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Immediate Release – October 10, 2012
Domnick & Shevin Attorneys Recognized as “Best Lawyer in America”
Palm Beach Gardens, FL – The law firm of Domnick & Shevin, PL is proud to announce that Attorney Sean C. Domnick and Harry A. Shevin were recently selected by their peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2013 (Copyright 2012 by Woodward/White, Inc., of Aiken, SC).
Sean C. Domnick has been selected in the field of Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice. Mr. Domnick has been practicing law in Palm Beach County for more than 20 years. He represents clients in catastrophic personal injury cases involving wrongful death, medical malpractice, product liability and mass torts—such as drug litigation. He has earned Florida Bar Board Certification for the competency and experience of a civil trial attorney. Mr. Domnick is a member Palm Beach County Bar Association, The Florida Bar, the American Bar Association, the Florida Justice Association and the American Association for Justice. He is also on the Board of Directors of the Palm Beach County Justice Association.
Harry A. Shevin has been selected in the field of Personal Injury Litigation. Mr. Shevin has been practicing law in Palm Beach County for more than 19 years. He represents individuals and their families who have been injured by the negligence of others in the areas of personal injury, catastrophic injury, toxic torts, medical malpractice and wrongful death litigation. He has earned Florida Bar Board Certification for the competency and experience of a civil trial attorney. Mr. Shevin is a member of the Palm Beach County Bar Association, The Florida Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the Palm Beach County Justice Association, the Florida Justice Association and the American Association for Justice.
Since it was first published in 1983, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence. Because Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey in which more than 39,000 leading attorneys cast almost 3.1 million votes on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their practice areas, and because lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor. Corporate Counsel magazine has called Best Lawyers “the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice.” To view the list online, visit www.bestlawyers.com.The magazine will be available in print in October.
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Domnick & Shevin, PL, a Palm Beach Gardens Litigation Firm, focuses on Personal Injury, Wrongful Death, Medical Malpractice, Catastrophic Injury, Product Liability, and Mass Torts. The firm is headquartered at 5100 PGA Boulevard, Suite 317 and may be contacted at (561) 630-5363. Additional information about Domnick & Shevin, PL may be obtained from the firm’s website at www.acallforjustice.com.
For years, Shirley Baker implored her husband to quit smoking.
She nagged. She cajoled. When warning labels were put on cigarette packs, she held one up to his face and demanded he read it. In the words of their son, Richard, who also urged his father to give up the deadly habit, “she rode him like an old Harley.”
But despite their efforts, Elmer “Perry” Baker didn’t quit. In 1993, months after being diagnosed with lung cancer, he died. He was 65.
To Shirley Baker and her attorneys, Perry Baker’s inability to quit is a testament to an addiction that was fueled by decades of lies and deception from tobacco companies.
“This is a case about greed, about money, about how the defendant R.J. Reynolds put sales over safety and profit over people,” her attorney Harry Shevin told a Palm Beach County jury Tuesday.
To attorneys representing R.J. Reynolds, which produced the Lucky Strikes, Winstons and Pall Malls that ultimately produced a tumor in Baker’s chest, the longtime ambulance company owner didn’t quit simply because he didn’t want to.
Click here to read the full article.
The mother of a schoolboy accused of 'kicking a girl's head like a football' in a brutal attack today describes the moment they together found her other son hanged.
Wayne Treacy, now 17, is alleged to have sought out and savagely beaten 15-year-old Josie Ratley unconscious after she told him to 'go visit your dead brother' in a taunting text message.
But today his mother Donna Powers told how Treacy was with her when she arrived at the car park of New Covenant Church in Pompano Beach on October 10, 2009 to find her eldest son, Michael Bell, 30, hanging dead in a tree.
'I got out of the car and went to go to the officer and then I realized,' Powers sad, ' "Michael's hanging in the tree".'
She said she collapsed into Wayne's arms before he yelled at the police officers: 'Cut him down, cut him down.'
