Daily Record (St. Louis, MO/St. Louis Countian) articles from April 2008

Daily Record (St. Louis, MO/St. Louis Countian) archives from April 2008

City of St. Louis asks judge to rule on 'eminent domain' mural.
April 1, 2008... Byline: Donna Walter The city of St. Louis wants a federal judge to order property owner Jim Roos to paint over a year-old mural he commissioned to protest the city's use of eminent domain to take his property. The controversial...

Both sides seek new trial in legal malpractice case: Mo. law firm ordered to pay $3.7M to bank.
April 1, 2008... Byline: Kelly Wiese Thompson Coburn ordered to pay $3.7 million to bank Thompson Coburn, one of Missouri's largest law firms, has been found guilty by an Illinois jury of legal malpractice and ordered to pay millions to a bank client,...

Missouri Supreme Court ends suit over clergy abuse.
April 2, 2008... Byline: Kelly Wiese The state Supreme Court has ended a man's lawsuit claiming sexual abuse by a member of the clergy, saying the time in which to file suit had expired. Robert Visnaw sued in 2006, claiming former Marianist Brother William...

Commentary: Eminent domain ruling endangers property rights.
April 2, 2008... Byline: Nicholas A. Loyal For decades, the property rights of Missouri residents have been disregarded as municipalities throughout the state plowed through personal history in the disastrous pursuit of progress. Recently, the state's...

Taylor seeks reopening of post-conviction proceedings in Mo. Supreme Court.
April 3, 2008... Byline: Donna Walter The case of death row inmate Michael A. Taylor is before the Missouri Supreme Court again -- this time to reopen post-conviction proceedings so he can challenge the effectiveness of the lawyers who represented him when...

Missouri Supreme Court denies former ALJ retroactive benefits.
April 3, 2008... Byline: Donna Walter A former workers' compensation judge will have to wait another few months before he can start collecting retirement benefits. On Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court said awarding Robert H. Sihnhold, 64, pension...

Missouri Supreme Court considers flexibility in filing deadlines.
April 3, 2008... Byline: Kelly Wiese The Supreme Court considered Tuesday whether a man gets to bend the rules in seeking to have his conviction set aside despite filing the request a day late. Vincent McFadden, 28, has become a regular before the Missouri...

Commentary: A little planning makes travel much easier.
April 3, 2008... Byline: Christine Ann Hughes I'm a little frazzled, apprehensive, nervous, tired, overwhelmed and excited. Winter is gone. Spring is officially here, and I am preparing for a 10-day tour of Israel. As I write this, I will leave in two...

Disturbing the peace: Missouri Supreme Court to decide if instant message was a threat.
April 4, 2008... Byline: Donna Walter Two years ago a 16-year-old told a friend he wanted to take a gun to school, shoot the people who hated him and then kill himself. Now it's up to the Missouri Supreme Court to sort out whether that statement was a true...

Missouri Lawyers in the News: April 4, 2008.
April 4, 2008... Byline: St. Louis Daily Record Staff Report Robert E. McAuliffe, a St. Louis attorney for Spencer, Fane, Britt, & Browne, was appointed to the Missouri State Council on the Arts. McAuliffe holds a bachelor's degree from Wabash College and a...

St. Louis man creates holiday to honor lawyers.
April 5, 2008... Byline: Kelly Wiese Nearly every group or cause has a special holiday -- all but lawyers, it seems. Steve Hughes decided that needs to change. So the St. Louis area man, who's not a lawyer himself, has declared April 8 as National Be Kind...

Missouri House passes measure to keep judges from raising taxes.
April 7, 2008... Byline: Kelly Wiese House members for the second year in a row have endorsed a measure to keep courts from raising taxes. The measure, HJR41, states that courts cannot raise taxes of any kind and prohibits courts from requiring any...

Missouri measure would ensure DNA samples allowed.
April 7, 2008... Byline: Kelly Wiese A measure to allow Missouri's sex offender registry to be retroactive has been expanded to also ensure a law requiring DNA samples can reach back in time. The original proposed constitutional change came about after the...

