Later today, The Haggard Law Firm’s Douglas McCarron will lead a presentation during The 2016 National Crime Victim Bar Association’s National Conference in Philadelphia. The Conference is currently underway in conjunction with the National Center for Victims of Crime’s 2016 National Training Institute.
McCarron’s presentation, Negligent SecurityCase Gameplan: “Blocking & Tackling Fundamentals Mixed with Razzle Dazzle”, his highly demonstrative , interactive and will highlight what every Victim’s lawyers must know presenting their Negligent Security case.
Del Rio Apartment Complex Owners Ignored Multiple Requests from Staff to Increase Security
Tampa – The companies that once owned the Avesta Del Rio Apartment Complex have agreed to pay the family of 23-year-old murder victim Damian Bowie $1.8 million to settle a negligent security lawsuit. The lawsuit filed by Douglas McCarron of The Haggard Law Firm (www.haggardlawfirm.com) alleged that the deadly 2014 shooting that claimed Bowie’s life could have been prevented if complex ownership took action after multiple requests by staff members to better secure the property.
On March 2, 2014, Bowie visited the Del Rio apartments (5013 E. Sligh Avenue, Tampa) to spend time with friends before going to pick up his son Damian Jr. But, shortly before 4 p.m. that day, the father of three was assaulted, shot and killed on the property.
“Through the course of our investigation, which included testimony by the defendant’s property manager, it was clear that the employees at the property were pleading for more security and consistently telling upper management how people’s lives were are risk. Instead of acting responsibly, the defendant simply turned a blind eye” said McCarron.
The lawsuit against 5013 Sligh LLC and Avesta Homes on behalf of the victim’s mother and his three children Damian Jr. (5), Damion (3) and Sincere (2 – born two months after his father was killed), alleged the property’s owners knew the area and property were considered high crime areas. McCarron adds, “unfortunately their inaction allowed this tragedy to occur and now three young boys will never see their father again.”
The lawsuit highlights:
Testimony from a property manager and documented crime statistics that confirm the complex and area that surrounds is a high crime area.
An email sent by Kerrie Richardson, property manager of the complex at the time of the shooting, to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Department requesting an off duty police officer (sent six months before the murder) because of the amount of crime
An email from Richardson to corporate for directions on what to do with a tenant that asked for termination of their lease after they were robbed at gunpoint and had their car broken into in just three months.
A request by Richardson to property owners asking for expanded security for daytime hours. Bowie was murdered at 4 p.m.
The victim’s family members hope new attention on this case will help police. No one has been charged in the crime.
It should be noted that the defendants in this case currently do NOT own the Avesta Del Rio Complex.
Authorities say a 10-year-old girl who was taken to the hospital following a near-drowning at a Jacksonville hotel has died.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office reports the Pensacola girl was swimming at the Hilton Garden Inn pool late Saturday night with three young family members. At some point she went underwater. Two of the children tried to pull her out of the pool, while the third child ran to an employee of the property for help.
When deputies arrived at the hotel, CPR was being performed on the girl. Patrol deputies took over CPR efforts until St. Johns County Fire Rescue paramedics arrived and took the girl to Beaches Baptist. She was then air lifted to Wolfson Children’s Hospital, where she later died.
Authorities said they believe there were no adults present with the children at the time, and the pool was apparently closed to swimming before the incident.
The Haggard Law Firm’s Douglas McCarron will be a feature presenter during The 2016 National Crime Victim Bar Association’s National Conference. The Conference will be held in Philadelphia on September 19-21 in conjunction with the National Center for Victims of Crime’s 2016 National Training Institute. The Institute brings up to 1,001 civil attorneys, victim advocates, criminal justice professionals and law enforcement officers to share their knowledge and experience across disciplines.
The training institute emphasizes a multidisciplinary approach to sharing promising practices, current research, and effective programs and policies that are victim-centered, practice-based, and research-informed. The Institute’s forum allows for law enforcement, victim service professionals, allied practitioners, policymakers, and researchers to share current developments and build new collaborations.
