Lawsuit: Bryan v. Erie County Office of Children & Youth UPDATED

“A federal judge awarded summary judgment to a child-services department facing claims by a foster family that took in a child described as a future “Jeffrey Dahmer.”

The minor child, J.O., was placed in the care of Erie County after both sets of his parents and other family members felt they could not deal with “his special emotional issues.”

While in the care of family members, who passed him around for two years, J.O. acted out sexually with his half-sister and a younger relative in North Carolina. The boy suffered from bedwetting and involuntary defecation, showed no remorse or conscience, was self-abusive, and “threatened to blow things up, shoot people and stab people.”

His stepmother claimed that J.O. did not fit into their marriage and family plans. A caseworker noted that the boy’s biological father called J.O. a future “Jeffrey Dahmer.”

As J.O. bounced around the Erie County foster system, a psychiatrist determined that the boy was not a sexual perpetrator and behaved “more like a victim of poor family dynamics.”

After J.O. made a “suicidal gesture” in August 1998, he spent nine days in a mental health facility.

From that point forward, J.O was moved into various residential treatment centers, mental health facilities, shelters and foster homes.

The following year, J.O. began acting sexually inappropriate, masturbating, making sexually charged comments and being physically aggressive.

He was eventually moved to Harborcreek Youth Services Residential Treatment Facility, a facility for children with sexual offender, behavioral and mental health issues.

Then in 2000, the Erie County Office of Children & Youth identified Paul and Bonnie as a potential host family for J.O., even though “they indicated they did not want a foster child that was a fire-setter or ‘severe sexual offender.'”

At that time, the Bryans had fostered up to 45 children and had just adopted K.B., a child who had been living with them since 1998.

The Bryans say the department never told them about J.O.’s treatment plan, which would include sexual counseling services. Instead caseworkers described J.O. as “oppositional defiant, suffered from ADHD, anxiety and mood disorders.”

Three caseworkers whom the Bryans later sued – Renie Skalko, Cindy Lewis and Cindy Baxter – all maintain that the Bryans knew about with J.O.’s “background information,” including his “behavioral issues.”

After visiting the Bryans’ home on weekends for over a month, Harborcreek officials caught J.O. with underwear catalogues and a pair of Bonnie’s underwear.

Despite this “red flag,” the county discharged J.O. from sexual counseling and let him move in with the Bryans in March 2001.

In addition to the 9-year-old K.B., the Bryans had a 16-year-old son and two other foster children, who were 3 and 4 years old at the time.

The caseworkers claim to have informed the Bryans that they should keep J.O. in a separate bedroom from other family members, with a door alarm, but that the Bryans refused.

Claiming that they never knew J.O. needed to be isolated from other children, the Bryans said they let J.O and K.B. share a bedroom.

By August, K.B. told the Bryans that the 14-year-old J.O. had “grabbed his testicles.”

When the Bryans reported the behavior, the official who took the report said “there’s a history of this.” J.O was removed from the Bryan home that day.

K.B. later admitted in therapy that J.O had raped him orally and anally 15 to 20 times. “On one occasion, he reported that J.O. had pulled out a knife and told him ‘if you tell anyone, I’m going to kill you or the family.”

The Bryans originally filed suit in 2003, but a federal judge dismissed the case in 2006.

On orders from the 3rd Circuit, the Bryans filed an amended complaint. U.S. District Judge Sean McLaughlin dismissed some claims on summary judgment last week.

“We conclude that the plaintiffs have failed to raise a triable issue of fact as to OCY’s liability,” McLaughlin wrote. “Clearly, there was no formal policy to place dangerous children in foster homes without adequate warning to foster parents. Nor is there evidence on this record of a de facto custom or practice relative to the same. Merritt’s uncontradicted testimony was that there was no requirement that the risk assessment or safety plan be reduced to a formal written document. However, he contended, and the other individual defendants agreed, that all information pertinent thereto would have been shared with the Bryans, either orally or in writing. While the alleged failure on the part of the individual defendants to do so might be pertinent to an analysis of their liability, it is irrelevant. … Therefore, summary judgment will be granted in favor of the municipal defendant OCY.”

