Two Orange County hospitals have been fined for several patient safety violations that include premises safety problems.

UC Irvine Medical Center and St. Jude Medical Center are among 13 medical facilities in California who have been penalized by the State Department of Public Health. The penalties relate to incidents that occurred in 2007 and 2008. The premises safety allegations relate to incidents of abuse of female patients by male nursing assistants. According to an investigative report, UC Irvine Medical Center was fined $50,000 for two separate premises safety violations. The first case relates to sexual abuse. According to state documents, the employee in question was allowed to continue work for three days before being placed on leave. When state investigators asked UCI staff why the employee was allowed to stay on, staff replied that there had never been complaints against him before the abuse was reported. The case has been referred to the DA’s office and the medical center has suspended the nurse.

The other penalty, that UCI received, was because of failure to implement safety procedures to eliminate the possibility of falls on the premises. According to the report, a patient fell on the way to the bathroom as he walked without any assistance. He suffered brain injuries, and was placed on life support. He died soon after. The hospital has issued a statement clarifying that it has taken the fines seriously, and is making efforts to ensure patient safety.

The St. Jude Medical Center was fined $25,000 after an incident relating to a plastic drape that was left behind in a patient after she underwent a hysterectomy. The patient needed a second operation to remove the drape. Hospitals are required to ensure that their patients are safe in the premises, and that doesn’t only include the quality of care provided by healthcare professionals. These facilities are also required to ensure that their patients are safe from attacks and abuse from other staff, patients, or visitors. Facilities must make efforts to ensure that there is adequate security at the premises. There must be strict monitoring of individuals before they can enter patient wings. Female patients may be especially at risk for abuse from male staff, and therefore, it is imperative that any male healthcare staff that is assigned to the female patients be thoroughly screened before being hired.

Besides protecting patients from abuse, hospitals must also follow all safety procedures that can prevent accidents and injuries on their premises. Patients who are weak and cannot walk on their own must be assigned staff to help them get around. Flooring materials must be slip resistant, and there must be proper guardrails, handrails and other strict safety procedures that ensure that patients are safe. Beside hospitals, hotels and other facilities like shopping complexes and entertainment joints must ensure that their premises are designed, constructed and maintained with all safety principles in mind.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of sexual abuse. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

A renowned dancer and celebrity choreographer who teaches salsa at several dance schools in Los Angeles was arrested last week on suspicion of sexual assault. 41-year-old Alex Da Silva, who has been featured on the television show “So You Think You Can Dance,” was arrested after a salsa class at a studio on suspicion of sexually assaulting four dance students.

Da Silva has been accused several times since 2003 of sexually assaulting three students, but prosecutors failed to file charges against him. It’s not known why charges were not filed against the Brazilian-born dance instructor. In March this year, a fourth woman accused the dance teacher of luring her to his home where he proceeded to assault her. It was then that detectives interviewed the women who had previously accused him. Those women made accusations that were similar to the ones made by the fourth woman. In all four cases, Da Silva seems to have lured the women into his bedroom. According to detectives, the four victims do not know each other, and yet, their reports were similar. Detectives are quite certain that there may be other victims who have been assaulted by Da Silva, and they have asked these victims to come forward. Da Silva is currently being held on a $3.8 million bail. He is considered a flight risk because of his Latin American roots.

Incidents of sexual assault involving teachers tend to be high because of the level of trust between a teacher and a student. Whether it’s a dance teacher like Da Silva teaching his eager students to trot and twirl or a school gymnasium teacher, the level of trust is high enough for students to suspect little about their teacher’s conduct and behavior. When this trust is destroyed after an assault, the victim can suffer severe emotional trauma. They may feel depressed and anxious, and even suffer feelings of guilt. Sexual abuse victims may even begin to worry that they somehow invited the abuse on themselves. They may begin to withdraw from social relationships because of the sense of shame and guilt. Their performance in school may begin to decline, and this may be one of the first signs that there is abuse going on. Teachers and parents must be alert to any signs of abuse, and must move to get to the root of the matter as quickly as possible.

Feelings of shame and humiliation may prevent victims from coming forward to report the abuse. However, it’s very important that victims find the courage to come forward and report these crimes, so that the perpetrator can be stopped from abusing other potential victims.

