DEAD MAN ELECTED IN VERMONT AFTER DEATH INFO WITHHELD
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UNDERHILL, Vt. (AP) -- A Vermont man who died the day before a town meeting vote was elected to serve on the select board after officials withheld information about the death citing state campaign laws.
Kevin Tarrant, 55, collapsed at his home in Underhill on Monday morning.
Because of the campaign laws and out of respect for the family, voters were not told Tuesday of his death, and Tarrant was elected to a three-year term. The town clerk said that campaigning or discussing candidates within a polling place is prohibited by state law. The annual town meeting took place in the gym at the Browns River School, which has voting booths. Announcing Tarrant's death at the meeting could be seen as urging voters to vote a certain way.
Catherine Tarrant told the Burlington Free Press (http://bfpne.ws/1BeYVXg) that her late husband, who served in the military for 24 years and also flew for United Airlines, had been looking forward to running for the select board.
The board is now trying to figure out how to fill the seat.
Select Board member Dave Rogers said Thursday that the town has a number of options. It could appoint somebody to fill the seat; recruit applications from interested residents and then appoint one of them; or hold a special election.
The board expects to appoint somebody by late next week and has the option of calling for a vote, select board members said.
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Information from: The Burlington Free Press, http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com
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Showing posts with label Vermont. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vermont. Show all posts
Saturday, March 7, 2015
DEAD MAN ELECTED IN VERMONT AFTER DEATH INFO WITHHELD
Monday, May 12, 2014
Mom Appeals Estate Ruling In Taser Case
Mom Appeals Estate Ruling In Taser Case
Chelsea — The mother of a Thetford man killed by a stun gun fired by a State Police trooper is appealing a probate judge’s decision to appoint the mother of the man’s young daughter as administrator of his estate.
MacAdam Mason’s mother, Rhonda Taylor, was named administrator of his estate following his death in June 2012.
But, earlier this year, a probate judge granted a request by Corinna Magalhaes, the mother of Mason’s daughter, to remove Taylor as administrator. Magalhaes has claimed that the girl, who is about 10 years old, is the rightful heir to Mason’s estate. Taylor countered in court papers that Magalhaes became interested in Mason’s estate only after she learned that the “principal asset” of the estate was the “value of a wrongful death action,” a lawsuit that Taylor has been preparing to file against state authorities.
“(Magalhaes) apparently expressed little, if any, interest in the estate’s administration when it was thought that (Mason’s) principal assets were a car and numerous paintings done by the decedent of only ‘sentimental value,’” Taylor’s attorney, Robert Appel, wrote in court papers.
In his ruling in favor of Magalhaes, Judge Bernard M. Lewis cited a 2009 case in which the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that the 4-year-old daughter of a man killed in a car accident in Bennington County was the executor of his estate. The Supreme Court ruled that the daughter could file a wrongful death lawsuit.
Appel filed a notice to appeal in probate court in March. In denying that appeal, Lewis asserted that the appeal notice was not filed on time and did not meet several standards, including that there “must be substantial grounds for difference of opinion” in the matter.
Taylor and Appel turned to civil court last week, filing an appeal to Lewis’ denial and a renewed notice of appeal to the February decision.
Appel’s filing asserts that the appeal is a matter of a right. As for the original February decision, he argues that the 2009 Bennington County case is “factually distinguished” from the suit involving Mason’s estate because the mother of the sole heir “came forward to seek appointment as (administrator) within the 30 days after the death of the person...”
In the case of Mason’s estate, Appel wrote, “it is beyond dispute that Ms. Magalhaes made no such request until June 17, 2013, almost exactly one year after the death of (Mason). ... Having slept on her rights until she realized that Mr. Mason’s estate had some value in a wrongful death action, the doctrine of laches dictates that Ms. Magalhaes should not be allowed to displace (Taylor as the administrator) who has invested considerable amounts of her time and energy into the administration of her son’s estate and has done nothing to in any way demonstrate that she is not suitable to continue to serve as administrator.”
Messages left for Magalhaes and her attorney, Rusty Valsangiacomo, were not returned Monday. Her previous attorney, Gregory McNaughton, said in court papers that Magalhaes originally did not have an attorney and “did not want to intrude or intervene in what she perceived as Rhonda’s right to resolve (the estate).” McNaughton also wrote that Magalhaes initially did not realize that her daughter could potentially benefit from wrongful death claims.
In a phone interview, Appel said he hopes to hear something from the civil division, overseen by Judge Robert Gerety, in 10 to 14 days.
Mason’s girlfriend, Theresa Davidonis, settled a civil lawsuit against the state in December. The settlement was resolved without admission of liability by State Police. Instead, the suit alleged that Davidonis suffered emotional distress and that police had trespassed on her property.
State Police troopers responded to the Sawnee Bean Road home shared by Mason and Davidonis on June 20, 2012, after Mason, 39, called Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and threatened to harm himself and others. Police claimed Mason aggressively came at a trooper with a closed fist, prompting him to fire the stun gun, striking Mason in the chest.
