The Haggard Law Firm’s Michael Haggard and Adam Finkel together with Michael Davis of Boone & Davis, obtained a $2 Million total settlement in a dram shop case that involved the death of a police officer.
On February 16, 2019, Curtis Woolwine went out drinking in Broward County. He began the evening at Billy’s Tavern (Happy Hour, LLC) a bar that his wife’s family-owned. After leaving Billy’s, at around 11:40 p.m., Woolwine stumbled into Round Up Country, continued drinking, and was ultimately thrown out for acting inappropriately towards women. It is believed that Woolwine was trying to drive home when he ended up traveling in the wrong direction on Interstate 75. Tragically, he crashed his car into Steven Greco a Miccosukee police officer on his way home from work. They both died. Steven is survived by his wife, Phoebe, and their daughter, Gianna.
On Thursday, October 8th a press conference will be held to discuss new findings in the shooting deaths of Frank Ordonez, Rick Cutshaw, and the injuries suffered by Carlos Lara during the December 2019 police shootout on the Miramar Parkway following a two county high-speed chase.
The Haggard Law Firm’s Michael Haggard and Adam Finkel will discuss a new witness who says the police shot first. The lawyers will also announce the intention to file a lawsuit on behalf of victim Rick Cutshaw’s family
Background
On December 15, 2019 UPS driver Frank Ordonez, 27, was taken hostage by two men, who stole his truck after robbing a Coral Gables jewelry store. A high-speed, two-county chase with multiple police departments ensued.
It ended when the UPS truck encountered stopped traffic at an intersection of the Miramar Parkway just west of Flamingo Road. Law enforcement boxed-in the delivery truck and officers exited their vehicles.
As officers approached the truck with their weapons drawn, using bystanders’ vehicles as cover, they opened fire on the robbers and Mr. Ordonez. Through the course of the shootout the kidnappers, Ordonez, and 70-year-old bystander Rick Cutshaw were killed. Bystander Carlos Lara suffered significant injuries.
A lawsuit on behalf of Ordonez and Lara was filed against six law enforcement agencies on September 16, 2020.
The Haggard Law Firm’s Todd Michaels and Michael Haggard have earned a $1 Million policy limit settlement in wrongful death negligent security case of 30-year-old Omarie Stephens was shot and killed at the Lauderhill Mall on Easter Day of 2018.
After spending Easter morning with his family, he went to a car show in a park with his brother and friends. After the show, he went to a restaurant located in Lauderhill Mall to eat. When Omarie and his group arrived at the mall there was a large party going on in the parking lot. The car show had relocated to the mall, which was closed (except for a few tenants including the restaurant).
Video surveillance showed thousands of cars and people in the mall parking lot. Evidence also showed that people were drinking alcohol and doing drugs. The mall’s parking lot had basically turned into an open-air unsupervised night club.
Screen Shot from security video of the Lauderhill Mall Parking lot the night Mr. Stephens was shot and killed
The Mall had retained State Security to provide security. After the mall closed (other than the few late-night tenants) security was supposed to perform constant patrols in the lot and remove trespassers immediately. The evidence clearly showed that over a period of hours, revelers descended on the property, and security was nowhere to be found. They made no attempt to remove people from the property or to contact the police as they were ordered.
In a deposition, the security guard claimed that he encountered a police officer on the property and asked him for help as justification for why he decided not to call police. Police records and the surveillance video disapprove this. After being confronted with the evidence, the security guard admitted he had not come to the front of the mall during the three hour period that people were gathering at the property.
During the gathering, two men got into a fight leading to gunshots. Mr. Stevens, and innocent bystander, was shot and killed. Stephens survived by two minor daughters.
The Haggard Law Firm’s Pedro Echarte has obtained a $2 Million settlement for a musician who was severely injured in an attempted armed robbery. Many of the details of the case are confidential per the terms of the settlement.
The Haggard Law client was shot twice while attempting to visit his sister at an apartment complex in Miami Gardens. He was approached by three young teenagers as he exited his car. After they brandished firearms and demanded his backpack, the Plaintiff dropped his backpack and began to run away when the teenagers began to shoot him. The Plaintiff was shot three times.
