Lawyer scores 6BD in Wynnefield - Blockshopper
Derrick Coker and Leslie J. Harmon-Coker bought a six-bedroom, four-bath home at 5401 Woodbine Ave. in Wynnefield from SPMR Investments LLC for $270,000 on Aug. 16.
According to BlockShopper.com , there have been 158 home sales in Wynnefield during the past 12 months, with a median sales price of $111,250.
Rampage figure returned from Iraq disturbed | Philadelphia Inquirer | 2011-09-04 - Philadelphia Inquirer
Within a year of his return to Fort Lee, Va., the Army captain and his wife were seeking a divorce. He was seeing a psychiatrist, court records show, and was prescribed medication for unspecified mental problems.
Above all, he was obsessed by a belief that Carrie Egland, his wife of 14 years, had been unfaithful, according to her lawyer, Rick Friedman.
The extent of Leonard Egland's jealous rage has continued to emerge since last weekend, when his multistate rampage left five people dead, including his estranged wife, her mother, and himself.
On the evening of Aug. 26, authorities say, he shot and killed Carrie Egland, 36; a male friend of hers; and the friend's 7-year-old son in the suburban home the couple owned near Richmond, Va.
Rampage figure returned from Iraq disturbed | Philadelphia Inquirer | 2011-09-04 - Philadelphia Inquirer
Girl’s family awarded $2.9 million - phillyBurbs.com
Ashley Lynn Nickerson-Whalen, who was about to begin ninth grade at Bensalem High School, died after being struck while trying to cross Street Road about 10 p.m Aug. 19, 2004.
Police later arrested Kirk Tate, a 21-year-old Philadelphia man who was driving with a suspended license. Tests showed that Kirk was intoxicated at the time of the crash, but he wasn't charged with DUI-related hit-and-run because investigators found that road condition and other factors, not his drunkenness, caused the crash.
Prosecutors, at the time, said that a police investigation showed Tate was traveling at the posted speed limit of 45 mph before he hit Nickerson-Whalen, and that even a sober driver would have been unable to avoid the crash.
Nickerson-Whalen's family disagreed. "The bottom line was, once he pleaded guilty to DUI and leaving the scene, he was going to be found liable in a civil court," said the family's attorney, Carol Shelly of Mellon, Webster and Shelly in Doylestown.
Girl's family awarded $2.9 million - phillyBurbs.com
Philadelphia’s Anapol Schwartz takes on NFL - Legal News Line
PHILADELPHIA - It seems the Eagles aren't the only team in town ready for some NFL action. The lawyers of Anapol, Schwartz, Weiss, Cohan, Feldman and Smalley have taken on the National Football League in federal court.
Seven former professional football players -- among them former Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jim McMahon and Philadelphia Eagles lineman Gerry Feehery -- retained the Philadelphia law firm, alleging the NFL failed to properly treat their concussions, concealed links between football and brain injuries, and was responsible for causing the damage because of coaching players received.
Anapol Schwartz attorney Larry Cohan is lead counsel in the class action filed Aug. 17 in federal court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. While he could not be reached, Sol Weiss, co-counsel in the case, did comment.
Louisiana attorney Harvey Koch, who specializes in sports law, said the grounds for seeking class action status are "problematical" in the players' suit. Yet, he said, there is the possibility it would be granted.
Philadelphia's Anapol Schwartz takes on NFL - Legal News Line
Briefly… CITY/REGION | Philadelphia Daily News | 2011-08-12 - Philadelphia Daily News
English-language students Irene Fernandez, 23, and Fahad Rajhi, 26, keep cool on the shady side of 16th Street, during a break in classes at Kaplan International Center on Rittenhouse Square.
Lawyer Robert Mongeluzzi was describing how a traffic accident left his client Gary Pettet with rotting flesh and bone after 12 surgeries. When he got to the fact that doctors had to amputate his leg, a juror in the civil trial fainted.