Judge sides with Discovery: St. Louis Union Station told to accept deal lawyer said it never made.
April 8, 2008... Byline: Donna Walter An agreement is an agreement - and St. Louis Union Station Holdings agreed to accept $220,000 for the early termination of The Discovery Channel Store's lease, according to a St. Louis Circuit Court judge. On Friday,...

Retrial begins in St. Louis County Circuit Court with diverse jury members.
April 8, 2008... Byline: Kelly Wiese Prosecutors laid out their case Monday against a man on trial for the second time in the 2003 shooting death of his ex-girlfriend's sister. Vincent McFadden is being re-tried on charges of first-degree murder, armed...

Lawyer behind D.C. gun case at MAC tonight.
April 8, 2008... Byline: St. Louis Daily Record Staff Report The attorney behind the challenge to the handgun ban in Washington, D.C., is scheduled to speak at the Missouri Athletic Club tonight. Robert Levy, who reportedly has never owned a handgun, has...

Federal judge nominees in Missouri moving forward.
April 9, 2008... Byline: Donna Walter Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. is well-qualified to be a federal judge but David Gregory "Greg" Kays did not get as strong a recommendation from the American Bar Association committee that rates judicial nominees. Limbaugh,...

Good-bye, Biotactica: Founders of life science law firm in St. Louis close up shop.
April 9, 2008... Byline: Heather Cole Two attorneys who launched a St. Louis life sciences intellectual property firm a year and a half ago have called it quits. Kevin Buckley and Tara Nealey are winding down Biotactica after issues with funding falling...

St. Louis County jury finds McFadden guilty again of killing ex-girlfriend's sister.
April 9, 2008... Byline: Kelly Wiese For the second time, a St. Louis County jury has convicted a man in the shooting death of his ex-girlfriend's sister. Vincent McFadden, 28, was found guilty Tuesday afternoon of first-degree murder, armed criminal...

Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis elects two new members-at-large.
April 9, 2008... Byline: Donna Walter Sara Weiler Gillette and Tiffany B. Kieffer were elected Monday night as members-at-large to the Young Lawyers' Division of the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis. Four lawyers competed for two two-year terms...

Missouri Supreme Court to answer: Should facing accusers apply to penalty trial?
April 10, 2008... Byline: Donna Walter State Supreme Court considers the question for the first time Criminal defendants have the right to confront their accusers during the guilt phase of trials, but should they have the same right in the penalty...

Worker reaches $2.3M settlement with BNSF in St. Louis Circuit Court.
April 11, 2008... Byline: Kelly Wiese An injured railroad worker has reached a nearly $2.3 million settlement with the railroad in St. Louis Circuit Court. Thomas Joe Carney sued Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co. in August 2005 over injuries he...

Missouri circuit court judge: Probation officers deserve $4.1 million in back pay.
April 11, 2008... Byline: Kelly Wiese The state has been ordered to provide $4.1 million in back pay to probation and parole officers for a raise denied them in 2004. Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan ruled in 2005 that denial of their raise, which...

Another Missouri jury calls for death for McFadden.
April 11, 2008... Byline: St. Louis Daily Record Staff Report Once again, execution is the recommendation of a St. Louis County jury for a man convicted in the shooting death of his ex-girlfriend's sister. The jury on Tuesday found Vincent McFadden, 28,...

Chesterfield-based AdOne Media goes bankrupt after $1.1 million verdict.
April 11, 2008... Byline: Donna Walter The Chesterfield-based outdoor advertising firm AdOne Media Inc. has filed for bankruptcy in the Northern District of Illinois. Last month a St. Louis County jury ordered AdOne and its president, James Neumann, to pay...

Wash University School of Law in St. Louis to present distinguished alumni awards.
April 11, 2008... Byline: St. Louis Daily Record Staff Report Washington University School of Law will celebrate the achievements of seven individuals at its annual Distinguished Alumni Awards Dinner tonight at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Dean Kent Syverud will...