Sexual abuse victims can file a lawsuit claiming damages for their suffering. Depending on the circumstances, more than one person may be liable for damages. For instance, if the sexual assault took place in the parking lot of a mall or inside a hotel, the hotel or the mall owners may be held liable for failing to provide security to guests and visitors. A California sexual assault lawyer may be able to determine liability in a case like this so damages can be claimed.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of sexual abuse. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

Too often, sexual abuse of children is perpetrated by adults the child knows and trusts. These adults care for or teach the child in various capacities. Other times, sexual abuse may come in the form of a revered family pastor, a much trusted member of the family’s life. In all these cases, it’s easy for the victim to be lured, often for months or years.

A similar incident of sexual abuse by a teacher in Fullerton has led to the arrest of a violin teacher. Daniel Hansol Oh admitted under interrogation to abusing at least three other girls in the same age group and was arrested at the University of Southern California where he is studying for a master’s degree in music. He has been accused of molesting a 16-year-old girl over the past three years. The abuse went on during the girls’ weekly violin classes at her home. The girl reported the abuse to the police in December. The other girls have also given statements to the police confirming the molestation. It is believed that Oh could have been giving music lessons to as many as 15 girls at time that he was abusing the four girls. Police have asked other victims, if there are any, to come forward so they can receive justice.

Victims of sexual abuse often feel shame and oddly enough guilt, and this is how they end up hiding the molestation for years. In fact, in many cases, it’s only when they open up to another adult or a trusted adult in their life like a parent, that they are encouraged to go to the authorities so that the perpetrator of the abuse can be arrested and charged for his heinous crimes. It’s also for this reason that victims avoid pursuing claims against the offender. Its important however to realize that letting the perpetrator get away with his crimes can only expose other victims to the possibility of abuse.

Pursuing claims against a sexual abuse offender can be extremely hard because of the fact that it can seem impossible to place a value on the kind of suffering the victim has undergone. The scars of abuse, though they may not be physical, can stay with him or her for long after the abuse has ended. It can affect their relationships as they get older and erode their fleeing of self worth and confidence. Victims often need intensive therapy and counseling in order to deal with the abuse. While a civil claim against the offender cannot help ease the pain of the abuse, it can help victims receive justice in a civil court. Damages awarded can also help to pay for any therapy or counseling expenses that can many times be required for years. No matter what the amount of the damages however, it can never compensate for the lost innocence of these victims. It’s very important that victim be represented by experienced sexual abuse attorneys who are sensitive to the nature of the lawsuit and the suffering of the victim.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of sexual abuse. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles is under investigation by a federal grand jury into whether it engaged in covering up sexual abuse perpetrated by its priests.

Witnesses are already being issued subpoenas. This fact has been confirmed by the Archdiocese which admits that they have received a request for information on priests of the Church. At least two of the priests who are under investigation have died since the priest abuse scandal first broke, and the others are no longer members of the clergy.

At the center of the scandal, is Cardinal Roger Mahoney who has been the subject of heavy criticism for his failure to prevent “predatory priests” from preying on young children in their parish. Cardinal Mahoney this week admitted to an interviewer that he was “puzzled and mystified” at why federal legislators wanted to probe files relating to more than 22 priests. The Archdiocese settled lawsuits filed by victims of sexual abuse for $660 million. But victims groups have long insisted that the church authorities who were responsible for letting priests that it knew were guilty of abuse continue to work at the church, or simply transferred them between parishes, bore part of the blame too. The investigation will probe this matter as well as whether parishioners were informed of the priests’ actions.

The New York Times reports that one of the statutes being investigated in the case is the “honest service mail fraud statute.” Under this statue, an official may be charged with failure to provide honest services, and insiders say the same statute may be used to claim that the Church failed to provide parishioners honest services by hiding the facts of the priests’ history of sexual abuse.

The priest abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church over the past three decades reached its pinnacle in the early part of this decade, when dozens of victims came forward to recount their stories of abuse. The church has since then grappled with reestablishing its credibility, and tackling the problem of priest abuse within its ranks. No senior church members have ever been formally charged with aiding and abetting abuse, even though victims groups have long called for a stringent investigation of the senior church members, and their part in hiding, and therefore propagating, the abuse. They argue that when senior church members are prosecuted for their role in the abuse, it will send out a stronger signal than has been sent so far, that such tolerance of abuse is unacceptable. The Church insists that it has taken measures to train clergymen and fine-tune its procedures to avoid abuse of children. Since the scandal broke, several dioceses around the country have settled lawsuits, and many individual priests have been convicted.