The judge also granted summary judgment to the department on K.B.’s claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress. “While the acts of the individual defendants could reasonably be viewed as deliberately indifferent, the record could not support a finding that they placed J.O. in the Bryan home with the intent that he assault K.B. and the expectation that K.B. suffer severe emotional distress as a result,” McLaughlin wrote.

Skalko, Baxter and Lewis, however, do not have immunity from K.B.’s substantive due process claim.

“The record evidence supports plaintiff’s claim that defendants Skalko, Baxter and Lewis had an awareness of a risk that was sufficiently concrete to put them on notice of J.O.’s potential for sexual assault and rape,” McLaughlin wrote. “These defendants knew that the Bryans did not want a sexual offender. They were also aware that there were younger children in Bryan house. They also were aware that J.O. had a long history of physically aggressive behavior and sexually acting out. They admit that they believe that door alarms and separate bedrooms were necessary.”

“In sum, we find on this record that a reasonable jury could conclude that the conduct of the defendants Skalko, Baxter and Lewis was deliberately indifferent to a patently obvious risk of harm to K.B.”

County Not Liable to Outraged Foster Family
[Courthouse News 3/29/12 by Cheryl Armstrong]

According to Justia, “For the reasons set forth in the accompanying Memorandum Opinion, It is hereby ORDERED, ADJUDGED, and DECREED that the motion for summary judgment [ECF No. 142] on behalf of Brigitte Sullivan, Paul Cancilla, and Carmen Merritt is GRANTED in its entirety and JUDGMENT is entered in their favor. It is further hereby ORDERED, ADJUDGED, and DECREED that the motion for summary judgment [ECF No. 142] on behalf of Erie County Office of Children & Youth is GRANTED in its entirety and JUDGMENT is entered in its favor. It is further hereby ORDERED, ADJUDGED, and DECREED that the motion for summary judgment [ECF No. 142] on behalf of Defendants Renie Skalko, Cindy Baxter, and Cindy Lewis as to Plaintiffs state law clai m of intentional infliction of emotional distress is GRANTED and JUDGMENT is entered in favor of these Defendants as to that claim. It is further hereby ORDERED ADJUDGED and DECREED that the motion for summary judgment [ECF No. 142] on behalf of Defendants Renie Skalko, Cindy Baxter, and Cindy Lewis, is DENIED as to K.B.s substantive due process claim. Signed by Judge Sean J. McLaughlin on 3/22/2012. ” The 51-page pdf is at the Justia link.

The US 3rd Circuit Court 8 page pdf can be viewed here.

REFORM Puzzle Piece

U.S. District Judge Sean J. McLaughlin pared down the civil-rights complaint filed by Paul and Bonnie Bryan to a single claim against three Erie County Office of Children and Youth workers

McLaughlin said the Bryans had presented enough evidence to proceed with their claim that the workers violated the Bryans’ 9-year-old son’s right to due process when they placed in the Bryans’ home a troubled 14-year-old boy, who then raped the 9-year-old repeatedly

The judge said a jury could conclude from the evidence that the placement of the 14-year-old in the Bryan’s home was akin to throwing a dangerous snake into the home without warning

McLaughlin, at the same time, dismissed claims against two OCY supervisors, a caseworker, and the Erie County Office of Children and Youth.

There was also no evidence that OCY had a “formal policy to place dangerous children in foster homes without adequate warning to the foster parents,” he said.

The ruling came just a few days before a scheduled settlement conference in the case. The parties failed to settle

Paperwork filed by the Bryans’ lawyers indicate they are seeking $7.5 million in damages.

The lawyer, Jay Paul Deratany, wrote in court records that in settlement negotiations, the defendants offered the plaintiffs $50,000.

“No further settlement discussions have been conducted,” Deratany wrote. Trial is scheduled for May

The long-pending case was first filed in 2003.

The Bryans’ surviving claim is that three OCY workers — two caseworkers and the coordinator of the host-home program — knew that the 14-year-old foster child had a lengthy history of physical violence and sexual aggression, but placed the boy in the Bryans’ home with no warning about his past. Records indicate the fiancee of the boy’s biological father told caseworkers they feared the boy would be the “next Jeffrey Dahmer.”

The child who was raped by the teen is now an adult. He suffers from a host of mental-health problems that were caused by the assaults, the Bryans claim.

