Man awarded $49M for brain damage in crash with truck

A passenger who sustained traumatic brain injuries in a multi-vehicle crash while on his way to a camping trip was awarded $49 million. In 2007, Drew Bianchi, then a 21-year-old college student, was in a sedan on Route 152, also known as the Pacheco Pass. Michael Demma and Samuel Bimbela were driving trucks toward each other when they collided at or near the center line, causing Bimbela to lose control of his Peterbilt truck and broadside the Bianchi vehicle. Bianchi was in a coma for about a month and is expected to require 24-hour care for the rest of his life. Plaintiff’s counsel claimed that Bimbela was sleep-deprived and Demma was on a cell phone while driving. Bianchi settled with the state in July for $10 million on his claim of dangerous condition of public property. Of Bianchi’s award, he received $27.6 million for future medical care.

Bianchi v. Demma

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September 21, 2009: San Francisco
Traumatic Brain Injury, Trucking Accident: $49,123,375.87

Recognizing the staggering costs of healthcare associated with traumatic brain injury, a San Jose jury awarded Drew Dakota Bianchi $49,123,375.87 late Monday afternoon. The verdict followed a hotly contested five-week trial involving two truck drivers who collided on State Route 152 (Pacheco Pass), one of whom thereafter struck the car in which plaintiff was a passenger.

Plaintiff, Drew Dakota Bianchi, was a 21-year-old passenger in a Toyota Avalon, when, on May 3, 2007, he was struck by a Peterbilt truck driven by defendant, Samuel Bimbela. Evidence at trial established that Mr. Bimbela, driving his Peterbilt truck, and codefendant Mr. Michael Demma, driving a Gordon Trucking 18-wheel big rig, struck each other at or near the centerline on State Route 152. No pre-impact evasive maneuvers were undertaken by either driver.

Mr. Bianchi, whose injuries necessitate a lifetime of 24/7 care, brought suit against both truck drivers/trucking companies, as well as the State of California.

The jury, recognizing the devastating cost of future care for an individual sustaining traumatic brain injury, awarded $3.4 million in past medical expenses, $27.6 million in future medical expenses, $4.5 million for future lost wages, and $13.5 million in general damages.

The jury attributed fault in the amount of 35% to Gordon Trucking/Michael Demma, 60% to Samuel Bhnbela, and 5% to the State of California.

The verdict is thought to be one of the highest non-punitive verdicts in the State of California for an individual sustaining traumatic brain injury.

Plaintiff was represented by Randall H. Scarlett of San Francisco, California and Thomas Wm. Malone of Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Scarlett dedicates his career to individuals sustaining brain injury. He actively serves as a Board Member on the California Brain Injury Association, and dedicates both his professional and personal life to improving the lives of those sustaining traumatic brain injury.

In the coming days the Senate will consider S. 252, the Veterans Health Care Authorization Act of 2009. Among the provisions of the bill, the legislation authorizes the Department of Veterans Affairs(VA) to provide care to veterans with traumatic brain injury through contracts with non-VA providers when necessary.

Call your Senators today to encourage passage of S. 252! Click the “call now” button below this message to get started, then type your zip code in the “call now” box and click go to access phone numbers and talking points for your call!

Also this week, both chambers of Congress held important hearings on efforts to improve health care for returning service members, as well as to improve the veterans’ disability benefits system. BIAA submitted questions and comments in relation to several of the hearings.

The Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing on “Care for Sick and Wounded Service Members” on Tuesday, February 13. BIAA submitted questions for the hearing regarding TRICARE coverage of cognitive rehabilitation.

On Thursday, he House Veterans Affairs Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs Subcommittee held a hearing on the VA’s disability claims system. BIAA submitted its recent Comment Letter on a Proposed Rule by the Department of Veterans Affairs to overhaul the Schedule for Rating Disability related to TBI to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.

To view a copy of BIAA’s Comment Letter to the VA, please visit our website at http://www.biausa.org/policyissues.htm.

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (Labor-HHS-Ed) held a hearing on Thursday on this year’s proposed budget for the Department of Health and Human Services, featuring HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt as a witness. At the same time, BIAA signed on this week to a coalition letter to the Subcommittee urging its Members to provide $30 million for TBI Act programs this year.

BIAA also signed on to a coalition letter urging Members of Congress to increase funding for all aspects of public health included in the Function 550/discretionary budget allocation in Fiscal Year 2009 by $5.3 billion.