Senniger Powers relocating to Bank of America Tower in downtown St. Louis.
April 14, 2008... Byline: Donna Walter Senniger Powers is moving to the Bank of America Tower in downtown St. Louis after 17 years on the 16th floor of the Metropolitan Square Building. "We're pretty excited about building out brand new space in a new...

Judge Hamilton takes the top honor in St. Louis Daily Record's Women's Justice Awards.
April 14, 2008... Byline: Richard Jackoway When Judge Jean Hamilton took to the podium last week to accept the Woman of the Year award in the Women's Justice Awards, it was perhaps in keeping that she spoke barely a word about her own remarkable career....

8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals modifies Nichols' '90-day' rule.
April 14, 2008... Byline: Donna Walter The Missouri Court of Appeals is not a court of last resort, a federal appeals court said. In so doing, the court overturned a nine-year-old precedent that temporarily tolled the statute of limitations for federal...

House gives first-round approval to court-selection changes.
April 15, 2008... Byline: Kelly Wiese The House gave initial approval to a proposed amendment Monday to revamp the way Missouri picks judges for its highest courts. The measure by Rep. Stanley Cox, R-Sedalia, would change the makeup of the Appellate...

McDonald's employees in Missouri say they aren't paid for all work.
April 15, 2008... Byline: Aaron Bailey It might be a McJob, but some local McDonald's employees want their McOvertime. A class action lawsuit against the fast-food giant alleges Missouri employees were not compensated for all the hours worked on and off the...

Missouri Supreme Court denies class certification in Diet Coke sweetener suit.
April 16, 2008... Byline: Allison Retka The Missouri Supreme Court has shut down a Kansas City woman's effort to bring a class action lawsuit against the Coca-Cola Co. for a sugar substitute used by the beverage giant. The potential class for Diana...

Workers' compensation conviction upheld by Missouri Supreme Court.
April 16, 2008... Byline: Donna Walter A corporate president was rightfully convicted for failing to carry workers' compensation insurance, the Missouri Supreme Court said Tuesday. Robert Salter, president of Housecalls Inc. in Olivette, was convicted of...

Missouri House lawyers give mixed support for court plan.
April 16, 2008... Byline: Kelly Wiese Some attorney members of the Missouri House helped a proposal to overhaul Missouri's judicial selection system win first-round approval. The proposed constitutional change, HJR49, is sponsored by Rep. Stanley Cox, a...

Missouri executions remain uncertain.
April 17, 2008... Byline: Donna Walter Ruling on lethal injection won't bring quick state court decisions The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Kentucky's use of lethal injection to execute its prisoners, but court watchers in Missouri say the decision leaves...

Wanted: Execution dates in Missouri.
April 17, 2008... Byline: St. Louis Daily Record Staff Report Last June, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon asked the Missouri Supreme Court to set execution dates for these 10 capital punishment inmates. Renewed motions were filed for the following...

St. Louis firefighters in court to keep back pay.
April 18, 2008... Byline: Donna Walter Lawyers for St. Louis firefighters Michael Martinez and Eric Deeken told the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals their clients are entitled to keep the back pay a federal jury awarded them in their reverse discrimination...

St. Louis law firms announce staffing changes: April 18, 2008.
April 18, 2008... Byline: St Louis Daily Record Staff Report Husch Blackwell Sanders has added Melanie P. Rheinecker and Laura B. Staley to the firm's St. Louis office. Rheinecker joins the Business Services Division and will focus her practice on commercial...

Wal-Mart to pay $300,000 to rejected Missouri job applicant.
April 18, 2008... Byline: St. Louis Daily Record Staff Wal-Mart Stores Inc. agreed to pay $300,000 to a Hardin, Mo., man to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The proposed consent decree...

