Announcements

May 13, 2013

Woman Settles Gel Fuel Lawsuit for $5.375M

PCVA Attorney Jason P. Amala has settled a lawsuit against a Canadian gel fuel manufacturer and others for a total of $5.375 million. Trial in the lawsuit was set to begin today in Marion County Circuit Court in Salem, Oregon.

PCVA’s client, Lillis Larson, was volunteering at her church’s food booth at the Salem Art Fair and Festival in July 2009 when she was burned by a bottle of Ecoflame Warming Gel, a gel fuel product that the church was using to keep food warm. As another volunteer tried to re-fill an Ecoflame can, the Ecoflame bottle of gel that she was using for the refill caught fire and exploded. Witnesses described an explosion that resulted in flaming gel shooting out of the bottle, covering Ms. Larson across her torso and neck. The flames could not be put out with water so volunteers had to use fire extinguishers.

Ms. Larson was life-flighted to a hospital in Portland and spent months recovering in a hospital burn unit and intensive home care. She suffered second and third degree burns on approximately one-third of her body and underwent multiple skin graft surgeries.

The Ecoflame product, which was labeled as “non-explosive,” was marketed as a re-fillable, environmentally friendly alternative to the familiar Sterno brand chafing cans that are used by restaurants and caterers to keep food warm. Members of Ms. Larson’s church testified they switched to Ecoflame from Sterno because of those representations.

Jason represented Ms. Larson with his father, Oregon attorney Carl R. Amala of Harris Wyatt & Amala, LLC. According to Jason and Carl, Ecoflame knew its product was dangerous but put profits over consumer safety: “We discovered evidence that Ecoflame not only believed its product was explosive if exposed to flame, but the company chose not to use a safety cap that would have prevented this type of accident because it knew people would be less likely to buy it. It then chose to market the unsafe product as ‘non-explosive.’ We asserted that this was a classic case of a company intentionally putting profits over consumer safety.”

The $5.375 million settlement is believed to be the largest yet arising from use of a gel fuel product. Last year, nine manufacturers voluntarily recalled some of their gel fuel products at the request of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which had received dozens of complaints from injured consumers. The CPSC is currently drafting new regulations to address gel fuel products, which began gaining popularity in 2008 until news of the voluntary recall.

A number of lawsuits were filed against gel fuel manufacturers, but the largest prior settlement is believed to have been $225,000. In contrast, Ecoflame’s insurers will fund $2 million of the settlement with Ms. Larson. The remaining $3.75 million was paid by insurers for the church.

Ms. Larson, a retired teacher of human development, hopes news of the settlement will prevent other people from being injured. “People need to know that these products are still out there and they are very dangerous, both for the people using them and for innocent bystanders.”

PCVA in the News

Salem grandmother badly burned by exploding fuel bottle settles case for $5.3 million – OregonLive.com

April 30, 2013

MultiCare Sued for Filing Fraudulent Liens

One of the region’s largest health care service providers has been accused of defrauding accident victims in a multimillion dollar lien fraud lawsuit filed in Pierce County Superior Court.

Tacoma attorneys Darrell Cochran and Tom Gallagher filed suit Tuesday against MultiCare Health System, which operates 5 hospitals and dozens of primary and urgent care clinics all around the South Sound area, alleging that MultiCare conspired with a California company to file thousands of illegal medical services liens with the Pierce County Auditor’s office.

“MultiCare has a lot of explaining to do,” Cochran said. “This hospital group touts itself as a consumer award winner, all the while they are violating the most basic consumer rights we have. Every single lien they filed through this company, Hunter Donaldson, is based on a fraudulent notary. That violates the law. “

The suit alleges that MultiCare “acted in concert” with California-based Hunter Donaldson to “fraudulently register” one of its employees as a Washington State notary. Then Hunter Donaldson would falsify and record medical liens for MultiCare in the Auditor’s office, according to the complaint for damages. The falsified liens would then be used to collect money from lawsuits and settlements stemming from accident claims.

“Injured accident victims who go into MultiCare’s hospitals and clinics are being kept in the dark about MultiCare’s intention to never bill their insurance but instead to try to get more money from the injured victims’ later recovery,” Gallagher said. “Had the injured victims gone to one of the other local area hospitals like St. Joseph’s or St. Claire’s, their insurance would be billed. MultiCare’s hospitals appear to be the only local hospitals involved in this scheme.”

Cochran and Gallagher said they will ask the court to certify this as a class action lawsuit and stop MultiCare and Hunter Donaldson from filing any more fraudulent liens.