McCarron’s presentation: Negligent Security Case Gameplan: “Blocking & Tackling Fundamentals Mixed with Razzle Dazzle.”
This highly demonstrative and interactive presentation will highlight what every Victim’s lawyers must know presenting their Negligent Security case. In addition, with using the results of over 30 Negligent Security case verdicts and one hundred Mock trials, the presentation will cover “ Cutting Edge Strategies” that the Defense never see coming.
Since 2007, The Haggard Law Firm has litigated more than 150 negligent security/premises liability cases which have resulted in more than $350,000,000 in verdicts and settlements to our clients in those cases.
Haggard Law Attorney Christopher Marlowe was interviewed and quoted in a just-released Bloomberg Businessweek article highlighting how Walmart’s cost-cutting measures may be directly related to an increased rate of crime at its stores nationwide. From rape to shoplifting, to kidnapping and murder, the article lays out how police are trying to corral the rampant crime in many of the nation’s number one retailer’s locations. A recent example in the last few weeks, police in Buffalo found a meth lab operating underground of a local Walmart store.
Marlowe fought Walmart for several years in a lawsuit he filed in 2010 on behalf of a woman who was abducted outside a store in DeFuniak Springs, Florida, and repeatedly raped. Marlowe discussed how Walmart made every legal maneuver to avoid releasing its in-house crime statistics.
From the article, Walmart’s Out-of-Control Crime Problem Is Driving Police Crazy By Shannon Pettypiece and David Voreacos:
Walmart’s lawyers typically argue that the company couldn’t have foreseen the crime in question and that it took reasonable steps to keep customers safe. It tries at every opportunity to keep its crime database secret. Even in litigation, when it must produce company records under court seal, its lawyers have wrangled for months or even years to limit access to its records, arguing the information is proprietary. “Nothing compares to the way Walmart litigates cases,” says attorney Christopher Marlowe. He fought Walmart for several years over a lawsuit he filed in 2010 on behalf of a woman who was abducted outside a store in DeFuniak Springs, Fla., and repeatedly raped. Marlowe said in a court filing that he learned only in 2013 of the database, which documented “precisely the sort of incidents” he sought for more than two years. Walmart’s lawyer, he said, “led everyone to believe that crime data retrieval was a great mystery—a query of inconceivable proportions.” Walmart denied liability in the case. The company eventually settled for an undisclosed sum.
Haggard Law Firm Attorney Todd Michaels was recently a guest on WEAA-FM 88.9 in Baltimore. Michaels was brought on the “Voice of the Community” to discuss his op-ed My Son’s Skin which was published in the Miami Herald. In the article Michaels discusses his concern as the father of a black child of what his child will face as he ages. The article was written following the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland in November 2014.
To listen to Michaels interview click here. The interview begins at 29:07.
Here is the original article published in the Miami Herald in December 2015.
My Son’s Skin
Op-ed by Todd Michaels
I’ve spent 38 years as a white boy and man in America. Actually, a Jewish man, but I’m not usually identified as a Jew, live in a place full of Jews, and I have never faced a minute of anti-Semitism. I can tell you that being a white man in America is good. It’s great. It’s all that it’s cracked up to be. The opportunity is limitless. The fear is minimal.
I’ve never spent one day as a Black boy or man.
I’ve spent 5 years and 4 months as the father of a Black boy. An amazing boy. A smart, funny, talented, cute, sweet boy who has significant opportunity and privilege and doesn’t know any bounds on what he can achieve. A boy that I’ve been able to protect thus far from the realities that a child like Tamir Rice has had to face. But I know I can’t protect him forever, and I know that at some point, and maybe at many points, he will face a different experience as a boy or man in America.
And I’ve spent a lot of those five years worrying. I never think about race. It’s never a conscious thought that the world sees me as white and my son as Black, or mixed, or whatever. I’m just his dad, and he’s just my son. But I think about it when things like Tamir Rice happen. And it makes me worry.