He was taken to Aventura Hospital where he remained for over two weeks. The young man underwent several surgical procedures during his initial hospital stay to repair his fractured pelvis, a laceration to his liver, and perforation of his colon. After he was discharged from his initial hospital stay, the Plaintiff returned to the hospital after he developed an infection in his abdomen. He was again released from the hospital, but he continued to treat with his doctors as a result of nerve damage in his elbow, which affected his ability in his hand – namely, his pinky and ring fingers. Despite the treatment, the damage became permanent. His pinky and ring fingers formed a claw due to the severity of nerve damage.
Echarte said about the negligent security case: “No amount can fix the physical injuries and emotional impact that a vicious criminal attack had on this young man. What occurred here could have been prevented with proper security measures, but yet the property did nothing to protect its residents and their guests despite a documented history of crime at the property. Our team joins our client and his family in the hope that this final result will motivate this property, and others like it, to improve security measures. “
Opa-Locka, FL – Palmer Properties has agreed to a $1 Million pre-suit policy limits settlement with the Estate of Wayne Mitchell who was killed by a neighbor at a Palmer Property-owned apartment complex.
Mitchell was shot and killed two days after his 50th birthday on the grounds of an apartment complex located at 2170 Washington Avenue in Opa-Locka, Florida. On January 7, 2019, Carlos Flores ambushed Mitchell in a hallway of the apartment complex both men lived in. Flores shot Mitchell as he exited his own unit. An investigation revealed that Flores, who had a violent and lengthy criminal history, was jealous that the building had hired Mitchell instead of him as a handyman.
Haggard Law Firm lawyer Christopher Marlowe, who tried the case, said about the affirmed verdict “this opinion is significant to all personal injury cases where there are allegations of the victim’s use of drugs or other intoxicants. By adopting the well-established evidentiary requirement from a criminal law opinion, the Court made clear that a positive drug test, by itself, is not enough to slander the victim as having been ‘under the influence.’ ”
Synopsis of Case
The victim, Yaimi Machado, was locked out of room 106 of the Chesapeake Motel in Hialeah on April 10, 2016. The victim entered the lobby of the motel in her bra and jeans and asked for room 106 to be opened by the front desk clerk. The clerk instructed the victim to go wait outside the door to room 106. Twenty minutes prior to the victim entering the lobby a man walked in drunk and claimed to be the manager’s son and asked for beer. The front desk clerk sold the man beer despite the motel’s policy only to sell alcohol to guests. The man then asks for a prostitute and the clerk tells the man he needed to find servicewomen outside. The man leaves the lobby and stops at room 104 where a housekeeper is cleaning a room by herself. The man asks the housekeeper for a kiss and then enters room 104 and asks the housekeeper for a second kiss. The housekeeper threatens to call the front desk and the man stands at the door to 104 until he sees the victim walking down the hallway toward him. The door to room 106 was never opened and the last time the victim is seen was walking toward the front entrance in the area where she was brutally murdered by the man.
During the evening hours of February 26, 2017, Denis Duddy was inside his condo in a Boca Raton Florida high-rise condominium complex when someone broke in an attacked him. Through the litigation of this negligent security case, trial lawyers Pedro Echarte and Michael Haggard of The Haggard Law Firm, and co-counsel Michael J. Brevda learned that if proper security steps been taken at the complex, the attack could have been prevented.
The attacker was a young naked man, who was under the influence of LSD, who gained access to the condominium, proceeded to walk through the parking areas, lobby, and other common areas, until he gained access to Duddy’s unit. The assailant proceeded to bang on the door until he broke it down and attacked the Plaintiff. Duddy and assailant (who were previously unknown to each other) continued to fight until the assailant eventually calmed down. The assailant was arrested shortly thereafter by responding law enforcement personnel. Duddy suffered injuries to his neck and lower back resulting in two surgeries (including one fusion).
Image of the assailant from condominium (Defendant’s) security video
The primary defense in this matter was that there was no prior crime at the condominium and that the area in which it was located (South Boca Raton) was safe. However, the Haggard Law attorneys and co-counselor Brevda argued that the security guard on duty at the time of the incident (who was employed by Defendant D & D Professional Security) failed to timely detect the assailant and failed to properly respond to his presence at the condominium, which led to the Plaintiff’s attack. The case against D&D Professional Security settled for $825,000.
The Haggard Law Firm’s Michael Haggard and Christopher Marlowe have obtained a $1.75 Million settlement in a case where a father of two was killed by a county bus.