Court plan revamp fails: Missouri House reverses earlier support for issue, votes down 69-83.
April 18, 2008... Byline: Kelly Wiese The House has rejected a proposed state constitutional amendment that would alter the way judges are chosen for the state's highest courts. In a surprise result that potentially puts the issue to rest for this year, the...

Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon seeks execution dates for four additional inmates.
April 18, 2008... Byline: Donna Walter Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon on Thursday asked the Missouri Supreme Court to set execution dates for four inmates. Nixon's motions come a day after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a case out of Kentucky that...

No defender relief from St. Louis city hall.
April 18, 2008... Byline: Kelly Wiese A St. Louis governing board has rejected a request by the circuit court to provide half a million dollars to hire private attorneys to represent criminal defendants and get felony cases moving more quickly. The Board...

Missouri budget offers little to assist public defenders.
April 22, 2008... Byline: Kelly Wiese With hope dwindling for help from state or city leaders, the state public defender system is warning courts and lawyers to brace for June. That's when the public defender system plans to shut off certain...

ABA promotes new rule-of-law index.
April 22, 2008... Byline: Donna Walter American Bar Association President William H. Neukom called upon the local bar association to join in his efforts to promote the rule of law in this country and abroad. Speaking at the 50th annual Law Day celebration...

U.S. Supreme Court ends Taylor appeal.
April 22, 2008... Byline: Aaron Bailey The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the appeal of a Jackson County man on death row. Michael A. Taylor was one of 11 men whose death sentence appeals were rejected by the high court Monday. He was sentenced to death for...

Incoming president of Bar Assn. of Metropolitan St. Louis encourages diversity, pro bono services.
April 23, 2008... Byline: Donna Walter Attorney David E. Crawford Jr. will be the first tell you that the public views his profession negatively. And as the new president of the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, he pledges to change that image by...

Dealmaking lawyers weigh in on St. Louis real estate market.
April 24, 2008... Byline: Allison Retka City officials downplay recession, tout new building projects There was little talk of housing slumps or economic slowdowns Wednesday at a symposium on the real estate market in metropolitan St. Louis. City...

Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys blasts study of litigation climate.
April 24, 2008... Byline: Kelly Wiese Missouri moves up on survey of best places to defend corporate cases A big business group's latest survey of corporate lawyers ranks Missouri's litigation climate in the middle, 31st of 50 states, a few notches...

Voting groups sue Missouri Department of Social Services over registrations decline.
April 24, 2008... Byline: Aaron Bailey A national nonprofit group is suing the Missouri Department of Social Services for allegedly breaking the law by not registering low-income clients to vote. The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or...

Public Defender Commission in Missouri gets old friend.
April 24, 2008... Byline: St. Louis Daily Record Staff Report Gov. Matt Blunt has named a new member to the state Public Defender Commission, but he's hardly a newcomer to its challenges. Blunt announced Monday that he nominated Doug Copeland to serve on the...

Clayton firm sues Bayer over anti-bleeding drug.
April 24, 2008... Byline: Donna Walter Clayton-based Carey & Danis is poised to serve in a leadership role managing the multidistrict litigation against Bayer AG over its anti-bleeding drug Trasylol. The law firm filed eight lawsuits with the federal court...

Nominations advance: U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee sends Limbaugh, Kays to Senate floor.
April 25, 2008... Byline: Donna Walter The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday unanimously voted to send the nominations of Judges Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. and David Gregory "Greg" Kays to the full Senate for a confirmation vote. Limbaugh is the...

Missouri Supreme Court considers bipolarity in attorney discipline case.
April 25, 2008... Byline: Kelly Wiese The Supreme Court is considering whether mental illness should be reason enough to set a different standard for an attorney who took money from client accounts for personal use, but later repaid it. The Office of Chief...

Missouri state Rep. Hunter forges ahead with Second Injury Fund bill.
April 25, 2008... Byline: Donna Walter State Rep. Steve Hunter, R-Joplin, is bound and determined to push through a House bill drastically changing the Second Injury Fund - even though a complete overhaul has virtually no chance of passing in the Senate....