The letter states:

“Our nation struggles with escalating health care costs, growing numbers of uninsured, and the prospect of declining health measured by overall morbidity and mortality. The President’s budget for FY 2009 continues to seriously underfund and undermine an important part of the solution: public health activities and programs…The undersigned organizations urge you to increase funding for all aspects of public health…by an amount that will: 1) restore funding cuts to public health programs enacted in FY 2006; 2) restore lost purchasing power that flat-funding for at least five years has eroded and 3) provide investments that begin to truly meet health challenges facing the nation.”

The three federal agencies charged with implementing TBI Act programs – the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) – received either flat or significantly decreased funding in the President’s Budget.

A key legislative priority for BIAA this year is to work to prevent any cuts in funding for TBI programs from occurring and to instead achieve a significant increase in federal support for TBI programs. Stay tuned for BIAA Legislative Action Alerts regarding TBI-related appropriations.

Name : Katharhynn Heidelberg

Daily Press News Editor

DENVER — In a surprising move Friday, the woman the IRS says participated in one of the biggest prime banknote fraud schemes in Colorado changed her plea to guilty.

Jannice McClain Schmidt, 69, had been indicted in 2004 for her role in a prime bank note scheme the IRS contends bilked victims, including Cliff Seigneur of Paonia, out of a total of $56 million. Schmidt and her co-defendants George Beros, George Weed, Michael Smith, Charles Lewis, Norman Schmidt and Peter Moss allegedly used the money for such extravagant purchases as the Redstone Castle and NASCAR vehicles.

She pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of securities fraud and one count of criminal forfeiture, John Harrison, IRS investigator and regional public information officer said. Other charges will likely be dismissed. According to IRS charging documents, Schmidt’s second securities fraud offense was committed when she deposited Seigneur’s $25,000 cashier’s check into an account at a Denver bank on May 20, 2003.

Schmidt was also charged with violating her bond conditions in 2005, after investigators said she committed further crimes, including mailing Seigneur a “lulling payment” to reassure him concerning investments he’d made.

“Two days after her release (on bond), Schmidt mailed money orders to a Paonia man named (Cliff) Seigneur,” the IRS said in a news release. These were supposed to represent profits on money he’d given her for investment. According to the release, IRS agents also testified that Schmidt had “sent monthly statements falsely reflecting 10-percent per-month profits to investors after she was free on bond.”

“I’m sort of glad to think the law will catch up with you eventually,” Seigneur said Friday upon learning of the guilty plea. “That (plea) is telling of the whole thing.”

He said the $25,000 he’d invested was the “minimum amount.” Though he eventually “earned” back his initial investment, Seigneur said he never saw a dime of the profits he’d been promised by the personable Schmidts.

Seigneur had learned of the “investment opportunity” and the Schmidts from a neighbor. “I looked into it,” Seigneur said. “Everything seemed to come pretty clean. I called them up. What started out being pretty good slowly turned sour. Fortunately, I recovered all of my money, but I didn’t make any money.”

Harrison said prime banknote fraud dates from at least the 1950s. Usually, those perpetrating it ask for upfront investments, promising returns of up to 400 percent at “no risk,” sometimes in exchange for a confidentiality agreement that specifies investors are not to contact law enforcement. Such offers are often presented as a special trading market secret that banks and the government conceal from the average citizen. Often, victims are told their investment is insured.

Seigneur said he was told the Schmidts had contacts with the auto-racing world and were involved in publicity. The return on investment would be significant and come from promotions and advertising. “But it was never crystal clear. Now … I just ask myself: ‘Why did you do that?’” he said.

In reality, there’s no such thing as a “risk-free, insured” investment, let alone one that can pay dividends as high as 400 percent. Too, victims who become suspicious enough to demand money are sent token lulling payments, enough to string them along — sometimes, enough to convince them to spread the word to others.

Anyone can be a victim. Though he never dealt with financial crimes, Seigneur said he was a former assistant attorney general. But medical issues, including multiple scoleosis and a traumatic brain injury, left him vulnerable.

Seigneur said the amount of interest he’d been promised should’ve been a red flag.

“That’s why I should have been suspicious, but at the time I was recovering. Whenever we get greedy, that’s when you get taken,” he said.

The payments Schmidt sent dwindled over time and he became suspicious.

“I didn’t panic, though,” Seigneur said. “I sort of stayed with it. Within a year, I got back my principal, but I certainly made no money. I was surprised. They seemed like really nice people. I’d never been taken before. I guess that’s how it goes.”

He said that when he questioned the Schmidts about the payments, he was told they were having “investment problems.”

“But they wouldn’t specify exactly what. I think they were having legal problems instead of investment problems.”

Harrison said Seigneur was far not alone, as the overall scheme was thought to have involved more than 1,000 victims.

