Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
StumbleTHE LAW:
Case of missing innards unprecedented in state court
Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010 | 2 a.m.
The curious case of a young Englishman’s missing organs is forcing the Nevada Supreme Court to take its first stand on the mishandling of human remains.
London-area aluminum trader Richard Boorman was 29 when he flew to Las Vegas for a bachelor party in 2005. He wound up being pronounced dead at Desert Springs Hospital. His relatives were left questioning how the seemingly healthy former amateur boxing champion had died on vacation.
The Clark County coroner’s office autopsied and sent Boorman’s body to a mortuary for embalming so he could be sent home.
When the coroner cited acute cocaine and alcohol intoxication as the cause of Boorman’s death, his relatives were eager to have a second autopsy conducted in England.
They were unable to get a complete one, however, because when Boorman’s body came home in July 2005, his heart, brain, liver, kidneys and lungs didn’t, British authorities said. They examined the body because a U.K. autopsy is standard procedure when a British citizen dies abroad.
The London tabloids had a field day with the story. “Man loses organs in Las Vegas,” the Sun in London told its readers, while the Daily Mirror used the mother’s quote in its headline: “Who has stolen my son’s organs?”
The reports hinted that the missing organs may have been taken for medical research.
Boorman’s family sued Clark County, its coroner’s office and the Nevada Memorial Cremation Society, where Boorman’s body had been embalmed.
The case started in federal court in 2007, but it’s nowhere near resolved.
When U.S. District Judge Philip Pro got to a point where he needed to make rulings based on state law, he made the rare request of asking the state Supreme Court to hear arguments from all parties involved so that it could establish a legal precedent.
The Nevada Supreme Court, in other words, has never settled fundamental legal questions related to mishandling of human remains and needs to, Pro said. So the justices will hear oral arguments in the Boorman case today.
Among the questions the federal judge wants the Supreme Court to answer is who is entitled to sue to collect damages for the emotional distress caused by the mishandling of remains. Pro said Nevada hasn’t established whether that would be any of the deceased’s immediate family, just the person statutorily entitled to the remains or just the person who contracted for funeral services, for example.
Nevada also has not addressed questions such as whether the person who alleges the emotional distress had to have observed “the insult to their loved one’s remains,” Pro wrote.
Another question is whether state law would require that there be physical evidence of emotional distress, Pro added.
The plaintiffs in this case include Boorman’s mother, brothers, grandmother, cousin and aunt.
“The fact that they do not know what exactly has happened to Richard’s organs causes them extreme distress, anxiety, upset and mental anguish,” argued family attorney Jonathan Capp of Oceanside, Calif. The family seeks damages from defendants for fraudulent misrepresentation.
The family alleges that the coroner’s office took or lost the organs, falsely claimed to have turned them over to the cremation society, and conspired with that company to conceal the whereabouts of the organs. The family also alleges that cremation employees stuffed a sheet inside the body to conceal the fact that the organs were missing.
The family also alleges that another defendant, coroner employee Monique Beverly, initially completed a release form indicating that the organs were not with the body when they were released to the embalmer. She then corrected the form to indicate that the organs were placed in a bag and transported with the body, the family said.
The coroner’s office, quoting Beverly’s deposition, responded that she “inadvertently” checked off the form indicating the organs weren’t present but “corrected the mistake by crossing it out and checking the correct entry on the release form” stating that the organs were there.
The coroner’s office cited a deposition from a mortuary employee who said the organs were placed in the body cavity and “powdered down with a hardening compound.”
The mortuary denied wrongdoing.
Although Clark County remains a co-defendant, Pro dismissed the coroner’s office from the lawsuit under state legal precedent that says county departments may not be sued.
But the case became convoluted when the county and the cremation society filed complaints against one another. The county alleges that the company “retained, disposed, mishandled, lost and/or otherwise misappropriated” Boorman’s organs.
The cremation society, in denying those allegations, counters that any damages were caused by the county’s own negligence.
Discussion: comments so far…
Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy. Additionally, we now display comments from trusted commenters by default. Those wishing to become a trusted commenter need to verify their identity or sign in with Facebook Connect to tie their Facebook account to their Las Vegas Sun account. For more on this change, read our story about how it works and why we did it.
Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.
No trusted comments have been posted.
Post a comment
Most Popular
- Viewed
- Discussed
- E-mailed
- Superstar Whitney Houston dies at 48
- Two dead after accident in downtown Las Vegas
- Instant Analysis: Debating whether UNLV should continue series with San Diego State
- Dining Guide: 2012 Valentine’s Day options in Las Vegas
- Color from the scene at Thomas & Mack Center: We have a wire job! Rebels win, and Louie Armstrong sings!
- UNLV can move forward without the burden of losing streak to San Diego State
- Four people injured in car accident
- Blog: Justin Hawkins’ steal seals UNLV’s thrilling 65-63 victory against San Diego State
- A wife’s wisdom shows birth control issue needn’t be divisive
- UNLV makes key plays down stretch to hold off San Diego State 65-63
Blogs
The Kats Report
Color from scene at Thomas & Mack: We have a wire job! Rebels win, and Louie Armstrong sings!
South Point owner Michael Gaughan's take on 'Vegas Stripped': 'I'll give it an 8' (4 Comments)
Author relishes writing the life story of ‘larger-than-life’ Oscar Goodman (3 Comments)
Elsewhere
Landowner: All roads could lead to Uxbridge casino
Revel reveals smoke-free casino opening
Cirque du Soleil show in Sands China casino to close this month
Meet the woman behind Sheldon Adelson
The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
I watch this stuff on the SciFy channel every weekend.
Pay attention, People -- five years after the fact for the arguments in chief to even be scheduled. Can you say "billable hours"?
It's my opinion, after watching the courts (and being their occasional victim) for about a decade and a half, that justice is completely out of reach for the average citizen. Mainly because you get only as much justice as you can afford.
Think -- what other branch of government have we allowed to be completely taken over by a private club? The state Bar monopolies were never meant to be. One of the first and greatest chief justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, John Marshal, had only six months of law school (and that was to impress a girl). Hating lawyers has been a national tradition from the beginning. It's gotten to the point where a judge can ruin your life with the stroke of a pen yet can never really be held accountable for it, regardless of how far from the law and their oaths they stray. And what attitude some of them have when you dare show up without one of their fellow Bar members to speak for you.
"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." -- Dick the Butcher in Shakespeare's "Henry The Sixth," Part 2 Act 4, scene 2
It is very profitable to be and attorney during bad times, everyone is suing each other, good times lawyers need to get in and make sure everyone's money is safe (not). But during revolutions most Lawyers are killed first.
"Although Clark County remains a co-defendant, (Judge) Pro dismissed the coroner's office from the lawsuit under state legal precedent that says county departments may not be sued".
The state precedent that county departments may not be sued resulted in the suit of the State. In recent years, the Ninth Circuit, in landmark cases, has overturned Judge Pro's cases.
Now, not only can the State, Clark County and its departments be sued, the government employee can be sued. We did not need the court's order. NRS 199.340(4) makes it criminal if justice is obstructed by a person, including but not limited to Clark County employees.
What did the family expect? "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas". I guess that includes internal organs.
lol FRM.