Prosecutors have described how the South Florida teen kicked Miss Ratley's head 'as if it were a soccer ball and stomped on it as if he was putting out a fire' in the shocking 2010 attack that left her almost dead.
Later, a psychologist told the court Treacy was so deeply affected from witnessing his older brother's suicide that his grades nosedived and he showed classic symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Dr. Phil Heller said 17-year-old Wayne Treacy suffered flashbacks, anger outbursts, trouble sleeping, depression and a drop in grades that did now befit a boy whose IQ tests and gifted-level grades showed he was 'extremely bright' in all the years before the suicide. Heller said Treacy had difficulty controlling increasingly strong emotions.
'He may scream. He may hit the wall. He just has to deal with these feelings that are coming up inside of him,' Heller testified about the PTSD diagnosis. 'It can create suicide, It can cause homicide. It can be very distressing.'
Treacy, now 17, cried during prosecutor Maria Schneider's opening statements at day one of his first-degree attempted murder trial yesterday, which was attended by his parents and Ms. Ratley's mother, Hilda Gotay.
'He grabbed her head by the hair and started smashing it to the surface...kicked her head as if it were a soccer ball and stomped on it as if he was putting out a fire,' Mr. Schneider told the court, according to NBC Miami.
Defense attorneys said they would use the insanity defense, claiming Treacy was suffering post traumatic stress disorder when he beat Ms. Ratley to within an inch of her life at a bus stop outside Deerfield Beach Middle School on March 17, 2010.
'He was generally a nice kid, but after his brother died, things changed,' attorney Russell Williams told the court.
Police said Treacy, who is being tried as an adult, sought out Ms. Ratley, then 15, after she sent him text messages about his older brother Michael, who had recently killed himself.
Ms. Ratley suffered severe brain damage in the attack and spent over 40 days at the pediatric intensive care unit at Broward General Medical Center.
He has been held without bond since the attack and faces up to five decades behind bars if convicted.
Mr. Williams added that PTSD mean the teenager struggled to control his emotions and actions.
Some of Treacy's friends testified that they had received text messages about his intent to hurt Ms. Ratley, but they thought he wouldn't go through with the crime.
Classmate, William Luft, told the court that Treacy texted him saying he would snap Ms. Ratley's neck and 'stomp her head'.
The teenager's then girlfriend testified about a text message she said she received from him just after the assault. 'He said, 'I just tried to kill someone,'' she testified on Monday.
if convicted, Treacy could get 50 years in prison. If not, he likely would still spend years in a state mental institution, possibly even as long as he would spend in prison, attorneys and legal experts say.
'They often have a difficult time getting out,' said attorney Richard Rosenbaum, who has represented defendants claiming the insanity defense and is not involved in the Treacy case.
he said few insanity defenses success because defendants not only must show a mental illness or defect but must also prove they didn't know right from wrong.
'That's usually the prong that tripsn up most of the people who raise insanity as a defense,' Rosenbaum said. 'It's fairly easy for the state to show someone knew right from wrong. They knew 'Thou shalt not kill.''
Treacy's defense claims he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, rooted in his older brother's recent suicide, when he became enraged outside the bus stop, by an exchange of text messages with Ms. Ratley, whom he did not know.
in one of the texts, Ms. Ratley tells Treacy 'now go visit your dead brother' leading Treacy to respond, 'You're (expletive) dead! I swear to God, I'm going to kill you. Your (expletive) is cold, dead meat.'
Yet Treacy threatened Ms. Ratley several times during their 45-minute text exchange before she mentioned the brother.
The whole thing started because Treacy was trying to get in touch with another girl, Kayla Manson, whom he had been dating. Ms. Ratley sometimes let Ms. Manson use her phone to contact Treacy.
Ms. Ratley repeatedly referred to the then-15-year-old as a 'rapist' for dating Manson who was then 13. Eventually Treacy texts back, 'Why are you trying to get yourself killed? I will find you. I will mess you up, you will regret crossing me.'
And, prosecutors say, Treacy calmly laid plans to do just that over the next few hours.
