The state settles its $37 million lawsuit against URS for $5 million, avoiding “a trial that could have shed light on who was to blame for the disaster that killed 13 people and injured 145.”
“There’s a close relationship between the state and URS, and [the state] didn’t want to sue them to start with,” said Kyle Hart, an attorney for Progressive Contractors Inc. (PCI), whose workers were atop the bridge for the repaving project when it collapsed and which earlier settled a lawsuit. “They still do business. … People have moved back and forth between those two entities. They are very close.”
“It never seemed to us [that] the state had much of an appetite to fight this whole battle,” said Hart, referring to the state’s efforts to collect damages from URS and PCI. “They always seemed to want to settle relatively quickly … and just get out of the thing.”
Rep. Ryan Winkler, DFL-Golden Valley, who took a lead role in the victims compensation fund, said he thought the settlement was reasonable.
But he added: “In the end, I’m not sure how well the public interest is really served. I think there could be an advantage to continuing litigation because it would really expose the facts.”
I don’t call him Gov. BridgeFail because I’m mean, I call him that because eventually we’re going to learn that negligence by the state killed those people.
Eventually.
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Pat Pheifer:
The Ramsey County attorney’s office said Friday that it has hired an outside expert to inspect Koua Fong Lee’s 1996 Toyota that was involved in a June 2006 crash that ultimately killed three people in St. Paul.
The office also has asked officials from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to participate in the inspection.
Assistant County Attorney Phil Carruthers said it could take “a few weeks” to coordinate schedules and bring Wade Bartlett, a forensic mechanical engineer, to the Twin Cities to inspect the Camry that has been sitting in the St. Paul police impound lot for more than three years.
“The game plan is to get on this pretty soon,” Bartlett said when he was reached Friday at his home in New Hampshire.
Pretty soon? I guess it’s never a rush when you’re not the one sitting in prison.
Free Koua Fong Lee now, test the car later. The sentence was clearly disproportionate and Lee has already served more time than any crime related to that crash would justify. Drunks who kill don’t serve that much time.
And they’re still setting the bar impossibly high.
Neither Carruthers nor County Attorney Susan Gaertner would speculate on the impact of any new evidence or the car inspection.
“To date, we have received nothing from Mr. Schafer,” Gaertner said. “We read about, along with everyone else, what he says to the media, but we haven’t seen any evidence.
In other words, Lee’s attorneys will be expected to prove what no one’s been able to prove: that Toyota’s experience sudden acceleration.
Stalling. Stalling until this summer when people are up at the lakes. For reasons that will not vary one iota from the evidence now available.
The right thing to do would be to free Koua Fong Lee, putting Gov. BridgeFail and Lt. Governor InspectionCutbacks in prison to serve his time until both the Snelling Exit Ramp and the I-35 Bridge Collapse mysteries are solved.
That would be the kind of rough justice I could live with.
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Justice deferred, econo-links:
Bob Herbert on A Ruinous Meltdown
Publicly owned banks — fuck yeah!
Boehnernomics
WINston’s video of what healthcare reform may look like
Justice deferred, Jesus style:
Pope apologizes for having to apologize for something he’s not apologizing for and God forbid he accept any Irish bishops’ resignations because it’s really society that’s to blame (forgiveness is for suckers, smart young boys know how to get into heaven….)
Ignoring the shrinks
Justice served, Texas style:
Death Row inmate’s last request? A DNA test
Justice served, of some sort:
Man shot Murder Incorporated style while sitting in a barber’s chair
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Etc.:
Savage knows whores
Bachmann owns up to being an expert on profanity
Maddow on Ensign
Lambert’s latest rant
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