“This is the type that could impact an investor anywhere in Colorado, including in our own backyard of Paonia,” he said. “As soon as people hear of these potentially great investments, word of mouth spreads. That’s what they (fraudsters) rely on to get people hooked on these schemes.”

Schmidt will be sentenced Aug. 25 in Denver and faces up to five years in prison on each charge, plus fines of up to $250,000 on each count. She could also be ordered to pay restitution and as part of her criminal forfeiture plea, will surrender Nebraska property she’d purchased with her apparently ill-gotten gains.

“Anytime you’re taking advantage of other people financially, I think some sort of punishment is definitely correct,” Seigneur said.

Source: http://www.montrosepress.com/articles/2006/05/07/local_news/5.txt

May 07,2006
ROSELEE PAPANDREA
DAILY NEWS STAFF
Greg Acosta was the kid who made everybody laugh.

During his senior year at Jacksonville High School in 2005, he was voted class clown and most unforgettable in the yearbook.

He was a laid back kind of guy who didn’t have a care in the world.

But life has changed for the 20-year-old. It took just a split second, said his mother, Sandy Acosta of Jacksonville.

Greg Acosta attended a St. Patrick’s Day party at a friend’s house in the Northwoods area March 17. He went hoping to have a good time, but he ended up in the middle of a dispute that put him in New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington with a traumatic head injury.

Joseph Aragona, 19, of Shadowood Drive, was charged by the Jacksonville Police Department with assault inflicting serious bodily injury, which is a felony. Aragona is accused of inflicting frontal and temporal damage as well as contusions and hemorrhaging in Greg Acosta.

At first glance, it’s difficult to tell that the left side of Greg Acosta’s face was fractured — allegedly by Aragona’s fist — or that he has hearing loss and can’t open his jaw very wide.

The scars on the back of his head — where he hit the concrete, bounced and hit the concrete a second time — are now hidden behind wavy brown hair. There’s little sign that the force of the blow caused his brain to bleed and swell.

His memory loss and confusion when information just doesn’t add up aren’t readily apparent. A somber mood has replaced his usual playfulness. He sometimes stares into space and spends a lot of time struggling with headaches that are now commonplace.

“He can breathe, but he can’t smell,” Sandy Acosta said. “He can eat, but he can’t taste.”

He can’t drive. He can’t work. He and his parents have no health insurance, and medical bills are mounting.

Still, the message that Sandy Acosta wants to drive home to other kids is that there are better ways to resolve differences.

“If I could touch one person — one kid — and make them realize that the most effective way to hash out something with a friend is verbally and not physically,” she said.

Aragona and Greg Acosta weren’t enemies. They both played together on Jacksonville High’s football team. The Acostas sat next to Aragona’s family at football games. While Greg Acosta was a year ahead of Aragona, they both hung out with each other at last year’s senior prom.

On the night of March 17, however, Aragona allegedly got into a dispute with a friend of Greg Acosta’s that escalated into punches. Acosta approached in an attempt to find out what was going on. That’s when warrants allege that Aragona hit him. The case has not gone to court.

Julius Acosta III, Greg’s younger brother, rushed him to Onslow Memorial Hospital. When his parents arrived, they heard the news no parent wants to hear.

“We’ve got to get your son out of here,” Sandy Acosta said she was told by doctors. “He has serious head trauma.”

Greg Acosta was vomiting profusely. He was transferred to New Hanover Regional Hospital and then put in a drug-induced coma. While he didn’t stay in the hospital long, it will be six months to a year before doctors will know if Acosta will make a full recovery.

Acosta knows he’s different, but he’s not quite sure how to get back to who he once was.

“I used to be that funny guy,” he said and offered a smile. “Trying to find happiness is harder.”

He’s still trying to come to grips with what happened.

After the incident, many of Acosta’s friends wanted to defend him. But Sandy Acosta asked them to focus their attention on helping her son get better.

“I told them that justice comes through the court,” she said. “I’d rather you pray for Greg and leave Joe and his family alone. The first thing kids think about is what do we do to get even.”

And that was the last thing Sandy Acosta wanted.

Sandy Acosta was grateful her son was alive and overwhelmed by the support she received from family and friends who gathered at the hospital. Aragona’s aunt and grandmother even went to the hospital to check on Greg, she said.

“I don’t want so much animosity,” Sandy Acosta said. “There’s so much animosity in the world. We don’t need more.”

Still, as a mother, Sandy Acosta worries every day. Greg, who experiences piercing pain in his head daily, is prone to seizures. She now understands why some mothers who lose a child to an overdose or to suicide frequently become active in educating others about their situation.

“I can appreciate it now,” she said. “This can happen to you. Your whole life can change.”