Evidence shows that Treacy - a gifted student who did not attend his high school that day - did computer searches on ways to efficiently kill people barehanded, wrote up a short will and hinted to several friends about his violent plans.
'I'm going to jail for murder,' Treacy said in one text to a friend, according to investigative records.
Most of the friends say they didn't take the threats seriously.
'He's never hurt anyone before and I wouldn't think he would ever hurt someone,' said Monica Montero, who received several texts from Treacy that day.
Prosecutors say Treacy dress in black, including martial arts fighting gloves and his brother's steel-toed boots to ensure maximum damage.
He then rode his bicycle to the middle school and found Manson asking her to take him to Ms. Ratley. Surveillance video shows Ms. Manson leading the much taller Treacy through a crowd of students at the school bus stop, a few moments after Ms. Ratley also passed by. The beating itself is not captured on camera.
Numerous witnesses say Treacy grabbed Ms. Ratley by the neck, knocked her to the ground and began stomping and kicking her. A teacher managed to knock Treacy away from the girl, who was by then lying unconscious in a pool of blood.
The teacher, Walter Welsh, then hustled Treacy into the school office and waited for police and paramedics to respond.
Mr. Welsh said is was clear immediately the attack was planned. 'He was on a mission,' he said.
Later in a videotaped police interview, Treacy claimed he blacked out during the attack and that he never intended to hit Ms. Ratley. Just before the investigator came into the interview room, however, Treacy quietly says, 'I'm a monster. I'm a monster.'
Ms. Ratley gradually recovered but still has mental problems that prosecutors say may prevent her from testifying.
Manson, the girl who pointed Ms. Ratley out, faces an August trial on charges of being Treacy's accomplice.
For Treacy's insanity defense to succeed, experts say it's crucial that jurors are convince he had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder for some time after his brother's suicide.
In pretrial hearings, a defense expert has testified Treacy likely was in a period of detachment during which he didn't know what he was doing. Those periods can last for hours or days, the expert said.
In a taped jailhouse phone call with his mother, Treacy says he is angry at his brother because the suicide messed up his head.
'If it wasn't for (unclear), I'd be just as normal as I ever was and this would never have happened,' Treacy says, according to a transcript.
The prosecution's job is easier, said Nova Southeastern University law professor Robert Jarvis.
'The state has to keep reminding the jury that the defendant is (an attempted) killer,' he said. 'In the end, I think the defense fails in this case because lots of people lose a loved one and still function without engaging in a crime and jurors know that.
Coincidentally, the attack on Ms. Ratley happened several months after a group of students at the same school, Deerfield Beach Middle School, set a classmate on fire, nearly killing him. Three boys have been convicted of felonies in that case.
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – Closing arguments finished late Friday afternoon in the case of Wayne Treacy, the teen charged in the savage attack on Josie Lou Ratley two years ago which left her with permanent brain damage.
Treacy attacked Ratley on March 17th, 2010 at the bus stop in front of Deerfield Beach Middle School after a heated exchange of text messages. Both were 15-years old at the time.
“Her life changed forever because of the viciousness of this young man, Wayne Treacy,” stated prosecutor Maria Schneider during her closing arguments.
Prosecutors point the finger of blame squarely at Treacy who’s on trial for attempted murder. Two years ago, he kicked and stomped Josie Lou Ratley’s head while wearing steel toed boots.
“What do you think steel toed boots do to a brain? If experiencing trauma can make a difference forever what do you think being kicked, stomped, having your head bashed into the ground repeatedly does to your brain?” said Schneider.
Treacy does not deny that he did it. He claims he was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder brought on by seeing his brother’s body hanging from a tree when he committed suicide 5 months earlier. He said he went into a rage after a heated text message exchange with Josie Ratley and that it boiled over when Ratley brought up his dead brother.
“There are millions and millions and millions of people who suffer mental illness and they don’t kill people, they don’t try to kill people,” emphasized Schneider.
Treacy’s attorneys argued his mental illness was so acute that he was legally insane and not only did he suffer from PTSD, but when the attack happened, he didn’t even remember it until someone told him afterwards.
