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Politics : Right Wing Extremist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Oral Roberts who wrote (34517)	3/28/2003 11:50:43 AM
From: Lazarus_Long	Respond to of 59480

Johnnie Cochran faces malpractice suit March 28, 2003 Chicago Sun-Times BY FRAN SPIELMAN AND ABDON M. PALLASCH STAFF REPORTERS t Attorney Johnnie Cochran of O.J. Simpson fame was accused Thursday of legal malpractice for missing a deadline to file a lawsuit on behalf of a North Beverly woman injured during a routine gynecological procedure at Provident Hospital. Cochran with great fanfare opened a branch of his New York/L.A. firm in Chicago three years ago with former Chicago corporation counsel James Montgomery. Lillie Burrows, whose bowel had been punctured during a procedure at Provident, had heard about Cochran through the O.J. trial and his subsequent TV appearances. "I called Johnnie Cochran because of his reputation," Burrows said Thursday. "I wanted to do something about what had happened to me. I don't feel I was treated fairly. I don't believe they took the time or interest in the case that they should have. When you create mistakes, you have to pay for them." Cochran referred the case to Luke Townsend, who had been an associate at Cochran's Chicago branch. Townsend started his own firm and a contract provided by Burrows' attorney, Donald A. Shapiro, shows Townsend's firm and Cochran's firm were to share part of any money Burrows received from Provident. Burrows said Cochran, his Chicago partners and Townsend gave her the run-around for 13 months, then suddenly dropped her case. Townsend never told her that he had allowed the one-year statute of limitations that applies to medical malpractice claims in Cook County to expire, she said. A subsequent lawsuit filed by another attorney on Burrows' behalf was dismissed last month by a Circuit Court judge, who claimed that the "statutory time for filing had expired." The 65-year-old Burrows says she was denied the opportunity to sue the Provident doctors who allegedly botched what should have been a routine "dilation and curettage" procedure on Jan. 9, 2001. Today, Burrows will attempt to turn the tables on Cochran and Townsend. Victimized by the double-whammy of alleged medical and legal negligence, she plans to file a lawsuit that seeks to recover from Cochran and his partners the six-figure settlement she believes she would have received from Provident. "If it was not for his firm and what they did to me, I would have received compensation. Because of them letting the statute of limitations run out and not telling me it ran out, it left me hanging," said Burrows, who ended up with a severe infection that left her hospitalized for weeks and with difficulty walking. Under Illinois law, even if Cochran or his firm spent no more than a few minutes handing the case off to Townsend, they are still liable if they intended to take a referral fee, as the contract indicated they did. Cochran Thursday referred questions to one of his Chicago partners, who did not return a call. Donald Shapiro, an attorney representing Burrows in the legal malpractice complaint, accused Cochran of "drawing on his name" to get hefty referral fees in the Chicago area, but failing to accept the legal responsibility that comes with it. "This lady had a very strong medical malpractice case. They wound up puncturing her vagina and bowel. She became terribly infected and spent a few weeks in the hospital deathly sick all from a relatively simple procedure," Shapiro said. "The first thing you do with any case is calculate when you have to file. Because it's Cook County, it's one year. Usually, medical malpractice is two years. That's pretty basic knowledge. My guess is that Mr. Cochran, not being an Illinois lawyer but trying to practice here, wasn't aware of that. To let that year go by without filing suit is pretty egregious legal malpractice." Townsend is not currently eligible to practice law because he has not registered this year with the state's Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, an ARDC spokesman said. Two years ago, Cochran's high-profile Chicago partnership with Montgomery paid big dividends. On May 7, 2001, the firm won a record $18 million settlement for the family of LaTanya Haggerty, one of two unarmed civilians gunned down by Chicago police during the same weekend in June 1999. Mayor Daley agreed to the unprecedented settlement, in part to avoid an embarrassing trial that would have featured Cochran's headline-grabbing courtroom theatrics. Last year, Cochran filed one of several cases stemming from the deadly scaffolding accident at the John Hancock Center.

To: Oral Roberts who wrote (34517)	3/28/2003 6:36:11 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 59480

YOU AIN'T GONNA BELEIVE THIS! Columbia teacher calls for `a million Mogadishus;' referring to 1993 ambush of U.S. servicemen Associated Press ^ \| 3-28-03 Posted on 03/28/2003 12:46 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer NEW YORK (AP) -- A Columbia University professor told an anti-war gathering that he would like to see "a million Mogadishus" -- referring to the 1993 ambush in Somalia that killed 18 American servicemen. At Wednesday night's "teach-in" on the Columbia campus, Nicholas De Genova also called for the defeat of U.S. forces in Iraq and said, "The only true heroes are those who find ways that help defeat the U.S. military." And he asserted that Americans who call themselves "patriots" are white supremacists. De Genova's comments about defeating the United States in Iraq were cheered by the crowd of 3,000, Newsday reported. But his mention of the Somali ambush -- "I personally would like to see a million Mogadishus" -- was largely met with silence. A call Friday to De Genova, 35, an assistant professor of anthropology, was answered with a recording that said his voice mailbox was full. Columbia spokesman Joe Kennedy said the university was preparing a statement about the event. History professor Eric Foner, who helped organize the teach-in and spoke after De Genova, said Friday, "I disagreed strongly and I said so. If I had known what he was going to say I would have been reluctant to have him speak." He said De Genova was a last-minute invitee, was just one of about 25 speakers and "did not represent the general tone of the event, which was highly educational."