There still remains a lot the Church needs to do when it comes to repaying the damage done to its reputation, as well the lives of the abuse victims. Names of those who aided the horrible sexual abuse crimes by their silence need to begin tumbling out into the open, and the Church cannot afford to keep them cloaked in secrecy anymore.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of sexual abuse. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

An Anaheim karate teacher has been arrested for molesting a 4-year-old girl. 61-year-old Jon Patrick Harrison was arrested on Tuesday after the girl complained to her family about the molestation. According to the Orange County Register, the girl had probably been abused about two weeks prior, but did not tell her parents until Tuesday. Harrison has now been arrested on charges of committing lewd and lascivious acts on a child below the age of 14.

The little girl was a student of Harrison, and her father too is a student at United Studios of Self Defense in Costa Mesa where Harrison has been teaching for the past decade. According to the owner of the school, they made all background verification checks before employing Harrison, and he passed through them all without a slip. Obviously, those checks were either shoddy, or Harrison was too smart to be trapped because he sailed through all verification checks without alerting anyone. Harrison meanwhile is being held in lieu of bail of $100,000 at the Orange County Jail.

Sexual abuse of a child is a tragedy that makes its presence felt in a child’s life for years after the abuse has ended. In most cases of sexual abuse of children, the perpetrator is a person known to the victim, and is often in a position of power or authority in the child’s life. He is able to misuse this position of trust that he enjoys in the child’s life, and very often, this trust that the child has in the abuser is the reason so many sexual abuse cases go unnoticed or unreported. By the time the perpetrator is discovered, there are likely to be several more victims. It’s very rare that an abuser abuses just one child.

Sexual abuse victims may be eligible to file civil claims for damages against the abuser, or other parties concerned. Victims of sexual abuse can expect to spend years in therapy trying to deal with the reality of what has happened to them, and these losses may be mentioned in a claim. The claim can be filed not just against the perpetrator of the abuse, but possibly against others as well. In the Roman Catholic clergy abuse scandals that swept though the nation in the past several years, parishes and churches were held liable for their failure to prevent priests who had known pedophiliac tendencies from having access to innocent young children.

In the above case, the victim could have grounds for civil damages claims against the abuser. In case there was negligence on the part of the karate school that resulted in an unsafe environment for the kids at the school, then the school too may face its share of liability in a civil claim. An Orange County sexual assault lawyer will be able to determine how accountability may be placed in a sexual abuse case involving children.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of sexual abuse. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

A day care center in Martinez, California has been temporarily shut down after a sexual abuse incident involving the man who ran the center, and an 8-year-old girl in his care, the Contra Costa Times reports.

Dawn’s Day Care is located in the townhouse where the couple who runs the day care center lives. The husband, 54-year-old James Jensen, was running the day care center on behalf of his wife. Jensen was not licensed to run a center, but his wife Dawn was. She had stopped looking after the center while she hunted for another job. Jensen was arrested on Monday on suspicion of “committing lewd and lascivious acts on a minor.” He was arrested, and police have launched an investigation into his activities. He has since been released on a bail of $100,000. Police say they are not focusing their investigations on Dawn Jensen at this point in time, and they have no reason to believe that she was guilty of any wrongdoing. Dawn Jensen surrendered her day care license last week.

Shockingly enough, Jensen was also serving as a youth tutor at the American Indian Education Foundation in the East Bay, and police will look into his activities in that position too. Investigating officers have asked anybody with any information on the sexual abuse at the day care center, or any other victims to come forward with their experiences.

We know that day care centers are one of the places where children are most likely to be targeted for sexual abuse, and yet every time something like this happens, it’s hard not to be completely shocked. With the kind of trust levels that exist between a day care provider or helper and a child, the chances of misuse of that trust are much stronger. This is often true in sexual abuse cases where the perpetrator of the abuse is very often someone who is known to the victim, and is also trusted by him or her. For instance, teachers and coaches in schools, priests at Sunday school classes and parish activities, and even doctors and therapists have been found to abuse their position of trust, inflicting potential long-term damage on a child.

Where sexual abuse is concerned, the impact on a person is dramatically different than in the case of an accident, or any other injury case. A sexual abuse incident may not leave a person with physical injuries, but often leave a lifetime of emotional and mental scars that may never heal, or may lessen only with years of counseling and therapy. Children who suffer from sexual abuse are condemned to a childhood that’s robbed of all innocence. They suffer from physical and mental ill health, and are less likely to thrive in social environments. Most studies have linked child sexual abuse to poor performance in school, a greater tendency to drop out of school, and a risk for alcohol and drug abuse.