The Bryans say the placement of the teen in their home violated the family’s request that no child with sexual problems or violent tendencies be placed in their home.

It also violated OCY policy that required workers to inform a foster family about a foster child’s background, the lawsuit claims. The teen began visiting the Bryan family in November 2000 and moved in with them in March 2001. Their 9-year-old son reported the teen’s molestation in August 2001.

The defendants counterclaim that Bonnie Bryan repeatedly was made aware of the 14-year-old’s sexual problems in a series of meetings about his treatment. The meetings were held between November 2000 and March 2001.

The case has traveled a long path in U.S. District Court. Senior U.S. District Judge Maurice B. Cohill Jr. dismissed the suit in 2006, ruling that the Bryans had failed to state a civil-rights claim that would allow the case to proceed in federal court.

The case returned to the federal court in Erie in August 2008, however, after the Bryans appealed to the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.”
Lawsuit against Erie child-welfare workers heads to trial
Go Erie 4/7/12 by Lisa Thompson]

Update 2:

The trial began on Tuesday May 22, 2012.”The civil rights case pits Kenny Bryan against three women who were Erie County Office of Children and Youth workers in 2001: caseworkers Renie Skalko and Cindy Lewis, and the coordinator of a host-home program, Cindy Baxter, who deny they created the conditions that allowed Kenny Bryan to be sexually abused.”

“The foster teen, referred to only as J.O in court records, began visiting the Bryan family in November 2000 and moved in with them in March 2001. Kenny Bryan, after enduring an estimated 10 to 15 assaults, reported molestation in August 2001.

 

Kenny Bryan and his lawyers, Jay Paul Deratany and Jeffrey G. Mashni of Chicago, and Timothy McNair, of Erie, claim the defendants knew that J.O. had a lengthy history of physical violence and sexual aggression, but placed the boy in the Bryans’ home with no warning about his past. Among the many records the Bryans never saw was a statement from the fiancee of J.O.’s biological father, who told caseworkers they feared the boy would be the “next Jeffrey Dahmer,” the plaintiffs’ lawyers say.”

“The Bryans say the placement of the teen in their home violated the family’s written request that no juvenile sexual offender or “fire-setter” be placed in their home.

It also violated OCY policy that required workers to inform a foster family about a foster child’s background, the lawsuit claims.

Kenny Bryan maintains the abuse he suffered at the hands of J.O. exacerbated existing psychological problems he had stemming from abuse he suffered at the hands of his biological parents before he was adopted by Paul and Bonnie Bryan.

He also suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and requires multiple medications for his mental conditions. He did not finish school and has been incarcerated on assault charges, according to court records.

Kenny Bryan’s lawyers have indicated they are seeking more than $10 million in damages.

Deratany told jurors Tuesday the case is “about hope.” Kenny Bryan, under the care of Paul and Bonnie Bryan, had been recovering from his earlier history of abuse, but that recovery was derailed by the rapes Kenny, a 50-pound 9-year-old, suffered at the hands of a 167-pound, 5-foot-9-inch teen. “He lost hope,” Deratany said.

Evidence will show the government workers were to blame, he said.

“J.O. went to jail” for the assaults, Deratany said. “Kenny went to hell.”

The defendants’ lawyer, Pamela V. Collis, of Pittsburgh, told jurors Deratany tried to shock and scare them with his opening.

She countered the evidence will show the OCY workers were not deliberately indifferent to Kenny Bryan’s safety. They instead repeatedly apprised Paul and Bonnie Bryan of J.O.’s past sexually inappropriate behavior and the treatment he had received for it. J.O. had never been convicted of a sexual offense, she said. She claimed, and Deratany disputed, that Baxter and Skalko told the Bryans of safety precautions they should take in their home, such as installing a door alarm on J.O.’s door. It was the Bryans, and not the caseworkers, that gave J.O. access to Kenny Bryan, she said.

In court records, Collis termed J.O.’s sexual assaults on Kenny Bryan “tragic.” She told jurors Tuesday, they may have to weigh whether Kenny Bryan’s ongoing psychological problems stem not from the rape but from abuse he suffered before he was adopted by the Bryans.