“We hope the court will run Hunter Donaldson right out of doing any more business in Washington,” Cochran said.

October 18, 2012

Boy Scouts release secret child abuse files — the “Perversion Files”

Our co-counsel in Oregon has released a database of 14,500 pages of the secret “perversion files” of the Boy Scouts. The Seattle Times wrote an extensive piece on the files, including part of an interview with our Seattle sexual abuse attorney Jason P. Amala.

October 4, 2012

King 5 Investigates Boy Scout Perversion Files

Tonight, King 5 ran an extensive story on the Boy Scout perversion files in Washington state, including an interview with PCVA sexual abuse attorney Michael T. Pfau.
Michael has been prosecuting cases against the Boy Scouts for nearly a decade, and was one of the lead attorneys who took the Boy Scouts to the Washington Supreme Court in order to gain access to the perversion files.

If you or someone you love was sexually abused while in Scouting, please contact Michael Pfau or Jason Amala.

You can also visit http://www.boyscoutssexualabuse.com for more information on the perversion files and claims against the Boy Scouts.

September 28, 2012

Jury Awards Nearly $1.5 Million to Victim of Olympia School Bus Driver

ATTN: If you have a child who was a kindergartener named Stormy or Payton during the 2007/2008 or 2008/2009 school year, please contact us as soon as possible.

A unanimous Thurston County jury awarded a 7 year-old Olympia student $1.425 million for sexual abuse she suffered, because the Olympia School District failed to protect her from a pedophile school bus driver. The child and her mother filed suit against the school district after she was molested by employee Gary Shafer in the 2010. Shafer pled guilty in August 2011 to molesting the girl and another kindergarten bus rider and is now serving 15 years in prison.

The child’s attorney, Darrell Cochran, said that his client is only one of many students victimized by Shafer on board Olympia school buses, but that the district has worked hard to keep this issue quiet to avoid embarrassment.

“Gary Shafer admitted to sexually assaulting 30 or more school children that the Olympia School District has done absolutely nothing to assist or even identify,” Cochran said. “The district won’t truly be held accountable until all those kids who are suffering in silence are found and given some help.”

Over the course of the two-week trial Cochran showed evidence to the jury that district supervisors and officials ignored numerous warning signs that should have told them Shafer was a danger to children on board the bus. According to Cochran, the district broke basic safety rules by allowing Shafer to sit in the same seats with children, even with kids on his lap, all while being completely out of the driver’s view.

“Shafer rode on school buses all around the district for no purpose, other than to seek, groom and ultimately molest children,” Cochran said. “Parents put their elementary school students on the bus under the promise that the district would see their kids safely to school. The Olympia School District broke that promise.”

News outlets talking about the story:

The Olympian

KOMO News: Victim awarded nearly $1.5M in school bus molestation case

September 2, 2012

Federal Way Police Department Sued for Wrongful Death

Filing comes on the two-year anniversary of the shooting death of David Young

(Seattle) — PCVA Attorney Darrell Cochran filed suit today in Federal Court in Seattle on behalf of the family of a 23 year-old Federal Way man shot and killed by police two years ago today.

On August 31, 2010, David Young was shot by Federal Way police officer Matthew Leitgeb after a brief, slow speed police pursuit. Leitgeb and another Federal Way officer claimed that Young failed to stop and disobeyed commands to exit a truck the officers said was suspected of being stolen. Leitgeb performed a Pursuit Immobilization Technique or “P.I.T” maneuver on the truck Young was driving and then began firing his gun from the rear of the vehicle. After unloading one clip, Leitgeb reloaded and began firing again, eventually hitting Young in the back of the head from 90 feet away.

At an inquest in March 2011, a jury was unsure whether Leitgeb had a reasonable fear for anyone’s safety at the point he fired the fatal second volley of bullets at David Young. The lawsuit claims that Leitgeb and the City of Federal Way’s Police Department unconstitutionally used excessive force by unreasonably using lethal tactics against an unarmed individual suspected of a minor, nonviolent crime.

The lawsuit also seeks accountability for FWPD actions immediately after Young was shot. “For 45 minutes, Officer Leitgeb and other Federal Way police officers prevented on-scene emergency medical personnel from giving David aid as he sat behind the wheel, nonresponsive and bleeding profusely with a large bullet hole in his head. That’s unconscionable,” Cochran said. Under the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, law enforcement have a duty to aid someone injured and in their custody. Once EMTs were allowed to assist Young, he was rushed to Harborview Medical Center, but died three hours later.

