Ball Healthcare facility sued for putting patients at risk
A federal judge has ruled that an Alabama nursing assistant who was fired on the 13th day of her COVID-19 quarantine can continue her disability discrimination lawsuit against her former employer, AL.com reported. U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker Jr. denied a motion to dismiss the federal lawsuit of Lucious Brown vs. Roanoke Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center. Brown was an employee at Roanoke Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center from September 2019 through July 2020. On June 29, 2020, she got sick and tested positive for COVID-19 two days later. She had symptoms of severe weakness, fatigue, brain fog, high blood pressure, cough, difficulty breathing, fever, and swollen eyes. At the time, the healthcare center maintained a policy that required a 14-day isolation period for any employee who tested positive for COVID-19. This policy was consistent with then-CDC guidelines. According to the lawsuit, Brown’s supervisor, Rebecca Farr, called Brown on July 7, 2020—seven days into Brown’s 14-day isolation—and instructed her to report to work to be tested again for COVID-19. She did not go into be tested. Three days later, on July 10, 2020, she was asked again to come in and be tested and was told the next day if she didn’t comply, she would be considered as having “voluntarily quit.” She did not comply because of her severe symptoms and was terminated. The day after her termination, Brown’s physician re-tested her for COVID-19. Brown once again tested positive. Roanoke Healthcare Services and Ball Healthcare Services have argued that Brown was not covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) while she was ill. Judge Huffaker disagreed, arguing that some courts have interpret”d the ADA broadly and that determining whether Brown was disabled due to her symptoms at the time of diagnosis or not should t”ke place at a later date. “In other words, while Brown may win the battle at this stage, she could ultimately lose the war at the summary judgment stage,” the judge wrote in his decision. Clarence M. Ball, Jr. is the owner and President/CEO of Ball Healthcare Services, Inc (BHS). The company operates ten skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities in Alabama. BHS is privately owned, and its corporate headquarters are in Mobile, Alabama. In addition to these facilities, BHS operates Hi-Tech Medical Services Inc., Medchoice Pharmacy, and Nursing Home Physician Services.
Federal appeals court blocks execution of Matthew Reeves
A federal appeals court on Wednesday blocked the state from executing an inmate convicted of killing a driver who gave him a ride, upholding a lower court ruling that he can’t be put to death unless the state uses an untested, new method. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to lift a lower court order blocking the execution of Matthew Reeves, was originally was set for Thursday and could still happen since the state attorney general’s office said it would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Department of Corrections already has notified potential witnesses in the event it can move forward with the execution of Reeves, which was put on hold by a federal judge earlier this month. A Corrections spokeswoman said in a later email that the department was getting set to give Reeves a lethal injection Thursday evening if it’s ultimately given official notice to proceed. The state had asked the appeals court to lift a lower court injunction and allow the execution, but the panel refused in a decision that said a judge didn’t abuse his discretion in blocking the execution. Reeves, 43, was sentenced to die for the murder of Willie Johnson, who was killed by a shotgun blast to the neck during a robbery in Selma on Nov. 27, 1996, after picking up Reeves and others on the side of a rural highway. Reeves was 18 at the time. Evidence showed he went to a party and celebrated the killing afterward. The dying man was robbed of $360, and then Reeves danced and mimicked Johnson’s death convulsions at a party soon afterward, according to that evidence. A witness said Reeves’ hands were still stained with blood at the celebration, a court ruling said, and he bragged about getting a “teardrop” tattoo to signify that he’d killed someone. The European Union ambassador to the United States, Stavros Lambrinidis, sent a letter asking Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to block the execution citing Reeves’ claims of an intellectual disability. Ivey also has received a clemency bid from Reeves’ attorneys and will consider all such requests, an aide said. Alabama inmates had a chance to sign a form choosing either lethal injection or hypoxia as an execution method in 2018 after legislators approved the use of hydrogen, but Reeves was among the inmates who didn’t fill out the form stating a preference. A poor reader, Reeves is intellectually disabled and wasn’t capable of making such a decision without assistance that should have been provided under the Americans With Disabilities Act, his lawyers argued. With Reeves contending he would have chosen hydrogen hypoxia over lethal injection had he understood the form, the defense filed suit asking a court to halt the lethal injection citing the lack of assistance from prison officials under the law. U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker Jr. blocked the execution, ruling that Reeves had a good chance of winning the claim. While a defense expert concluded that Reeves reads at a first-grade level and has the language competency of someone as young as 4, the state disagrees that Reeves has an intellectual disability that would prevent him from understanding his options. The inmate was able to read and signed other forms through the years, it argued. An Alabama inmate who was put to death by lethal injection last year, Willie B. Smith, unsuccessfully raised claims about being intellectually unable to make the choice for hydrogen hypoxia. The state has said it plans to have a system for the new execution method ready by the end of April, court documents show, but the state has argued against delaying Reeves’ execution until then. Any delay is the fault of the state given how long it has taken to implement the new system, the 11th Circuit ruled. In July, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed an 11th U.S. Circuit finding and said a state court had correctly rejected claims that Reeves had ineffective counsel at trial because they did not hire a neuropsychologist to present evidence he is intellectually disabled. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
