Thursday, April 10, 2008

Law Firm to Investigate Minnesota Bridge Collapse

The state legislature has hired a Minneapolis law firm to help in an investigation of the 35W bridge collapse, according to media reports.

The members of a joint bipartisan bridge investigation committee retained Minneapolis-based Gray Plant Mooty to serve as special counsel. The firm, which is being paid $500,000 to conduct its review, plans to issue a report of its finding in March.

Sen. Dick Cohen, DFL-St. Paul, told Minnesota Pulic Radio Wednesday that the investigation aims to uncover why the bridge collapsed, and also how to prevent future transportation problems.

In addition to this and the official investigation from the The National Transportation Safety Board, a private firm is also examining the state's bridge inspection program, and the Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor is scrutinizing MnDOT and its expenses. There are also several law firms that have launched similar investigations, MPR reported.

MnDOT is paying a Chicago-based firm that is working with the NTSB's probe $2 million to look into the collapse. Gov. Pawlenty has said that the firm would provide another set of eyes on the investigation.

However, the Star Tribune quoted state Sen. Dave Senjem, R-Rochester, who serves as Minority Leader, as saying the legislature's move would duplicate other investigations.

Attorney Wants Criminal Charges Against Insurer

The lawyer for California teen Nataline Sarkisyan charged today that the only reason Cigna Health Care officials changed their minds and approved a liver transplant for the desperate girl was they knew it was too late and they wouldn't have to pay for it. Sarkisyan, 17, died Thursday just hours after Cigna reversed its decision and approved the procedure it had previously described as "too experimental&and unproven." Now the Sarkisyan family hopes manslaughter or murder charges will be pressed.

Their lawyer, Mark Geragos, says he will refer the case to prosecutors for possible criminal charges against the insurer, Cigna HealthCare.

"All of the doctors there unanimously agreed that she needed and should have that liver transplant. And the only entity, if you will, who said no to that in the middle of that medical decision, was some piece of garbage who decided that making a couple of dollars, or saving them a couple of dollars, was worth more than the 65% chance over six months that she would survive," said Geragos.

"The only reason they approved it is because we had organized a protest in front of Cigna's corporate headquarters& and in the face of public pressure, they did it," he said.

By the time the approval came through Nataline had been on the liver transplant list for two weeks and her condition had deteriorated so badly that it was too late to have the procedure.

"I believe, the corporation knew, powers that be knew, that at that point approving the liver transplant was a 'gimme' because her condition deteriorated to the point where she couldn't receive the liver&she didn't have any chance of either, one, getting a liver or, number two, actually being able to receive it," he says.

Nataline, who was fighting leukemia, developed liver failure after complications from a bone marrow transplant she received from her brother last month.

Despite her already fragile health, Geragos says, "all of the doctors at the University of California Medical Center unanimously agreed that she needed and should have that liver transplant."

More than 6,000 liver transplants are performed in the United States every year, making it one of the most common organ transplants, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.

Girl in Polygamist Sect Triggers Raid

Court documents say the 16-year-old girl whose call triggered the police raid on a polygamist sect's Texas compound said that her husband beat her.

The San Angelo Standard-Times newspaper is citing the court documents as also saying the girl was the seventh wife of a sect member who is named in an arrest warrant on possible abuse charges.

The newspaper says the girl told authorities at a family violence shelter that her husband hit her in the chest and choked her while another woman held her infant child at the sect's Yearn for Zion Ranch.

Court documents on file Tuesday were the basis for Child Protective Services' request that a judge grant it custody of all 401 children removed from the ranch.