Source: http://www.jdnews.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=41472&Section=News

Paul Roberts/Staff Writer
Issue date: 4/26/06 Section: News
The results of the autopsy of Juan Manuel Nunez III were released Tuesday stating his death was caused by “acute alcohol intoxication and concussive brain injury complicated by post traumatic apnea.”

The results state Nunez’ death was caused by a brain injury when he collapsed after being Tased, by Lubbock police officer Matt Dougherty, said Robert Byers of the Lubbock Medical Examiner’s Office.

The Lubbock Medical Examiner’s Office did rule the Taser shock as “contributory towards his death,” Byers said.

His manner of death was classified as a homicide.

Lt. Roy Bassett of the Lubbock Police Department said the next step is an administration investigation.

“We want to make sure this was a justified homicide,” Bassett said. “We believe it is; we just need to double and triple check.”

After LPD finishes its investigation, police will hand it over to the District Attorney’s Office for the third check, he said.

The autopsy results were found only after the Medical Examiner’s Office had a chance to review all available information from available medical history, investigative information and the actual audio portion of the encounter between law enforcement and Nunez.

It began with one 911 hang-up call. Police responded to the call at 4402 Jarvis St. April 16.

When police arrived at the scene, they observed what was believed to be a domestic dispute between 26-year-old Nunez and his family. The police officer reportedly attempted to detain Nunez, but he refused and allegedly became violent, LPD officer Chris Powe said.

The officer shocked Nunez with his Taser and arrested him.

“After Nunez was in handcuffs, the officer realized Nunez appeared distorted and immediately called the EMS,” Powe said. “Once he arrived at the UMC Emergency Room, he was pronounced dead.”

Nunez’ death has created concerns locally about the safety of Tasers.

Nationwide, people are asking whether shock guns are the reason of more than 150 deaths.

Source: http://www.dailytoreador.com/media/storage/paper870/news/2006/04/26/News/Autopsy.Results.Show.Man.Killed.By.Taser-1877745.shtml?norewrite200605130419&sourcedomain=www.dailytoreador.com

Name : JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE, The Virginian-Pilot

PORTSMOUTH – A woman has been accused of murdering a 2-year-old boy she was caring for in October, when he suffered injuries that doctors suspected show abuse.

Koby Stewart Jr. suffered injuries so severe he suffered seizures and could not walk or talk, according to police. His face, chest and back were bruised when he was admitted to a hospital.

He died a week later .

A grand jury on Thursday indicted Shawntisha Y. Gatling , 21 , on charges of murder and child neglect, according to court records. Robert E. Waddler , 25 , was also indicted Thursday on a charge of child neglect in connection to the case. In a search warrant, police identified Waddler as Gatling’s boyfriend.

Police had not yet arrested the accused Friday afternoon.

Neither they nor the victim’s family could be reached.

Gatling and Waddler were caring for Koby at an apartment in the Dale Homes neighborhood, according to the search warrant. Gatling called Cyntra Pete, the boy’s mother, on Oct. 6 , and said Koby was not responding, according to the warrant. Pete picked him up and took him to Maryview Medical Center . The child was later taken to Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters .

Gatling had told investigators Koby had walked into a wall and been jumping on a bed, police wrote. Yet when a forensic pediatrician examined Koby, he found the injuries were “consistent with abuse and not from a fall off a bed or walking into a wall.”

An autopsy found the cause of death to be “inflicted traumatic brain injury,” police wrote in the search warrant.

• Reach John Doucette at (757) 446-2793 or john.doucette@pilotonline.com.

Source : http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=104046&ran=152457

Recent Scarlett Law Group Victories:
On July 7, 2005, in Rasmussen v. Shade, et al., SCV 14935, Placer County Superior Court, Lincoln Division, the jury reached it’s Verdict awarding Kim Rasmussen $1,248,024.00 as a result of injuries he sustained in a relatively minor rear end automobile accident occurring in Roseville, California.

On August 19, 2002, Plaintiff Kim Rasmussen, was operating his 1997 Ford F-250 pickup truck on Eureka Road near Sunrise in Roseville, CA. Defendant Bruce Robert Shade caused his 1999 Dodge Durango to rear end plaintiffs’ pickup at about 7mph – 12mph. Plaintiffs truck sustained $498.00 damage to the rear bumper. Despite the relatively minor property damage, counsel was able to establish that the rotational forces were sufficient to cause Mr. Rasmussen to sustain a traumatic brain injury. Leading experts throughout the United States testified on behalf of Mr. Rasmussen, and the Jury’s Verdict should ensure that he receives the future medical care he so desperately needs. For a link to a demonstration of the biomechanical evidence and recreation used during the trial of this matter, click here.