If Kenny Bryan wins any damages, they should be limited to “any pain and suffering from the injuries themselves, and the two to three years of the exacerbation of his injuries,” Collis argued in court records.

Deratany has written in court records that in settlement negotiations, the defendants offered the plaintiffs $50,000.

The case has traveled a long path in U.S. District Court. Senior U.S. District Judge Maurice B. Cohill Jr. dismissed the suit in 2006, ruling that the Bryans had failed to state a civil-rights claim that would allow the case to proceed in federal court.

The case returned to the federal court in Erie in August 2008, after the Bryans appealed to the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.”

May 24, 2012

On Thursday, May 24, another caseworker testified. “The Erie County Office of Children and Youth caseworker who recommended J.O. be placed with the Bryans told a federal jury in U.S. District Court on Thursday that she agreed the Bryans had a right to all of the information the agency had about J.O., including his involvement in any sexual offenses. In addition to his sexual offenses, she said, she also knew J.O. had a history of kicking, biting, hitting, playing with fire, and threatening to shoot and stab people. Renie Skalko said she did not give the Bryans that information.

She said she recommended J.O. for the Bryans’ home in part because she did not have any indication he had “penetrated” anybody and because he had been in treatment for the sexually inappropriate behavior.

Jay Paul Deratany, the lawyer for Kenny Bryan, pressed  Skalko as to why she would place a sexually aggressive teen with the Bryans against their written wishes.

“Their ‘no’ did not mean ‘no,'” he said of the Bryans.’

May 30, 2012

On Wednesday, May 30, 2012, adoptive mother Bonnie Bryan testified.  “Paul and Bonnie Bryan took in about 40 foster children in their 40-year marriage.

None worked harder to learn and change than an undersized 6-year-old named Kenny, who, when he came to the Bryans, had the intellect of a 3-year-old, a severe speech impediment, and drooled under the influence of seven psychiatric medications, Bonnie Bryan told a federal jury Tuesday.

Kenny was the only foster child the Bryans ever adopted, because, Bryan said, “we fell in love with him.”

“He came to us with the unique and severe problems. We could not believe how much he wanted to change. We saw such progress,” she said.

Bryan spent most of the day on the witness stand Tuesday in U.S. District Court testifying on behalf of her adopted son — Kenny Bryan, now 20, who is suing three former Erie County Office of Children and Youth workers, Cindy Baxter, Renie Skalko and Cindy Lewis, for abuse he suffered at the hands of a foster child the women placed in the Bryans’ home.”

“Bonnie Bryan told jurors Tuesday that Kenny arrived in their home in January 1998 after placements in nine different homes or treatment facilities. Within months, Bonnie Bryan, a registered nurse, said she weaned him off his medications. By the fall of 1999, his report card showed all A’s.

Bonnie Bryan testified under questioning by Kenny Bryan’s lawyer, Jay Deratany, that Kenny Bryan’s behavioral problems by no means disappeared, but typically resurfaced when he had to visit his biological family.

Any progress he had made, though, crumbled after the family took into their home a soon-to-be 14-year-old foster child, J.O., first for visits in December 1999, and then full time in March 2001, Bonnie Bryan testified.

Kenny at the age of 9, Bonnie Bryan said, stopped her as the family was preparing for a bonfire at their Cambridge Springs-area farm on an August night in 2001 and told her J.O. had molested him.

At Kenny’s psychiatrist’s office days later, she said, she learned her child had been repeatedly violently sexually assaulted.

“He just kept saying, ‘I don’t want you to stop loving me,'” she said.

Kenny, she said, felt as though he had destroyed the family by reporting the assaults. The next years saw a return of his behavioral problems and multiple hospitalizations, she said.

OCY records shown previously to the jury included reports that before coming to the Bryans’ home, J.O. had sexually offended a half sister, another family member, and other foster children.

Bonnie Bryan told jurors that OCY did not share that information with them in mandatory disclosure paperwork. She said that her family requested no sexual offenders or fire-starters be placed with them.

Baxter testified previously that she told Bonnie Bryan about J.O.’s prior sexual misconduct based on an incomplete oral report from Skalko.

Skalko said she did not tell Bonnie Bryan about J.O.’s past.