The delay allowed Mongeluzzi and defense attorney Jack Snyder, representing the Port Authority Transit Corp., to come to a $10 million settlement in a Philly courtroom. The fainting juror had no effect on the settlement, the lawyers said.
Medics checked on the juror, who was fine and mostly suffering from embarrassment, Snyder said. Pettet, 55, of Berlin, N.J., was on his way to work on July 3, 2007, and had just crossed a bridge into Philadelphia when a PATCO truck struck him and shoved him into a median strip.
Briefly... CITY/REGION | Philadelphia Daily News | 2011-08-12 - Philadelphia Daily News
She’s charged with DUI … a year later | Philadelphia Daily News | 2011-08-09 - Philadelphia Daily News
Family members (from left) Amelia Acevedo, Elba Adames and Lisa Cardona sit beside gravesite of Liliana Acevedo (below), victim of an alleged hit-and-run.
IN A CASE that shows the difficulty of charging someone with driving under the influence long after an accident, a Hunting Park woman was charged May 24 with driving drunk and fleeing the scene of a fatal hit-and-run crash more than a year after it occurred.
Sylvia Lugo, 38, was charged with the May 1, 2010, hit-and-run death of Liliana Acevedo at Erie Avenue and 2nd Street, one of 14 fatalities out of the 547 hit-and-runs that occurred in the city last year.
The case is unusual because prosecutors typically need a blood or breath test immediately after an accident and a cop's firsthand observations of a driver to prove that someone was driving under the influence.
She's charged with DUI ... a year later | Philadelphia Daily News | 2011-08-09 - Philadelphia Daily News
Mate Pleads Guilty in 2010 Duck Boat Accident - Occupational Health & Safety
Matthew Devlin was charged with the equivalent of involuntary manslaughter after a barge his tugboat was towing ran over the duck boat in the Delaware River, sinking it and killing two Hungarian tourists. He was distracted while using a cell phone and laptop, NTSB concluded.
Matthew Devlin, former first mate of the tugboat M/V Caribbean Sea, pleaded guilty Aug. 1 in a Philadelphia federal court to one count of misconduct of a ship operator causing death in connection with a July 2010 accident on the Delaware River. He was charged with the equivalent of involuntary manslaughter after a barge the tugboat was towing ran over a duck boat, sinking it and killing two Hungarian tourists. Devlin was distracted while using a cell phone and laptop for an extended period of time to attend to a family emergency, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded.
The board in June 2011 laid most of the blame for the accident on Devlin's actions, but it also found that actions by the duck boat's operator, a tourism company named Ride the Ducks International, LLC, contributed. The board's investigation showed that maintenance personnel from Ride The Ducks did not ensure that the surge tank pressure cap was securely in place before returning the vehicle to passenger service, which allowed the engine to overheat and caused the duck boat's master to stop it and anchor in an active channel. NTSB investigators said Ride The Ducks had written procedures for safe operational practices and emergency situations, but the master did not take all actions appropriate to address the risk of anchoring in an active navigation channel.
Sentencing guidelines called for imprisonment of 37 to 46 months in this case, the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced July 14, but the Philadelphia Inquirer's Miriam Hill reported Aug. 1 that Devlin's lawyer, Frank DeSimone, said he would ask the court to forgo jail time for Devlin because of the circumstances of the accident. Her article said Devlin was concerned about his five-year-old son, who had experienced oxygen deprivation during eye surgery, and moved to the lower wheelhouse to access a computer to research his son's problem. He was talking to family members on his cell phone as the tug and barge approached the duck boat, she reported, adding that his cell phone use violated the corporate policy of his employer, K-Sea Transportation.
Mate Pleads Guilty in 2010 Duck Boat Accident - Occupational Health & Safety
Sports in Brief: McMahon hurt in Nevada crash | Philadelphia Inquirer | 2011-07-19 - Philadelphia Inquirer
Mike Edgell said. "Right now he's in a lot of pain," Edgell said later Monday. He described McMahon's injuries as "non-incapacitating," and it wasn't immediately known if he would be admitted to the hospital.