Young’s death was the first of two fatal police shootings by Leitgeb over the course of a 16-month period. In July 2011, Jedidiah J. Waters was shot and killed by Leitgeb in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart in Federal Way after Waters allegedly reached for a gun while being chased by police. Leitgeb shot Waters 11 times and, as in Young’s case, he was the only officer who fired his weapon.

In the news:
KOMO News Story

July 6, 2012

$8M Verdict Against Catholic Church

After a four week trial, a jury returned an $8M verdict in favor of our client against the Catholic church. The jury found our client was abused for more than three years by Daniel Adamson, a former teacher and principal at St. Benedict School in Seattle, and that the Oblate pastor at the school, Henry Conrad, failed to protect him after multiple complaints by our client and other boys.

http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2012/07/6-4-million-going-to-catholic-sex-abuse-victim/

June 12, 2012

Final Justice in Death of Tacoma Toddler

A four-year legal battle over the wrongful death of a Tacoma boy came to an end yesterday with the entry of a $2 million judgment against the boy’s mother. The case has resulted in more than $4 million total in settlements and judgments.

Michael Lee Ravenell sued Ivory Wong, the State of Washington’s Child Protective Services and Multicare for the wrongful death of Ravenell and Wong’s three-year-old son. Michael Kekoa Ravenell was beaten to death in May 2008 by Wong’s boyfriend at the time, Noah J. Thomas. Thomas pleaded guilty to a charge of homicide by abuse and was sentenced to 50 years in prison in 2009.

In the spring of 2008, the boy’s father repeatedly called CPS for help after noticing significant bruises on his son and his 18-month-old daughter during weekend visits. Despite confirming the children’s injuries, CPS workers continued to allow Wong to remain as primary care giver. CPS workers also knew of Noah Thomas’s presence around the children prior to the three-year-old’s death, but failed to run his name in its computer system.

“Had CPS done so,” Tacoma trial lawyer Darrell Cochran told reporters, “the agency would have discovered Thomas’s prior criminal conviction for beating and burning his own children.”

Monday, Pierce County Judge Susan Serko entered a default judgment against Wong for neglect and gross negligence by allowing Thomas to be home alone with the Ravenell children despite knowing of his violent past. The State and Muticare had both already settled out of court.

“The heartache for Mike Ravenell will never end,” the family’s attorney Paul Donion said yesterday. “But getting this judgment today at least forces a final measure of accountability for everyone involved in Kekoa’s death.”

May 10, 2012

On King5: Parents of molested child file claim against Olympia School District

by ELISA HAHN / KING 5 News

Posted on May 10, 2012 at 2:47 PM

Bus driver who molested girls: ‘I’ll never understand the pain I’ve caused’

OLYMPIA, Wash. – The Olympia School District did not do enough to protect a girl from a convicted child molester who drove buses for the district, according to parents of a 7-year-old victim. The family is now filing a claim against the district.

The parents of two other girls have already filed lawsuits as a result of Gary D. Shafer’s actions. Shafer was sentenced to almost 15 years in prison in 2011.

After his arrest, Schafer admitted to sexually assaulting young girls on the bus, sometimes even riding as a passenger on another school bus under the pretense of helping the driver with the students.

Abbigail Gutierrez, one of the mothers who has already filed suit, said she learned later that Shafer would have her daughter sit on his lap, tickling her and telling jokes to groom her. Gutierrez claims his behavior should have been a red flag to his co-workers and supervisors in the school district.

Gutierrez said her daughter is in treatment and still has anxiety about riding the bus and being around adult men outside of her immediate family. Her mother worries about the long-term affects the abuse will have.

In the newest claim against the district, attorney Darrell Cochran writes “According to the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office, Shafer has sexually assaulted more than 20-30 girls who rode buses in the Olympia School District, from 2005 to December 2010, all of whom were either young girls or special needs students.”

Cochran represents two of the three families who have filed suit.

The district said it can’t comment on pending litigation, but in the past stated that Shafer passed all his background checks.

http://www.king5.com/news/cities/olympia/claim-filed-olympia-child-molester-151021155.html

May 10, 2012

Listen to Darrell Cochran’s Argument in the McKown Appeal

Attorney Darrell Cochran argued in front of Judges Gould, Bybee, and Bea in United States Court for the 9th Circuit in the Brendan McKown v. Simon Property Group Inc, et al. case on May 7, 2012.