The defendants’ lawyer, Pamela V. Collis, maintains Bonnie Bryan was aware of J.O.’s sexual problems, however, because she attended his treatment team meetings at Harborcreek Youth Services, where his counseling was discussed.

Collis displayed for the jury reports from J.O.’s counselor, who wrote written summaries of the meetings after they were over. Bonnie Bryan maintained Tuesday that if those sexual issues were discussed as the notes indicated, it was not when she was in the room.

Collis also sought to show that Kenny Bryan’s current problems predated any contact with J.O.

She asked Bonnie Bryan to agree that records show Kenny Bryan is now the same angry, violent boy who had arrived in the Bryans’ home years ago, only bigger.”

May 31, 2012

Kenny Bryan testifies.  He”told the jury the abuse left him filled with anger. Bryan’s psychiatrist, Dr. Baron Denniston, told jurors that after the assaults, any hope Bryan had of recovering from his traumatic early childhood was “shot to hell.”

“The defendants’ lawyer, Pamela V. Collis, of Pittsburgh, focused Wednesday on multiple psychiatric records that showed Bryan had been diagnosed consistently from the age of 4 with reactive attachment disorder and other problems.”

June 1, 2012

The jury started deliberation on Friday June 1, 2012.

“Deratany presented evidence to show Kenny Bryan was improving in the care of the Bryans. Kenny Bryan, at one time thought mentally disabled, was doing grade-level school work by the fall of 1999. He was formally adopted by the Bryans on April 24, 2000, a day he told jurors was the happiest in his life.

The rapes he suffered over several months after J.O. moved into the home in March 2001 ruined Kenny Bryan’s recovery, Deratany said. They exacerbated Kenny Bryan’s earlier diagnoses, including his difficulties with trusting others, and triggered post-traumatic stress disorder.

Deratany urged jurors to give Kenny Bryan hope for the future.

Collis sought to show Kenny Bryan’s problems after the rapes were an extension of problems he had suffered since birth.

Collis argued that Kenny Bryan is not due economic damages because he would never have been employable due to the early childhood trauma.”

Kenny Bryan Awarded $8,654,769!

“The jury issued the award of $8,654,769 to the plaintiff, Kenny Bryan, at about 2:05 p.m. in the courtroom of U.S. District Sean J. McLaughlin at the federal courthouse in Erie.

The civil rights case was against two former caseworkers with the Erie County Office of Children and Youth. The county defended them.”

“The panel meant the award to cover Bryan’s past medical bills, his lost earnings, and his emotional suffering, juror Bridget Swick, of Meadville, said.

The verdict also was meant to send a message and spare any other child Bryan’s fate, she and other jurors said.

“Maybe they will think twice about their procedures,” Swick said of the Erie County Office of Children and Youth.

With the verdict, the jury accepted Bryan’s claim that former Erie County OCY caseworkers Cindy Baxter and Renie Skalko violated his civil rights when they placed the foster teen, J.O., who had a history of past sexual offenses, in the home of his adoptive parents in 2001.”

“Bryan said he hopes to earn his general-equivalency diploma, possibly attend a Christian college, and one day “help other troubled kids.”

Bonnie Bryan Comments

“Bonnie Bryan said the verdict was important to the family, “but more importantly,” she said, “what kept us going, it is for all the families in the country who have been hurt by the very broken child-welfare system.”

Deratany said the verdict reached beyond the trauma inflicted on the Bryan family.

“The foster-care system in this entire country is broken,” Deratany said. “There are too many kids who are placed too quickly without enough thought. In defense of Erie County Office of Children and Youth, they need reform, but they also need help for making those reforms. We need legislation to guide it. It goes all the way up the chain.”

Not Over

Hat tip to a reader who let us know that another lawsuit is still pending in Pennsylvania state court. Best regards to all the Bryans!

