Law Med Blog

Former Judge Was Addicted To Narcotics On Bench, Had Sex During Breaks

April 08, 2012 lawmed 2 Comments

Knox County, Tn., Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner was heavily addicted to prescription drugs during his final two years on the bench. So addicted in fact that he was having sex and buying pills during courtroom breaks, even purchasing from convicts he had previously sentenced. His addiction has called into question many of the cases he presided over, including one of Knoxville’s most notorious murder trials.

Baumgartner stepped down from the bench and pleaded guilty in March 2011 to a single count of official misconduct. It took another eight months before an investigation the seriousness of the judge’s drug problem It has cast doubt about whether he was sober enough to be sitting on the bench.

Another judge has tossed out the convictions from the high-profile murder case and ordered new trials. Many other defendants are filing motions for new trials. Due to the sheer number of people convicted in … (Continued…)

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Ex Texas Nurse Guilty Of Murdering 5 Dialysis Pts With IV Bleach [VIDEO]

April 03, 2012 lawmed No comments

Huffington Post

Kimberly Saenz, Ex-Nurse Gets Life In Prison For Killing 5 With Bleach

By MICHAEL GRACZYK

LUFKIN, Texas ~A former Texas nurse convicted of killing five dialysis patients by injecting them with bleach should spend the rest of her life in prison with no chance of parole, jurors who earlier convicted the woman of capital murder last week said Monday.

Kimberly Saenz was convicted Friday of killing the patients at a clinic run by Denver-based health care giant DaVita Inc. She also received three 20-year terms for aggravated assault in the cases of five other patients who were deliberately injured at the facility in East Texas.

Jurors spent about 45 minutes deliberating before returning with a decision on the punishment. They also could have recommended that Saenz receive the death penalty.

“I was hoping for the death penalty but I’m all right,” said Wanda Hollingsworth, whose mother was among … (Continued…)

Calif Strip Mall Doc Charged With Murder In Prescription Drug Deaths

April 02, 2012 lawmed No comments

A Rowland Heights, California physician pleaded not guilty Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court to murder charges in connection with three fatal prescription drug overdoses.

Hsiu-Ying “Lisa” Tseng D.O., 42, is charged with three counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Vu Nguyen, 28, of Lake Forest; Steven Ogle, 25, of Palm Desert; and Joey Rovero, 21, an Arizona State University student from San Ramon, east of San Francisco. She also is charged with 20 felony counts of prescribing painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs to people who had no legitimate medical need for the medications. She is being held on $3-million bail.

Judge Shelly Torrealba denied a request from Tseng’s attorney, T. Edward Welbourn, to lower her bail. “I see this situation no differently than any other murder situation,” Torrealba said. “Three people are dead.”

The charges against Tseng are a relatively rare attempt to hold a physician criminally … (Continued…)

MURDER CHARGES DROPPED AGAINST ABORTION DOCS IN MARYLAND

March 07, 2012 lawmed No comments

Citing conflicts in expert testimony, Maryland prosecutors on Tuesday dismissed murder charges against two out-of-state abortion doctors. State’s Attorney Ellis Rollins announced the dismissal of all charges against Drs. Steven Brigham, 55, of Voorhees, N.J., and Nicola Riley, 46, of Salt Lake City, Utah.

The pair were charged under a 2005 Maryland law that allows prosecutors to pursue murder charges in the death of a viable fetus. The new law had only been used for cases in which defendants were accused of assaulting or killing pregnant women, and specifically excluded abortion doctors.

Brigham was charged with five counts each of first- and second-degree murder related to five abortions in 2010 and one count of conspiracy. Riley was charged with one count of murder and conspiracy in an abortion. Rollins said in a statement that the Elkton police department’s investigation showed that “the demise of five viable fetuses” occurred in Elkton, … (Continued…)

Nurse Pleads Guilty To Propofol Murder Of Stepfather

February 12, 2012 lawmed No comments

In Dekalb County, Al, prosecutors say 32-year-old Karri Denise Willoughby siphoned money away from her stepfather, Billy Shaw’s, account and stole her mother’s identity for financial gain. When her theft was discovered her access to the accounts was cut off and in response she murdered Shaw they say. On Wednesday, the day after a jury was seated and the morning her trial was to begin on capital murder charges, Willoughby agreed with them and pleaded guilty to a lesser count of murder. She has been sentenced to 20 years.

It was first thought that in 2008 Shaw died of a heart attack. A year later his body was exumed when toxicology results revealed a high concentration of propofol in his blood stream at the time of death. Also found were the drugs vecuronium and succinylcholine, powerful paralytic drugs used in surgery. Willoughby worked as a registered nurse at a Chattanooga, … (Continued…)

Lawsuit: Sisters Have Hospital Kill Multi Millionaire Father For Inheritence

February 10, 2012 lawmed No comments

Victorino Noval, 78, entered a Kaiser hospital in Southern California on April 28, 2010, with a diagnosis of aspiration pneumonia. He was intubated, placed on a mechanical ventilator, and sedated. His medical history included early stages of Parkinson’s, and COPD. Noval was totally independent prior to his hospitalization. He lived in his own home, drove his own car, performed his own daily living activities, managed his own finances and investments, and had an annual income of $3 Million. He was worth an estimated $60 Million.

