kozul Sr., 89, Archie D. Edgell, 84, Felix Kirk McDermott, 82, and a 96-year-old man identified only by his initials, W.A.H.; Navy veteran Robert Edge Sr., 82; Air Force veteran George Nelson Shaw Sr., 81; and Army and Air Force veteran Raymond Golden, 88.

It’s not clear whether Mays admitted a connection to the death of Navy veteran Russell R. Posey Sr., 92. But in addition to her other pleas, she also pleaded guilty to one count of assault with intent to commit murder involving the death of “veteran R.R.P.” — Posey’s initials. She faces up to 20 additional years on that count.

Separately, the federal government has agreed to the settlement of numerous lawsuits filed by veterans’ families alleging a widespread system of failures at the hospital.

The VA is responsible for 9 million military veterans. The agency’s former director was fired in 2018 in the wake of a bruising ethics scandal and a mounting rebellion within the agency. Robert Wilkie took over as Veterans Affairs secretary in July 2018.


Florida
Gopher tortoise movers sue for $500K, say state moved too fast
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Two men who relocate gopher tortoises are suing Florida’s wildlife commission, saying they should be awarded at least $500,000 in damages because the agency violated due process by prematurely revoking their company’s license for less than three weeks.

The lawsuit names the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and one of its employees, Claire Sunquist Blunden. It was filed in Leon County Circuit Court by Kaiser Consulting Group LLC, Drew Kaiser and John Wilson, The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported.

Gopher tortoises are listed as threatened and must be relocated prior to land development. The state accused Kaiser and Wilson of failing to report dead tortoises, overstocking pens for the tortoises and not maintaining a pen that was in disrepair.

According to the lawsuit, the agency warned Kaiser on March 19 that the licenses would be revoked if they didn’t request a hearing. That same day, the agency posted on its website that the pair’s licenses had been revoked. The agency then reinstated them on April 7, describing the abrupt revocation as a “procedural error.”

“It was a fundamental constitutional violation of their rights,” said Kenneth G. Oertel, their Tallahassee attorney. He said the agency put his clients out of business without a hearing or a chance to question or challenge the action.

“They just took it without any notice, without any process, without anything,” Oertel told the newspaper. “They just wrote them a letter saying ‘your license is terminated.’”

The wildlife agency’s spokeswoman Carli Segelson, told the newspaper she couldn’t comment. “This is an ongoing investigation and we will release additional details when available,” Segelson said in an email.
Oertel said the agency described finding fragments of tortoise shells on large ranches, and said his clients didn’t know about those remnants.

“The rule says you have to report tortoises that you actually discover,” Oertel said. “You can’t report what you don’t know.”