Articles Posted in Wrongful Death

An Oregon wrongful death lawsuit filed by a mother from Keizer earlier this year looks more timely than ever now that the Consumer Product Safety Commission has warned consumers to avoid baby slings. The Keizer wrongful death lawsuit was reported by The Oregonian.

According to CBS News the CPSC issued its baby sling warning after examining 20 years of data on the safety of baby slings. “The CPSC identified and is investigating at least 14 deaths associated with sling-style carriers, including three in 2009,” according to the network. The Keizer incident, which occurred last year, is presumably one of those referenced in the study.

As CBS notes, baby slings are very popular with new parents and the market for the products has been growing in recent years. The CPSC, however, has concluded that “slings can pose two different types of suffocation hazards for babies.” They can press against an infant’s nose and mouth “suffocating a baby within a minute or two,” the agency says. Alternately, “where a sling keeps the infant in a curled position bending the chin toward the chest, the airways can be restricted, limiting the oxygen supply. The baby will not be able to cry for help and can slowly suffocate,” a CPSC news release states.

The death of a North Carolina teenager shortly after he returned home from football practice has led his parents to file a wrongful death lawsuit. At a time when Oregon is focusing more attention on head injuries stemming from student athletics this tragedy on the other side of the country is a reminder that concussions and traumatic brain injuries are not the only things parents – particularly the parents of student-athletes – need to worry about.

According to the Durham Herald-Sun the 17 year old high school football player called 911 from home after experiencing stomach cramps following practice. A paramedic and a fourth-year medical student examined him “and advised him to continue to drink fluids.” The two rescue workers then left him alone. The teenager died a short time later. The incident, which took place in August 2008, has now led to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the boy’s parents against the paramedic, county emergency services and the county government. The official cause of death has not been released, according to the Herald-Sun.

It would be wrong to discount the enormously important, and sometimes dangerous, jobs that paramedics and other emergency responders perform every day. This story is also, however, a reminder that when serious mistakes, or negligence, occur it is important that those responsible be held to account.

An Oregon state report has raised questions about the conduct of state officials prior to the death of a Eugene teenager.

15 year old Jeanette Maples was killed December 9, according to an Associated Press report republished by TV station KMTR. Her parents have been charged with aggravated murder (they have pleaded not guilty). In the wake of the incident state officials began investigating whether their agencies failed to act in a timely manner that might have prevented the teen’s death. This week’s report by the Oregon Department of Human Services is critical of the state agency’s conduct. AP reports the document says Maples’ case “was not adequately investigated or referred for assessment despite four separate calls alleging abuse and neglect over four years.”

Though Maples’ parents are already facing criminal charges in connection with her death, the report raises the possible of additional legal sanctions against the state or its officials if they are found negligent in connection with an Oregon wrongful death.

The City of Portland has hired an outside audit and investigative group to look into the police department’s handling of the 2006 death in custody of James P. Chasse Jr, according to a recent article in The Oregonian.

Chasse died of what the newspaper describes as “broad-based blunt-force trauma to the chest”, including 26 breaks to his ribs. An initial investigation by Portland’s police chief found that only one officer had violated department policy in relation to Chasse. A later investigation by the police commissioner ordered a two-week suspension for two officers. Last October, however, the city auditor ordered a further investigation. The city will now hire a California firm that specializes in cases like this to review all aspects of the department’s conduct relating to Chasse and his death.

Cases like Chasse’s raise the issue of Portland wrongful death. The mere fact that someone has been taken into police custody does not give law enforcement officials the right to mistreat them, or to sweep Oregon mistreatment under the rug if it occurs.

Following up a story I blogged about last month (see my October 22 entry), developments in the Oregon shooting death of Portland hunter Frank Means have led his family to announce that they will initiate an Oregon wrongful death claim against his killers.

Means was found shot to death near the town of Fossil, along the John Day River, on October 8. The Oregon State Police became involved in the investigation after Means’ widow criticized the conduct of the local sheriff’s office. Investigators eventually concluded Means’ death was the result of a dispute with other hunters. According to a report in The Oregonian Means, who had been drinking (an autopsy put his blood alcohol level at 0.24 percent), believed another hunting party was attempting to steal a deer he had shot. Means threatened the other hunters with a handgun, shot back when they attempted to disarm him, and was then killed by gunshots from at least two of the other hunters. Last week, a Wheeler County grand jury refused to hand down charges against Means’ killers, ruling that they acted in self-defense.

Oregon Public Broadcasting reported afterwards that Means’ widow was “devastated” by the news and has hired an Oregon wrongful death attorney, intending to file a civil Oregon wrongful death lawsuit. “I just can’t understand that when somebody is shot five times that a grand jury could find that it was justified,” Jackie Means told OPB. “My husband was a wonderful guy, and he may have been drunk out there, but he was in his own campsite. I am having a real difficult time with this.”

Oregon State Police have joined the investigation of the mysterious Wheeler County hunting death of a Portland hunter. The family of Frank Means, 61, has been critical of the Wheeler County sheriff’s office and its handling of the incident. Police officials have released relatively little information, leaving it unclear whether Means’ demise was an Oregon wrongful death, an accident or something else.

According to The Oregonian the three-man Wheeler County Sheriff’s Office initially declined an offer of help from the state police. After reversing that decision, the sheriff’s office will remain the lead agency on the investigation, but will now receive assistance in the form of extra investigators as well as forensic and medical examiner services. The paper quoted Means’ widow, who had been critical of the conduct of the sheriff’s office, as expressing “relief” at the development.

The story of Frank Means Oregon hunting death began to unfold on October 8 when his body was found near the town of Fossil, according to television station KGW. Investigators say they are looking for potential witnesses, but no one has been taken into custody. An official from the sheriff’s office told Means’ widow her husband had been killed in “some kind of hunting dispute,” the television station reported.

A 21-year old Oregonian’s apparent murder while on a visit to Paris has shocked friends and family here at home, but it also highlights complex – if all too common – Oregon wrongful death issues that most families can only tackle with the assistance of an experienced Silverton wrongful death lawyer.

Portland TV station KPTV, quoting the victim’s family, reported that a homicide investigation is underway in France with both the FBI and the US embassy in Paris assisting local police in the French capital.

French police say Justin Little was killed by one or more blows to the head with a cinder block as he sat on a park bench in Aulnay-sous-Bois, a slum-like suburb that lies north-east of Paris on the road to Charles de Gaulle International Airport. The area is well off Paris’ beaten path, and it remains unclear why the young traveler had ventured into a neighborhood few tourists ever visit.