Alexander Neumeister, a psychologist who testified for the defense, said Treacy was in a dissociative state and had no idea what he was doing and even had amnesia.
During his closing argument, defense attorney Kenneth Russell reiterated that point.
“By definition if somebody dissociates, then they are mentally ill and if they do a criminal act at that time, they would be insane because it’s an altered state of consciousness,” said Russell. “Don’t be afraid by public opinion or public perception to come back with a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity, don’t be afraid that by doing that, there is nobody accountable for Josie Ratley’s injuries.
Treacy, now 17, has admitted that he rode a bike to the school to confront Ratley after receiving a text message from her phone telling him to “go visit” his dead brother. Ratley was apparently angry that Treacy was going out with her friend, Kayla Manson, who was years younger than him.
“Stop texting my phone rapist, and if you don’t care, just stop trying me, k? and just go visit your dead brother,” Ratley texted Treacy.
The jury is expected to begin deliberations on Monday.
Treacy has pleaded not guilty to the charged of attempted first degree murder. If convicted he could be sentenced to up to 50 years in prison.
Goodyear is recalling about 41,000 tires, which can be identified by:
After the family of a young women, who was killed in a car accident after a Goodyear Wrangler Silent Armor tire fell apart on a Texas highway, filed suit, Goodyear announced the recall of these tires.
This recall is considered unusual because these defective tires are not bottom-of-the-market tires that are typically the common subject of a recall. The recalled Wrangler Silent Armor tires are expensive, top of the line tires that people would buy if they were seeking out safe and durable tires. In fact, Goodyear’s advertisement for them include very specific promises about the quality of the tires such as:
Obviously something is seriously wrong here because tires of this top-of-the-market design should not be failing like this.
All of the recalled tires were made at the same plant in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and preliminary investigation has discovered that the tire builders working at this plant were running a drug ring out of there. Shortly after the recalled tires were made, undercover narcotics agents shut down the opium-cocaine-Ecstasy-marijuana trafficking operation being conducted from inside Goodyear’s Fayetteville tire plant.
John Gsanger is the attorney working on this case and is currently trying to gather evidence about as many Wrangler Silent Armor tire failure incidents as possible. This information is critical to understanding the magnitude of the problem.
If you or someone you know has had a tire failure involving a Wrangler Silent Armor tire please contact John Gsanger or the attorneys at Domnick & Shevin and we will let him know. Even if the tire failure did not result in a tragedy, any information documenting the failure is of significant importance.
A doctor who treated teen beating victim Josie Ratley testified Tuesday at the trial of the boy accused of the attack.
Click here to watch the video.
Dr. Randall Powell testified how close Ratley came to dying on the operating table.
"Her brain started to swell, it's happening fast, it's happening bad and that usually kills you, we couldn't put the skull bone back on," Powell said. "After surgery, I took her to the pediatric intensive care unit and told Dr. Laspada 'I don't think she's gonna make it.' She was barely clinging to life, we could barely detect any sparks of life but she was still alive, which I thought was amazing."
"I think it's a miracle she's alive, really," Powell testified.
The neurosurgeon was the first witness Tuesday in the trial of Wayne Treacy, which began Monday with opening statements.
Treacy, 17, has been charged as an adult with attempted murder in the March 17, 2010 attack on Ratley at a bus stop outside Deerfield Beach Middle School.
Police said Treacy sought out Ratley, who was 15 at the time, after she sent him text messages about his older brother, Michael, who had recently committed suicide. Prosecutors said he punched, kicked and stomped her head wearing all black and in his brother's steel-toed construction boots.
Ratley suffered severe brain damage in the attack and spent over 40 days at the pediatric intensive care unit at Broward General Medical Center.
Walter Welsh, a teacher at the school, saw the attack from a distance and rushed to help.
"I saw two, possibly three kicks," he said in court Tuesday. "Now I got close to him and he had his leg cocked to kick her again and I left my feet, hit him pretty hard and knocked him backwards."
Welsh said he also asked Treacy what the teenager was thinking about when the attack happened.