Loss of innocence can’t be compensated, but with the help of a sexual abuse lawyer, parents of such children can claim damages that can help pay for the expensive counseling that lies ahead.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of sexual abuse. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

An Anaheim doctor has been arrested on charges of sexual assault relating to “inappropriate touching” of female patients that apparently went on between July of last year and June of 2008.

The Orange County Register is reporting that the good doctor, David Hung Do worked at Kaiser Permanente, and that he has been charged with sexually abusing at least three female patients he was treating. These women were aged between 18 and 46 years, and were unknown to each other. According to the complaints of two victims, Do, who is a general practitioner, “inappropriately” touched the women under the pretext of conducting an examination. The touching was completely irrelevant to the treatment, the victims said, and a complaint was filed with the hospital authorities. The hospital contacted the Anaheim Police Department, and investigations were launched. A third victim turned up, and she had similar tales to tell of the doctor’s behavior.

According to Kaiser, hospital authorities acted quickly to suspend Do when the first complaint was filed. He has been terminated from service. Do was arrested at his residence in Garden Grove, California, and has since been released after posting bail. The Anaheim Police Department is continuing its search for other victims of the doctor’s behavior. Victims are encouraged to contact the detectives with any information they may have.

Sexual assault in any form is condemnable, but when its perpetrator comes cloaked in a trustworthy and respectable demeanor, it should shock us even more. Dr. Do belonged to a profession that is one of the noblest there is. We don’t think twice before trusting a doctor. The victims have no doubt been impacted psychologically and emotionally by their experiences. You don’t expect to be mistreated when you visit a hospital for treatment, and you shouldn’t.

There are several ways that a sexual abuse incident can affect victims. Even when the physical scars are not visible, the emotional scars remain, leading to long-term complications and the need for counseling. Victims may find it hard to concentrate in the aftermath of an assault, and may withdraw from social life. They may lose confidence, and may experience difficulties in eating and sleeping. These experiences affect your relationships with your loved ones, and can severely impact the quality of your life. Depression and anxiety disorders are not uncommon after experiences like these.

Stress can affect your potential to work and earn a living, and you will likely need psychological counseling and therapy to deal with the situation. Therapy costs money, and insurance may or may not cover the costs of these sessions. Victims must know that there are ways that they can be compensated for the kind of emotional stress they have been forced to undergo. An experienced California sexual abuse lawyer will be able to help you document the kinds of losses you have suffered, so you can receive compensation for these.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of sexual abuse. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

A former NFL football player has been arrested on suspicion of drugging and raping a female patron of his bar. Former Los Angeles Rams kicker Anthony Zendejas has been accused of drugging a female customer at his bar, and then sexually abusing her.

The incident is reported to have happened on January 26 at Zendejas’ popular sports bar and restaurant, Zendejas Mexican Restaurant. The complainant claimed that Zendejas had slipped a drug in her drink that made her groggy. When she came to, she was in a motel room. She immediately contacted the police, and filed a complaint. It was then that Los Angeles police began to investigate the matter.

Finally on Thursday morning, police arrested Zendejas at his Yorba Linda home charging him with one felony count each of rape by use of drug, rape of an unconscious person, sodomy by anesthesia, and sodomy of an unconscious person. As of now, Zendejas is out after having posted bail of $260,000. He was due to appear in court today, but that has been pushed back. Zendejas faces up to 15 years in prison, if convicted.

Not unexpectedly, the defense outcry from the Zendejas side is vociferous. His lawyer insists that this is all an attempt to slander his reputation.

For the victim of this horrific sexual abuse crime, this situation must seem like an endless nightmare. She can expect to face a tough battle ahead as the Zendejas lawyers do all they can to get their famous client off the hook. Proving sexual assault is always dicey, and she can expect some very tough circumstances ahead of her. A civil case on the other hand, will have lower standards of evidence to prove that sexual abuse took place under the circumstances that she alleges. With a civil case, she has a much improved chance of getting justice in court.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of sexual abuse. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

It’s a good thing there are civil lawsuits in this country for victims who have been let down by the system. One such victim, a 17-year-old girl who has had her rape allegations against a group of boys thrown out, has now filed a civil lawsuit against the boys.