Missouri Supreme Court considers health insurance for retired St. Louis police.
April 25, 2008... Byline: Kelly Wiese The Supreme Court considered Thursday how nice of a health plan retired St. Louis police officers are due. Unlike most law enforcement agencies, many details regarding the St. Louis Police Department, and the board that...

Missouri Gov. Blunt touts effects of tort reform.
April 25, 2008... Byline: Scott Lauck Gov. Matt Blunt toured the state Thursday to tout the effects of the Legislature's tort reforms undertaken in 2005. During stops in Kansas City and St. Louis, Blunt, who made tort reform one of his priorities his first...

Proposed amendment yanked from Missouri Senate Judiciary Committee.
April 25, 2008... Byline: Kelly Wiese A proposed amendment to explicitly define courts' authority to hear cases has been taken away from the Senate Judiciary Committee and re-assigned to another panel with few lawyer members. The House passed HJR41 on April...

Missourians seek class action suit over vehicle repossessions.
April 28, 2008... Byline: Charles Emerick After having their vehicles repossessed, thousands of Missourians are now driving a lawsuit against an Illinois credit union for allegedly violating consumer protection laws. Meadows Credit Union, based in the...

Ogletree Deakins continues to grow St. Louis office.
April 28, 2008... Byline: Donna Walter St. Louis lawyers Rodney Harrison, James Paul and Lance Witcher have joined Ogletree Deakins, a nationwide labor and employment firm that opened its St. Louis office last August. "We're growing by leaps and bounds,"...

Gov. Blunt names new judge for St. Louis County court.
April 28, 2008... Byline: St. Louis Daily Record Staff Report Sole practitioner Mary Elizabeth Ott has been chosen to fill a vacancy on the St. Louis County Circuit Court. Gov. Matt Blunt announced Friday that he chose Ott to become an associate circuit...

SimmonsCooper helps homeless vets in St. Louis solve their legal troubles.
April 29, 2008... Byline: Donna Walter One by one, St. Louis Municipal Judge Lisl King Williams called the seven defendants up to the bench Friday afternoon. Each man who stood before her asked for mercy. And, with the cooperation of the St. Louis City...

Missouri voter ID doubtful this year.
April 29, 2008... Byline: Scott Lauck Despite the U.S Supreme Court's approval of a voter photo-identification law in Indiana, Missouri seems unlikely to have such a provision back on the books anytime soon. State Rep. Stanley Cox, R-Sedalia, said Monday...

Missouri Senate candidate responds to lawsuit over residency.
April 29, 2008... Byline: Kelly Wiese Two state House members vying for a Senate seat are now battling it out in court. Rep. Robin Wright Jones sued Rep. Connie Johnson, alleging Johnson does not reside within the district she hopes to represent and should...

A $1.5M case goes forgotten for six years: Retiring Mo. judge rules after cleaning out her office.
April 30, 2008... Byline: Kelly Wiese Judge Evelyn Baker was preparing to retire late last month when a clerk told her about a little unfinished business. In cleaning out Baker's office, the clerk had found a 2002 case in which the judge had found for the...

Dean of University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law will try to make DNA precedent again.
April 30, 2008... Byline: Charles Emerick Huntley Ruff has spent the past 20 years of his life in prison, convicted of raping a woman at a Kansas City hotel where he worked as a cook. Like a lot of inmates, Ruff asserts he is innocent. It's just a matter of...

Without a ruling from Mo. Court of Appeals, stem cell ballot measure could be lost.
April 30, 2008... Byline: Charles Emerick It's what an appellate court didn't do on Tuesday that could handcuff one Missouri group challenging a constitutional amendment. On its weekly hand down date on Tuesday, the Missouri Court of Appeals Western...

Why are people I don't know so interested in my security?
April 30, 2008... Byline: Robert L. Brenna Jr./Dolan Media Newswires When I was a freshman in college, I had a poster on my dormitory room wall that simply read, Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you. On the other hand, it's...