On May 7th, 2010, despite exhibiting improvement in his pneumonia and having a positive prognosis for recovery, Kaiser staff removed Noval from his ventilator, extubated him, and then administered large doses of morphine with the sole intention being to bring about his death. They succeeded. And this was all done without consulting his son, Hector Nova, despite the fact that Kaiser had an executed durable … (Continued…)

Lawyers For Dr Riley Ask To Inspect Fetus In Abortion Murder Case

February 04, 2012 lawmed No comments

Lawyers for Dr. Nicola Riley, charged with murder accused of killing a fetus during a late-term abortion at a Elkton Maryland clinic have motioned the Cecil County Circuit Court to allow them to inspect specimens of that fetus.

Riley and 55-year-old Dr. Steven Brigham of Voorhees, N.J., have been charged with murder in the death of a fetus, Brigham with 5 counts. While in and of itself late term abortion is legal in the state of Maryland, the charges stem from the fact that Brigham, licensed in New Jersey, was not licensed to practice in Md., and Riley knew this yet knowingly practiced in Md. along side him. Riley is licensed in Md.

Stuart O. Simms, one of Riley’s lawyers, filed the motion asking the judge to order the State Medical Examiner’s Office to allow a defense expert to inspect any specimens identified as Male Fetus Brewer.… (Continued…)

Ohio Anesthesiologist Convicted Of Murder Seeking New Trial [VIDEO]

February 01, 2012 lawmed No comments

Former anesthesiologist and convicted murderer Mark Wangler is back in an Ohio courtroom asking for a new trial.

His attorney argued before the Third District Court of Appeals the reasons they should overturn the aggravated murder conviction for the death of Wangler’s first wife Kathy. The arguments focused on scientific evidence allowed, and not allowed, during the March 2011 trial. Attorney Christopher McDowell criticized the method scientists used to test chemicals on duct work in the home, calling it junk science. McDowell said Judge Richard Warren shouldn’t have allowed jurors to hear the testimony at all. He also objected to a defense witness not being allowed to refute the evidence. The chemical evidence was key since Wangler was convicted of killing his wife by using carbon monoxide, a deadly asphyxiate gas.

McDowell also says officers collected evidence beyond the scope allowed by a search warrant including a diary. However, assistant … (Continued…)

Philly Infant Spinal Cord Cutting Doc Pleads Not Guilty To Drug Charges

January 24, 2012 lawmed No comments

Kermit Gosnell, 70, the West Philadelphia abortionist facing state capital murder charges, pleaded not guilty to federal drug charges yesterday.

Gosnell is presently awaiting a March 2013 trial date in state court, charged with murder in the 2009 death of a Virginia woman undergoing an abortion and with killing seven live newborns by plunging scissors into their necks and severing their spinal cords. Investigators believe he may have killed hundreds of infants in the same manner.

Last month, federal prosecutors charged Gosnell with using his women’s medical clinic as a pill mill to dispense thousands of prescriptions for highly-addictive narcotics to cash-paying customers between 2008 and January 2010. The indictment said Gosnell distributed hundreds of thousands of oxycodone and alprazolam (Xanax) pills and 19,000 bottles of cough syrup containing codeine during that time. Many of the drugs were later sold on the street for cash, prosecutors said. Gosnell faces a … (Continued…)

2nd Abortion Doc Extradicted To Md Appears In Court

January 24, 2012 lawmed No comments

Nicola Riley (Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune)

Dr. Nicola Riley and her former colleague, Dr. Steven Brigham of Voohees, NJ, were indicted in Maryland last month under a 2005 law that allows murder charges to be brought in the death of a viable fetus. Riley, a resident of Utah, was arrested there Dec. 28 on a fugitive warrant and was held in a local county jail until being extradited to Maryland on Thursday. She appeared in a Maryland courtroom for the first time on Friday. Brigham, a resident of New Jersey, was arraigned in Maryland on Jan. 6th.

The 2005 law is similar to laws found in 37 other states which are generally intended to allow criminal charges in cases of assault or murder involving pregnant women when a fetus is killed as a result. This is the first time the law has been used in Md to charge a physician who performed an abortion. The law … (Continued…)

Indictment Unsealed In Md Abortionists Murder Case

January 08, 2012 lawmed No comments

[Updated with additional information, video and links to documents 1/10/12]

We previously reported that police in Maryland have charged abortion doctors Steven Brigham, 55, of Voorhees, N.J., and Nicola Riley, 46, of Salt Lake City, Utah with a number of serious crimes including first-degree murder. Brigham faces 5 counts of the top murder charge as well as 5 counts of second-degree murder. Riley faces 1 count of first-degree murder and 1 count of second-degree murder. Both face a single count of conspiracy to commit murder. A third physician, George Shepard, 88, a resident of Maryland has had his medical license permanently revoked but has not had criminal charges filed. Brigham and Riley have both had their medical licenses suspended.

The indictments in the case were sealed however thus very few details were available. It was anticipated that once the indictments were unsealed we would gain an understanding of precisely why … (Continued…)

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