It makes me worry because I know that as Ashton grows, when he walks down the street, people won’t say, “There goes Todd Michaels’s son.” A lot of people will just see a Black guy walking down the street, with all that goes along with that. It’s only been five years and four months, and I’m exhausted of worrying. I can’t imagine the anger I would feel if I had to face that reality everyday.
So yes, all lives matter, but we don’t have to say that, because no one has ever questioned that white lives matter. But Black lives matter too. They matter equally. And until this country gets that in word and deed, America can never be what it claims to be.
The article below from The Florida Times Union details the latest on a mass shooting at the Eureka Garden Apartment Complex in Jacksonville. The media reports that 7 people were shot by at least three gunmen.
Shots fired and people getting shot at the Eureka Garden Apartments is on ongoing problem. The complex has had multiple homicides and violent crimes over the past few years, including the murder of 22-year-old Christopher Cornelio (pictured above with his parents). Haggard Law Firm attorneys Douglas McCarron and Jason Brenner currently represent Cornelio’s family, including his young son, in a civil suit against the property’s owners. Cornelio was shot and killed at Eureka Garden in March of 2014. The ownership and management of the complex refuse to take the necessary steps to make the property even remotely safe.
Their indifference was also seen in a massive Code Enforcement sweep last October. The living conditions at the complex were deplorable. Sadly, this incident appears to be a result of wealthy corporation placing profits over the safety its residents.
From Jacksonville Times Union Article: 7 wounded in Eureka Garden attack; about 50 rounds fired, police say
….People were sitting or standing around a stairway to Unit 11 at Eureka Garden late Sunday when the gunfire began.
Gunmen opened up at 11:45 p.m., hitting seven people outside a building at the troubled Westside apartment complex as other bullets shattered and pierced the windows of a parked sport-utility vehicle nearby, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
Police said three gunmen walked up between the two apartment units across Altoona Court, just a few dozen feet off Plymouth Street at the west end of the subsidized apartment complex. They aimed at eight or 10 people “just hanging out” in front of Unit 11, leaving two in life-threatening condition, police said.
“They fired numerous rounds. It appears to be rifle rounds and from handguns, into the crowd,” said Sgt. Shawn Coursey, part of the Sheriff’s Violent Crime Impact team. “There was an infant in the crowd. Thankfully, the infant was not struck.”
The gunmen fired more than 50 rounds at the people before fleeing. Victims were taken to UF Health Jacksonville and Orange Park Medical Center, police said.
…to read entire article from Jacksonville Times Union, click here
The Haggard Law Firm’s Todd Michaels have been invited to speak at the 62nd Annual ASIS International Conference in Orlando next month. ASIS International is a global community of security practitioners, each of whom has a role in the protection of assets – people, property, and/or information. The upcoming conference is the organization’s largest event of the year.
Michaels will present a seminar titled How to Avoid a Million Dollar Verdict Against Your Business and another called Duty and Consequence.
ASIS members represent virtually every industry in the public and private sectors, and organizations of all sizes. From entry-level managers to CSOs to CEOs, from security veterans to consultants and those transitioning from law enforcement or the military, the ASIS community is global and diverse. More than 20,000 industry professionals are expected to attend the conference.
The Haggard Law Firm has litigated more than 155 negligent security cases since 2007, delivering more than $345 million in verdicts and settlements in those cases.
Preparing to exceed the burden of proof and maximizing damages begins at client signup. The defense counsel has a head start. From the moment of loss, the defendant has secured or destroyed evidence, interviewed witnesses, researched the client, developed theories of defense, comparative fault, and otherwise played five or six key chess moves before plaintiff counsel even knew they were in the game.
Assuming the defendant is tireless and meticulous in its work is the only safe and essential assumption plaintiff counsel should make when preparing a case. Regardless of the cause of action, assume that the plaintiff and every friendly known witness has a history that, if known, will adversely affect the ultimate outcome. Until proven otherwise through the use of public records and interviews, all of which should occur pre-suit outside of formal discovery, remain vigilant in learning everything to know about the client and witnesses that may be called on throughout the litigation. Background checks, civil, criminal and family court files all will either confirm a cautiously optimistic impression of the plaintiff, or prepare to deal with the collateral—usually irrelevant, but always distracting—attacks upon the person of your client when the time comes. The same exercise is performed upon all anticipated defendants.
