RENTAL DEAL!

ISSUE 147 Friday 11th MARCH, 2016
Page 23
US FAMILY TO RECEIVE
US$72 MILLION OVER
BABY POWDER LAWSUIT!
Johnson & Johnson
(JNJ.N) was ordered
by a Missouri State
jury to pay $72 million indamages
to the family of a
woman whose death from
ovarian cancer was linked
to her use of the company’s
talc-based Baby Powder
and Shower to Shower
for several decades.
In a verdict announced
two weeks ago, jurors in
the circuit court of St.
Louis awarded the family
of Jacqueline Fox $10 million
of actual damages and
$62 million of punitive
damages, according to the
family’s lawyers and court
records.
The verdict is the first
by a U.S. jury to award
- Johnson and Johnson ordered to pay
damages over the claims,
the lawyers said.
Johnson & Johnson
faces claims that it, in an
effort to boost sales, failed
for decades to warn consumers
that its talc-based
products could cause cancer.
About 1,000 cases
have been filed in Missouri
state court, and another
200 in New Jersey.
Fox, who lived in Birmingham,
Alabama,
claimed she used Baby
Powder and Shower to
Shower for feminine hygiene
for more than 35
years before being diagnosed
three years ago with
ovarian cancer. She died
in October at age 62.
Jurors found Johnson &
Father of two girls…
Johnson liable for fraud,
negligence and conspiracy,
the family’s lawyers
said. Deliberations lasted
four hours, following a
three-week trial.
Jere Beasley, a lawyer
for Fox’s family, said
Johnson & Johnson “knew
as far back as the 1980s of
the risk,” and yet resorted
to “lying to the public,
lying to the regulatory
agencies.” He spoke on a
conference call with journalists.
Carol Goodrich, a Johnson
& Johnson spokeswoman,
said: “We have
no higher responsibility
than the health and safety
of consumers, and we are
disappointed with the outcome
of the trial. We sympathize
with the plaintiff’s
family but firmly believe
the safety of cosmetic talc
is supported by decades of
scientific evidence.”
Trials in several other
talc lawsuits have been
set for later this year, according
to Danielle Mason,
who also represented
Fox’s family at trial.
In October 2013, a federal
jury in Sioux Falls,
South Dakota found that
plaintiff Deane Berg’s use
of Johnson & Johnson’s
body powder products was
a factor in her developing
ovarian cancer. Nevertheless,
it awarded no damages,
court records show.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals
SEVERS HIS OWN PENIS AS PUNISHMENT
FOR NOT PRODUCING A SON
A
man from southern
China was so
disappointed at
not having produced a son
that he cut off his own penis
as a way of punishing
himself.
The 36-year-old, known
under a pseudonym of
A Yong, used a knife to
sever around 1.2 inches of
his penis on February 22,
the People’s Daily Online
reports.
The man from a rural
area near Quanzhou City
was upset that he had two
daughters and had reportedly
been taunted by local
villagers.
According to Chinese
media, the man has two
daughters aged three and
13.
He was taken to the
Emergency Room at the
Fujian Armed Police
Force Hospital in Quanzhou
around 11pm on February
15.
His family members say
that he had drunk around
five shots of alcohol that
night before coming to a
drastic decision to cut off
part of his penis.
When A Yong’s family
members realised what he
had done, they rushed him
to hospital immediately
with the organ in a bag of
ice.
Huang Zhihong, a doctor
on the night shift at the
time, said: ‘The severed
part is around 1.2 inches
long.’
The patient reportedly
shouted at medical staff
that he did not want it put
back on.
According to doctor
Huang, A Yong had already
been to a local clinic
for first aid.
Staff at the hospital immediately
performed surgery
on A yong. His manhood
was allegedly sewed
back on after a four-hourlong
operation.
Doctor Huang who undertook
the surgery told
reporters that the healing
Bottles of Johnson & Johnson baby powder
line a drugstore shelf in New York
International Inc (VRX.
TO) now owns the Shower
to Shower brand but was
not a defendant in the Fox
case.
process will take around
six to 12 months.
In rural areas of China,
having a son is valued
higher than a daughter
because boys carry on
The case is Hogans et
al v. Johnson & Johnson
et al, Circuit Court of the
City of St. Louis, Missouri,
No. 1422-CC09012.
In rural China, a son is valued more than a daughter
as boys can carry on the family name
the family bloodline and
stay to look after their
parents while girls marry
into other families and
look after her husband’s
parents.
MINNESOTA COPS UNDER INVESTIGATION FOR DWI MISCONDUCT
In late 2015, two officers
of the Blaine,
Minnesota, police department
responded to an
alarm call from the local
Fleet Farm. When they
arrived, the officers discovered
a running car in
the parking lot with an
apparently unconscious
man behind the wheel.
The responding officers
discovered the interior of
the car was littered with
Coors Light cans.
The occupant was completely
unresponsive with
his penis out of his pants.
What should have been a
textbook DWI arrest, however,
sparked an investigation
exposing officer
malfeasance and an unwillingness
to hold fellow officers
responsible for their
criminal actions.
Dashcam footage from
the responding officer’s
patrol car was obtained
by KARE News 11 after a
public records request. The
footage shows the Blaine
PD officers taking all the
proper steps in dealing
with a potential DWI. The
driver, William Monberg,
was so inebriated that it
took one officer several
attempts to wake him up
enough to get out of the car.
After banging on the roof
and windows for several
minutes, Monberg came to.
During the field sobriety
tests he was so inebriated
he couldn’t understand a
simple command, such as
when an officer asked him
to remove his hat. Monberg
then blew a .202 on the officers’
breathalyzer. He was
arrested, cuffed, and placed
in the back of the squad car.
Once Monberg was in
the squad car, however, the
responding officers went
through Monberg’s wallet
and discovered that he was
a Columbia Heights police
officer. The video then
shows the officers turning
off their body microphones
and stepping out of view of
the cruiser’s forward-facing
camera. Unfortunately for
them, the cruiser’s interior
camera, which monitors the
back seat, captured them returning
to the car, uncuffing
Monberg, and arranging a
ride home for him instead
of a ride to jail.
The responding officers
covered up the entire affair.
They filed no official
reports and entered nothing
into the department’s Computer
Aided Dispatch system.
They almost got away
with it too, until Blaine PD
chief Chris Olson opened
an investigation into the incident
nearly a month later.
Thanks to the investigation,
Officer Monberg was finally
officially charged with
DWI. Chief Olson would
not provide a statement to
KARE, citing the impending
DWI case. He did, however,
tell reporters that the
young officers would be
held accountable.
“In this case inexperienced
officers made a mistake.
It is not acceptable.
My expectation is fair and
impartial policing and that
didn’t happen. We need to
treat people fairly, and it
doesn’t matter what they do
for a living.”