Davidonis and her son, who both witnessed the shooting, claimed that Mason had raised up his hands in a surrender position, took two steps toward the trooper and said, “Go ahead and shoot me.” The trooper, David Shaffer, then fired his stun gun into Mason’s chest, which killed him, according to the New Hampshire Medical Examiner’s Office. Attorney General Bill Sorrell cleared Shaffer of wrongdoing and he remained on active duty.
A message left with Taylor was not returned on Monday. In an interview last June, she said she cares about Mason’s daughter having an “equitable settlement,” but she does not want Mason’s death “swept under the rug.”
“I’m not just looking at a settlement for my granddaughter,” she said. “I’m looking at change for the people of Vermont.”
Maggie Cassidy can be reached at mcassidy@vnews.com or 603-727-3220.
Monday, September 9, 2013
Nursing assistant to go on trial for murder
Nursing assistant to go on trial for murder
BRATTLEBORO — A judge has rejected an 11th-hour move by a former Brattleboro nursing assistant, charged with murdering one of her nursing home patients, to dismiss most of the charges.
Judge David Suntag rejected the motion from Jodi LaClaire’s attorney, Daniel Sedon, who was seeking to have related financial exploitation charges dismissed.
Suntag’s decision sets the stage for LaClaire’s murder trial to begin Monday in Brattleboro criminal court.
LaClaire, 39, formerly of Bennington, N.H., faces charges of second-degree murder, elder abuse and seven counts of financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult. She is accused of injecting 85-year-old Nita Lowery of Brattleboro with a fatal dose of insulin on March 23, 2009 — medicine Lowery had never taken in her life.
According to pre-trial information from medical experts, the insulin injection left Lowery brain dead.
Lowery’s cause of death on April 1, 2009, was hypoglycemia, or extremely low blood sugar.
Court records say that in the early morning hours of March 23, LaClaire tried to use Lowery’s credit card as Lowery lay dying in her nursing home room.
LaClaire is also charged with accessing Lowery’s financial accounts in the weeks following Lowery’s death, pocketing about $4,000.
Sedon, in a motion filed last week, had asked that all of the financial charges against his client be dismissed. He argued that two necessary legal elements were missing from many of the charges against LaClaire.
But Assistant Attorney General Ultan Doyle criticized Sedon’s reasoning in his response to the motion. He said that by Sedon’s reading of the elderly exploitation statute, there was no crime involved by LaClaire using a dead woman’s credit card.
“He argues that if a person willfully uses funds of a vulnerable adult, without legal authority, for wrongful profit, no crime has been committed, and that, similarly, if a person willfully acquires possession of an interest in funds of a vulnerable adult through the use of undue influence, no crime has been committed,” Doyle wrote.
Sedon had argued that the language of the state law was flawed, and that the state’s charges “do not contain a plain, concise and definite written statement” of an alleged crime.
Sedon argued that in order for a crime to have been committed, the state had to allege that not only had funds been used by an unauthorized person, but that the acquisition of the funds was by ‘‘wrongful means.”
LaClaire was the only nursing assistant on Lowery’s floor that night, court records stated.
According to court records, LaClaire had financial problems, mostly medical bills from Monadnock Community Hospital in Peterborough, N.H. There were also records of LaClaire selling pieces of jewelry at a pawn shop in Massachusetts.
In late August, the state dropped nine of the financial exploitation and attempted financial exploitation counts against LaClaire, leaving seven in place.
Doyle noted that he would not present evidence about another patient at Thompson House, the Brattleboro nursing home where LaClaire worked. That patient also ended up in the emergency room with extremely low blood sugar, a sign of an insulin overdose.
Like Lowery, “T.I.” did not take insulin and was not a diabetic. “T.I.” was hospitalized and recovered from her severely low blood sugar, but died 10 months later from natural causes, court records stated.
According to court records, LaClaire herself is a diabetic and used injectable insulin.
Jury selection is slated to begin Monday in the case, and the trial is scheduled for three weeks, as medical experts from as far away as England are expected to testify.
Once a jury is selected to hear the case, opening arguments and testimony from the first witnesses are expected.
Lowery, the widow of a former municipal judge, had lived at Thompson House, a nursing home next to Brattleboro Memorial Hospital.
Sedon, a public defender from Orange County, took over the murder case after the death of LaClaire’s first attorney, Matthew Harnett of Rutland. He is being assisted by Rick Ammons, a public defender in Windham County.
The case is being prosecuted by the Vermont attorney general’s office, with the prosecution team headed by Doyle and Assistant Attorney General Matthew Levine.
The charges against LaClaire were filed more than two years after Lowery’s death, and were investigated by the Medicare fraud unit at one point.
Neither Doyle nor Linda Purdy, the assistant attorney general on the Medicare fraud unit, would respond to questions about the case last week. Assistant Attorney General Cindy Maguire, chief of the criminal unit, couldn’t be reached for comment.
Sedon declined to comment about the case.
LaClaire’s nursing assistant license was revoked in 2012 by the state, which said she had abused a patient and “misappropriated patient property.” She had been charged with murder in July 2011 and her license was suspended shortly thereafter.