Eric Tenner was happily married to his wife Maria, with whom he had two young boys. On the morning of October 8, 2014, he headed out before work to get in his daily exercise on his bicycle. He was an avid and competitive cyclist, who was wearing all of the recommended safety equipment. Just south of the intersection of SW 124th Street and the US1 Busway in southwest Miami-Dade County, Mr. Tenner was struck from behind by a County bus driven by a Mr. Jose Sequeira. Mr. Tenner died several days later at Kendall Regional Hospital.
“He was an avid and competitive cyclist, who was wearing all of the recommended safety equipment.”
Mr. Sequeira, the bus driver, was arrested for leaving the scene of an accident involving serious bodily injury. The criminal charges were later dropped, as the State of Florida was unable to prove that Mr. Sequeira was aware he had struck a bicyclist.
Tenner with his young sons
Miguel Mora, the driver of the second bus that was behind Mr. Sequeira, pulled over and stopped to assist Mr. Tenner after the accident. He has been driving this particular route for years, and testified that bicyclists and pedestrians are a constant presence there. He acknowledged that bus drivers are specifically trained to expect the unexpected and that when he is driving, it is on “pins and needles” because as professional bus drivers, they are held to a higher standard. He further opined that “they’re constantly getting hit. There’s a lot of accidents on the Busway.”
Throughout the discovery phase, the county correctly identified signage indicating that the Busway was for use of emergency and transit vehicles only. At trial, the main contested issue would have been whether Mr. Sequeira should have reasonably anticipated, seen and reacted to a bicyclist such as Mr. Tenner on the busway at that time of the morning when the sun had not yet risen.
Though the parties were initially excused from the mediation requirement because the Estate would not have accepted the sovereign immunity limits voluntarily, as the case progressed, both sides began discussing whether a negotiated settlement reflecting the strengths and weaknesses of both sides could be obtained. Dr. Fred Raffa, an economist and expert witness on economic damages, gave his deposition on May 16, 2017. He had voluminous materials to review in order to render his opinion regarding the total economic loss of the Tenner Estate.
His review included tax returns from Mr. Tenner’s longstanding employment with one company, as well as the Tenner’s side work in the insurance field. Ultimately, it was determined that the Estate had suffered past and future economic losses in excess of $3,500,000. This number was not contested by a defense expert, and these damages do not include the pain and suffering claims of Maria or of either of their two surviving sons.
If a jury were to have agreed with the two eyewitnesses on board the buses, that Mr. Sequeira should have seen Mr. Tenner, as they did, from a great distance prior to the accident, a verdict would have greatly exceeded the negotiated settlement achieved at the voluntary mediation on June 14, 2017.
Miami Dade County agreed to a claims bill in the amount of $1,450,000 above the $300,000 cap payable pursuant to the sovereign immunity statute, and Governor Ron DeSantis ultimately signed H.B. 6513 into law on May 23, 2019.
Ft. Lauderdale, Fla – Following a four-day trial, that included only two hours of deliberation, a Broward County jury has awarded $24.5 million to the family of a mother of four children who died due to avoidable complications during childbirth caused by a condition the medical team was aware of before the surgery.
Litigation and trial team including Haggard Law’s Todd Michaels on the left standing with Rodolfo Torres to his right.
On July 21, 2015 Lilia Torres arrived at Premiere Perinatal Associates for a scheduled C-section which was delayed until the 22nd. During the procedure, she suffered massive blood loss due to a condition, placenta previa, which had been diagnosed months earlier and was managed throughout the pregnancy. A hysterectomy was performed due to the massive blood loss.
The baby was delivered on July 22, but Lilia went into cardiac and pulmonary shock with severe hypoxia due to the blood loss. She was placed on a vent and began receiving blood cells and plasma. She returned to the operating room for exploratory surgery and passed away on July 22nd, 2015 resulting from the hemorrhagic shock and multi-organ failure.
Lilia Torres
She left behind her husband Rodolfo and four minor children, three girls and one boy. Lilia was the caretaker of her entire family.
The defendants in the case included: Adolfo Gonzalez-Garcia, M.D., Jerry Gilles, M.D., Jorge Gallo, M.D., Julio Coello, M.D., Kei Nakanishi, M.D., Phoenix Obstetrics Gynecology, Llc, Emcare, Inc., Premiere Perinatal Associates, P.A. and Envision Healthcare Corporation.