The unidentified victim was gang raped by a group of De Anza College baseball players at a co-ed party held at a baseball player’s house. She was drunk at the time of the rape, and the incident only came to light when three of her friends barged into the room and found her. She was apparently unconscious and was being raped, while at least eight other men stood around and watched.

The Santa Clara District Attorney’s office spent almost a year investigating the matter, but finally came to the conclusion that there wasn’t enough evidence for criminal charges. They made the decision not to prosecute the young men, saying the evidence was too slim. It didn’t help matters that the girl didn’t remember the rape. The women who barged into the room and witnessed the accident apparently didn’t see the men’s faces.

The young men who were in the room at the time of the rape seem to have given varying accounts of what happened, ruining the DA’s case further.

The result of all this was a terse announcement by the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office that “reprehensible” behavior had taken place at a player’s home on March 3, 2007, but it was impossible to find out what exactly happened.

The teen has now filed a lawsuit accusing the nine former players and another man at the party of men of sexually assaulting her. The charges include rape, false imprisonment, and violation of her privacy. The violation of privacy charge stems from the videotapes of the rape that the perpetrators reportedly circulated among their friends.

It now stands to the civil courts to give this young girl justice. After having suffered one of the most heinous crimes that could be committed, it must be frustrating to not even have the opportunity to face your torturers in court and accuse them of the crime. While we understand the hesitation in filing criminal charges against the perpetrators because of the lack of solid evidence, it still doesn’t help the young girl to know that these men could get away with scarring her for the rest of her life. It also sends a negative message to other rape victims.

Everybody, from the investigators to the district attorney’s office, seems to agree that there was rape committed that night at the party. But the way things work, the victim will probably not have her chance at justice from a criminal court. The video that the boys made so arrogantly could prove to be their nemesis. It will probably be used in the plaintiff’s arguments when the civil lawsuit comes up for hearing.

If have been the victim of a sexual assault, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury lawyer. Contact an attorney at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

A dead priest, HIV and drugs abuse – a new sex scandal rocking a church has all the sordid ingredients of an episode of The Jerry Springer Show.

The dead priest is the focus of a $130 million lawsuit bought by a man who claims the priest, who was HIV positive, raped him and infected him with the virus. The lawsuit has been bought by Daniel Brown of Florida. It names the Diocese of Manchester, claiming that they permitted an HIV infected homosexual priest to be in a position of eminence, which gave him close access to victims. The priest, who hasn’t been named because of the speculative nature of the suit, was the head priest of the St. Mary Parish in Dover, New Hampshire.

According to Brown, the priest was a known homosexual and drug user who was HIV positive. The rape incident, according to Brown, occurred in 1977. According to the lawsuit, the priest was then living in an apartment that he shared with two other men. Brown had accepted a ride from the priest, and was asked to accompany him up to his apartment. Because the priest was someone known to him, Brown says that he complied. Once at the apartment he was drugged and then raped. He was 16 at the time.

Brown began experiencing symptoms of HIV infection in the eighties. He traced the infection back to the priest, because he had only had sexual relations with one other man after the rape incident, and had practiced safe sex.

In 2002, Brown was part of a class action lawsuit against the diocese in which he received a group settlement of $490,000. Brown says he was coerced into taking that settlement. He hired a private investigation firm to investigate the priest’s character, and the firm has come up with damaging evidence and testimony. For instance, one of his former roommates compares him to “a devil”. He was supposedly a master of seduction, and was very aggressive in his pursuit of young men. He frequented two popular gay bars in the city, and was a habitual drug user. In fact, he was known to use drugs to sedate and then rape his victims. The roommate claims that he himself was drugged and raped by the priest.

Drug use, rape, child abuse – it’s hard to believe that the priest could have lived such a colorful life under the nose of the Diocese without them being aware of it. His escapades didn’t seem to come in the way of his career –he was made a head priest, a position that gave him even greater access to his victims, young boys.

From what we have learned about the behavior of the church in matters of clergy sexual abuse, it’s easier to believe that the church was well aware of all that was going on in its parish, but chose to turn a blind eye. For now, the Diocese is claiming that the charges are all falsified, and expressed hope that the charges would be “dismissed.” It would be a travesty of justice if the case was indeed dismissed. The only way to make churches more accountable for the actions of their priests is to dangle the sword of bankruptcy over their heads.