This pregame ritual requires an attorney/client relationship that exceeds the formality of the client contract. As advocates, attorneys should remain focused on the end game, but along the way, the attorney-client relationship must be a candidly safe space. Building the trust necessary to avoid surprises down the line involves introducing other staff upon initiation of the attorney-client relationship. My assistant regularly phones witnesses and clients, even when no information is needed and when no deadlines are looming. This process signals to the client the reality that we are working hard for them, and increases the probability that we will learn in advance of any issues that may prove troublesome down the road.
Once in suit, the rules of discovery and formal deadlines begin to take hold of an attorney’s case building efforts, which makes the “informal” pre-suit information gathering process all the more important. As such, guard against rushing into suit. The time to mercilessly press for a special set trial begins after committing to the case armed with all reasonably available information and background materials on everyone involved.
Attorneys know in advance those materials that will be asked of the clients in standard discovery requests, but shouldn’t attorneys have learned as much as possible about the defendant and possible witnesses before filing suit? Filing suit is the moment in which we regain the tactical edge, because together with the complaint, targeted discovery requests based on information and materials we learned pre-suit ensure the defendant is responding to us rather than the other way around. And when the inevitable discovery is propounded upon the client, staff and attorney time is not wasted gathering materials and information that should have been in their possession from the beginning.
Whether an automobile accident, premises liability, medical negligence or product liability case, pre-suit research should inform attorneys of obstacles to success, and tools available to address those challenges as they arise. The internet is a tremendous resource, which should be used to identify the original source materials available for more detailed exploration. For example, in a premises liability case at a shopping mall, an attorney may not have pre-suit access to the leases between the various merchants and the management company or landowner. But if applicable to the facts of the case, the county record department will have any relevant easements pertaining to the property on file, often with supporting materials that one would not expect to find in a clerk’s office, including correspondence between landlords and tenants. In a dram shop case, the state licensing board for alcohol permits will have submissions from the applicant in order to have obtained the license to serve alcohol. The documents may include extensive correspondence by the soon-to-be defendant regarding the scale and scope of the intended use of that license, prior negative incidents, and attorneys may be surprised by the detailed photographs or schematic drawings of the establishment.
This pre-suit effort likely will not deliver a case on a silver platter. It may not ultimately provide the silver bullet at the first key deposition, where information obtained outside of discovery truly has the ability to surprise opposing counsel. But those attorneys who have dug as deeply as possible into all foreseeable issues and contingencies pre-suit will more efficiently prosecute the case and be ready to confidently select a jury the first time the case is up at calendar call. And, if an attorney by chance does find that silver bullet before the case is even filed, all the better.
Opa Locka, Florida – The owners of the Top Value Supermarket in Opa Locka have agreed to a payout of $1 million to the Estate of Miguel Pilotos, who was gunned down on the property during a robbery Aug. 21, 2013.
The 71-year-old man was simply picking up groceries when he was shot at the supermarket located on Northwest 137th street and northwest 27th avenue. The crime was caught on camera. The gunman rode up to the victim’s car on a bicycle and pulled out his weapon and shot the husband and father in the neck. Pilotos, who had under $20 on him when he was killed, had been with his wife Aleida for 25 years. He emigrated from Cuba 19 years ago.
The lawyer for the Pilotos family, Todd Michaels of The Haggard Law Firm, says the crime was predictable and preventable. “At the time of his murder, Miguel Pilotos was the third Top Value customer robbed and shot and the second one killed in that parking lot, in six months” says Michaels. He adds “despite the previous crimes, and the widespread knowledge the business was located in a high-crime area, the supermarket did not alter security in the parking lot in any way.”
rs represent virtually every industry in the public and private sectors, and organizations of all sizes. From entry-level managers to CSOs to CEOs, from security veterans to consultants and those transitioning from law enforcement or the military, the ASIS community is global and diverse. More than 20,000 industry professionals are expected to attend the conference.