The attorneys in the case are expected to select 16 jurors and four alternates.
susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com
Judge David Suntag rejected the motion from Jodi LaClaire’s attorney, Daniel Sedon, who was seeking to have related financial exploitation charges dismissed.
Suntag’s decision sets the stage for LaClaire’s murder trial to begin Monday in Brattleboro criminal court.
LaClaire, 39, formerly of Bennington, N.H., faces charges of second-degree murder, elder abuse and seven counts of financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult. She is accused of injecting 85-year-old Nita Lowery of Brattleboro with a fatal dose of insulin on March 23, 2009 — medicine Lowery had never taken in her life.
According to pre-trial information from medical experts, the insulin injection left Lowery brain dead.
Lowery’s cause of death on April 1, 2009, was hypoglycemia, or extremely low blood sugar.
Court records say that in the early morning hours of March 23, LaClaire tried to use Lowery’s credit card as Lowery lay dying in her nursing home room.
LaClaire is also charged with accessing Lowery’s financial accounts in the weeks following Lowery’s death, pocketing about $4,000.
Sedon, in a motion filed last week, had asked that all of the financial charges against his client be dismissed. He argued that two necessary legal elements were missing from many of the charges against LaClaire.
But Assistant Attorney General Ultan Doyle criticized Sedon’s reasoning in his response to the motion. He said that by Sedon’s reading of the elderly exploitation statute, there was no crime involved by LaClaire using a dead woman’s credit card.
“He argues that if a person willfully uses funds of a vulnerable adult, without legal authority, for wrongful profit, no crime has been committed, and that, similarly, if a person willfully acquires possession of an interest in funds of a vulnerable adult through the use of undue influence, no crime has been committed,” Doyle wrote.
Sedon had argued that the language of the state law was flawed, and that the state’s charges “do not contain a plain, concise and definite written statement” of an alleged crime.
Sedon argued that in order for a crime to have been committed, the state had to allege that not only had funds been used by an unauthorized person, but that the acquisition of the funds was by ‘‘wrongful means.”
LaClaire was the only nursing assistant on Lowery’s floor that night, court records stated.
According to court records, LaClaire had financial problems, mostly medical bills from Monadnock Community Hospital in Peterborough, N.H. There were also records of LaClaire selling pieces of jewelry at a pawn shop in Massachusetts.
In late August, the state dropped nine of the financial exploitation and attempted financial exploitation counts against LaClaire, leaving seven in place.
Doyle noted that he would not present evidence about another patient at Thompson House, the Brattleboro nursing home where LaClaire worked. That patient also ended up in the emergency room with extremely low blood sugar, a sign of an insulin overdose.
Like Lowery, “T.I.” did not take insulin and was not a diabetic. “T.I.” was hospitalized and recovered from her severely low blood sugar, but died 10 months later from natural causes, court records stated.
According to court records, LaClaire herself is a diabetic and used injectable insulin.
Jury selection is slated to begin Monday in the case, and the trial is scheduled for three weeks, as medical experts from as far away as England are expected to testify.
Once a jury is selected to hear the case, opening arguments and testimony from the first witnesses are expected.
Lowery, the widow of a former municipal judge, had lived at Thompson House, a nursing home next to Brattleboro Memorial Hospital.
Sedon, a public defender from Orange County, took over the murder case after the death of LaClaire’s first attorney, Matthew Harnett of Rutland. He is being assisted by Rick Ammons, a public defender in Windham County.
The case is being prosecuted by the Vermont attorney general’s office, with the prosecution team headed by Doyle and Assistant Attorney General Matthew Levine.
The charges against LaClaire were filed more than two years after Lowery’s death, and were investigated by the Medicare fraud unit at one point.
Neither Doyle nor Linda Purdy, the assistant attorney general on the Medicare fraud unit, would respond to questions about the case last week. Assistant Attorney General Cindy Maguire, chief of the criminal unit, couldn’t be reached for comment.
Sedon declined to comment about the case.
LaClaire’s nursing assistant license was revoked in 2012 by the state, which said she had abused a patient and “misappropriated patient property.” She had been charged with murder in July 2011 and her license was suspended shortly thereafter.
The attorneys in the case are expected to select 16 jurors and four alternates.
susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Groups say development in abuse suit against Vt.
Groups say development in abuse suit against Vt.
The Associated Press | August 28,2013
MONTPELIER - Vermont Legal Aid and Disability Rights Vermont are planning to announce the details of a settlement with the state Adult Protective Services Division.
The two groups will hold a press conference today in Montpelier.
The groups filed the lawsuit last December, saying Adult Protective Services routinely violates the law that requires it to begin investigating reports of abuse, neglect and financial exploitation of vulnerable adults within 48 hours of receiving them.
The state had filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
The two groups will hold a press conference today in Montpelier.
The groups filed the lawsuit last December, saying Adult Protective Services routinely violates the law that requires it to begin investigating reports of abuse, neglect and financial exploitation of vulnerable adults within 48 hours of receiving them.
The state had filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
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