"He responded with his head down, 'She talked about my dead brother,"" the teacher said.
Also called to testify were several students who witnessed the attack.
"His hands were on her head and he was repeatedly banging it on the concrete," Quadishia Moss said. "I was in shock, I had never seen anything like this in my life, it was like I couldn't move."
"He comes from behind and just grabs Josie and pushes her down...he grabbed her head and started mashing it on the floor," Briana Cardenas testified. " After that he got up and started kicking her...he kicked her head like you would a soccer ball, I was really shocked and I started crying...there was a lot of blood."
Treacy cried during prosecutor Maria Schneider's opening statement Monday, which was attended by Ratley's mother and Treacy's parents.
"He grabbed her head by the hair and started smashing it to the surface...kicked her head as if it were a soccer ball and stomped on it as if he was putting out a fire," Schneider said.
Schneider also showed school surveillance video in court.
Defense attorneys say Treacy was not in control of what he was doing at the time of the attack. They said Ratley's text messages angered Treacy and intend to use an insanity defense.
"He was generally a nice kid, but after his brother died, things changed," said attorney Russell Williams, who added that PTSD robbed the teenager of control of emotions and actions.
Treacy's girlfriend at the time of the attack and a friend both testified Monday about text messages Treacy sent them.
Treacy has been held without bond since the attack. He faces up to 50 years behind bars if convicted.
Contact
Sean Domnick, Domnick & Shevin, PL
(561) 630-5363
Kim Sailer, BARD Marketing/PR
(561) 637-2575
Seeking Second Opinion From Medical Professionals
– Palm Beach Gardens, FL - A recent Wall street Journal Article “What if the Doctor is Wrong?” discussed when patients should seek a second opinion on some cancers, asthma and other potentially serious or life threatening conditions, as they can be tricky to diagnose, which could lead to incorrect treatments.
According to the Institute of Medicine, misdiagnoses are to blame for nearly 98,000 patient deaths a year.
Many people are afraid to get a second opinion - not wanting to offend or question their doctor; however, second opinions have been standard medical practice for years. A good doctor will welcome additional input and will support your efforts. A second opinion can confirm the diagnosis or allow you to discover other overlooked possibilities. We need to remember that medical professionals have different ideas about how to diagnose and treat conditions and diseases. Some doctors take a conservative or traditional approach to treating their patients, while others are more aggressive and use the latest tests and therapies. Technology and medical research is also changing rapidly.
A diagnosis or understanding of a treatment can be scary and confusing. To gain more information, it is sometimes wise to seek a second opinion or advice from another qualified doctor or group of specialists before proceeding forward. It could provide you with available treatment options which would allow you to make a more informed choice.
You can ask your doctor for a recommendation (preferably someone outside their practice), ask someone you trust for a recommendation (another doctor) or you can check with your insurance provider. Make sure you get copies of your medical records and send them to the second doctor. Here are some things to ask your doctor or specialist when seeking a second opinion:
There are no hard-and-fast rules to tell you when a second opinion is necessary. If you are provided with a diagnosis or treatment option that may be chronic or terminal, or if you require any sort of invasive, long-term or expensive treatment (lifelong drug regimen or surgery), then it may make sense to get a second opinion. You deserve the most advanced medical care possible. The decision is ultimately yours to make. A smart patient is one that educates themselves on their condition - learns as much as they can on treatment options and then makes an informed decision.
If you have questions regarding second opinions, or if you or someone you love has been injured because of a mistake or error made during the administration of medical attention and care, call 561-630-5363 to talk to one of our attorneys today.
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Domnick & Shevin, PL, a Palm Beach Gardens Litigation Firm, focuses on Personal Injury, Wrongful Death, Medical Malpractice, Catastrophic Injury, Product Liability, and Mass Torts. The firm is headquartered at 5100 PGA Boulevard, Suite 317 and may be contacted at (561) 630-5363. Additional information about Domnick & Shevin, PL may be obtained from the firm’s website at www.acallforjustice.com.