Marc Tyler has been suspended from all team activities and the Trojans' season opener for comments he made that implied he gets paid to play for USC. When asked whether he could make more money at USC or in the NFL, Tyler said, "USC, they breaking bread," making a gesture indicating a large stack of money.
Harvey "Scooter" McDougle Jr. , a former Toledo running back, pleaded guilty to working with a Detroit gambler accused of placing bets on football and basketball games, the third ex-Rocket to be convicted in a point-shaving probe. "I needed the cash and the groceries at the time," McDougle said.
Frank Vogel 's staff. Boylen was head coach at the University of Utah from 2007 to 2011. In the NBA, he earned two championship rings as an assistant for the Houston Rockets.
Sports in Brief: McMahon hurt in Nevada crash | Philadelphia Inquirer | 2011-07-19 - Philadelphia Inquirer
Catskill tug pilot to admit role in fatal Pa. boat crash - Catskill Daily Mail
PHILADELPHIA — A tug pilot talking on a cell phone as he steered a huge barge into a small duck boat, killing two tourists, has agreed to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.
Tug pilot Matt Devlin, 35, of Catskill, N.Y., was consumed by a family emergency and had moved to a lower wheelhouse, where his view of the Delaware River was obscured, according to the information and plea documents filed Thursday.
In about 2 1/2 hours at the wheel, Devlin made and received 21 cell phone calls and also surfed the Internet on a laptop, investigators found. Devlin "went numb" after learning his son was having trouble waking up from minor eye surgery and had perhaps been deprived of oxygen, his lawyer said.
At a public hearing, NTSB officials stressed that the nation risks a surge in deadly accidents unless it makes distracted driving — talking, texting and surfing online while operating cars, boats and trains — as taboo as drunken driving.
Catskill tug pilot to admit role in fatal Pa. boat crash - Catskill Daily Mail
Posterity Denied: The Hijacking of the Barnes Foundation - American Thinker
Unfortunately, the facts surrounding the upending of the Barnes collection tell a very different story. The State of Pennsylvania, through political pressure and judicial maneuvering, used the overreaching arm of the state to dismantle and destroy a man's legacy and life's work.
Albert Barnes, after amassing a fortune from the antiseptic Argyrol, committed his life to art. In 1912, guided by close friends and artists, as well as his own keen eye, Barnes began to put together his collection. In 1922, Barnes established his foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania wherein his collection would find a home meticulously arranged to the last detail. As one walks through the halls of the Barnes, the founder's passion is as vivid as the masterpieces layering the walls. From the landscape of the surrounding grounds to the small pieces of furniture accenting the carefully organized walls of the gallery, Barnes' commitment to detail is readily apparent. The walls, where Renoirs, Cézannes, and Matisses hang next to each other, provide a dialogue between the artists' styles and visions. It is hard to argue that Barnes' mission, to inspire and cultivate students' passion for art, could find a better home.
Barnes, though, was no Scrooge hoarding his masterpieces from the masses while he alone luxuriated in them (when he wasn't bathing in gold coins). Rather, he was the highest form of teacher. Inspired by men like William James and John Dewey, Barnes believed in the necessity of an interactive education -- that students must engage with the material, instead of simply acquiring fact and theory. Barnes dedicated his fortune to this very goal and established the foundation as an educational facility.
Barnes was also cognizant of the future, establishing a trust to protect the foundation and his vision in perpetuity. The educational mission of the foundation was clear in the trust's provisions -- limited public access and orders that none of the art should be tampered with. The Barnes Foundation, unlike a normal museum, was an organic construct that became the physical manifestation of a man's life ambition. Barnes made certain stipulations of the foundation clear from the start -- the art should not be moved (be it lent out or sold) and the galleries would have strictly limited public use (two days a week).
Posterity Denied: The Hijacking of the Barnes Foundation - American Thinker