Sources:

Trial begins in civil rights case against Erie OCY workers
[Erie Time-News 5/23/12 by Lisa Thompson]

Second caseworker testifies in rape victim’s civil rights case
[Erie Time-News 5/25/12 by Lisa Thompson]

Mother testifies in Erie County OCY civil rights trial

[Erie Time-News 5/30/12 by Lisa Thompson]

Plaintiff testifies in Erie OCY civil rights case
[Erie Time-News 5/31/12 by Lisa Thompson]

Erie OCY case goes to jury

[Erie Time-News 6/1/12 by Lisa Thompson]

Jury awards plaintiff $8.7M in civil rights case against ex-OCY caseworkers

[Erie Time-News 6/1/12 by Lisa Thompson]

Erie jury awards $8.7M

[Erie Time-News 6/4/12 by Lisa Thompson]

Update 3/hat tip to a reader:

“Erie County Court rather than federal court is set to hear a dispute over an $8.7 million verdict against the Erie County Office of Children and Youth.

Though the verdict came in a trial in federal court in Erie, U.S. District Judge Sean J. McLaughlin on Friday said he lacks jurisdiction to hear the case’s post-trial issue, which centers on how much the plaintiffs should get from Erie County government.

The county is contending the plaintiff is bound by a high/low agreement, in which both sides agreed the plaintiff would get no more than $2.7 million, no matter what the verdict. The county’s insurance companies are set to cover that amount.

The plaintiff is claiming the county breached the deal by violating a confidentiality clause, and that the plaintiff should get the full $8.7 million — $6 million more than what the high/low agreement stipulated.

At a hearing on Friday, McLaughlin said the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the state courts — rather than federal district judges — have jurisdiction over post-trial issues such as those in the OCY case.

“It is a contract issue,” McLaughlin said in a ruling from the bench.

The verdict, which a jury in McLaughlin’s courtroom issued in June, was in favor of Kenny Bryan, now 21, an adopted child who was raped by his foster brother in 2001, when Bryan was 9. OCY placed the abusive foster brother in Bryan’s adoptive home, leading Bryan and his parents to file a civil rights suit in 2003.

McLaughlin on Friday ruled over the objections of the county and for the lawyers for Bryan, who argued jurisdiction over the high/low agreement rests with the state courts. McLaughlin said he might have ruled differently had he been involved in the fashioning of the high/low agreement.

“The agreement at issue was solely the product of counsels’ efforts with no involvement of the courts,” McLaughlin said.

Uncertain is whether the county or Bryan will file to continue the case in Erie County Court.

The county’s trial lawyer in the case, Pamela V. Collis, of Pittsburgh, declined to comment after the hearing. The county’s insurance companies retained her.

The lead lawyer for Bryan, Jay Paul Deratany, of Chicago, said he will continue to pursue a judgment against the county for the full $8.7 million — an action the county is almost certain to try to block in County Court.

Deratany said Bryan wanted the high/low agreement kept confidential to let the jury speak through the $8.7 million verdict.

“He was molested and raped, and he wanted to send a message,” Deratany said in an interview.

The county is arguing that it never breached the confidentiality clause because Collis disclosed the high/low agreement in court records in the context of wrapping up the case after the verdict.

The county is also arguing that the high/low agreement is a matter of public record anyway, because it involves a municipality, and that any breach of confidentiality, if it occurred, was not material to the enforcement of the deal.

Underlying the fight over the high/low agreement is who would pay the additional $6 million if the county were to lose the contractual dispute.

The county is contending that its insurance companies, and not the county, would have to pay the difference of any award higher than $2.7 million.

The county would have to take money out of its budget if insurance failed to cover anything more than the $2.7 million, officials have said.”

Fight over $6M in Erie OCY case leaves federal court

[Erie Times-News 12/1/12 by Ed Palattella]

“A federal judge on Friday ordered Erie County to post a$3 million bond as a dispute over an$8.7 million civil rights verdict against two Erie County Office of Children and Youth workers is waged in Erie County Court and the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Timothy McNair, lawyer for the plaintiff, Kenneth Bryan, had asked U.S. District Judge Sean J. McLaughlin to allow Bryan to pursue execution of an $8.7 million judgment that was entered in U.S. District Court after a jury in June found former caseworkers Cindy Baxter and Renie Skalkoliable for sexual assaults Bryan suffered as a boy when a sexually aggressive foster child was placed in Bryan’s Cambridge Springs home.”

McLaughlin had stayed that judgment amid disputes surrounding the verdict in July.

He kept that stay in place Friday but ordered the county to post bond to protect Bryan’s ability to collect if the verdict is upheld. The county has$3 million in insurance to cover the jury’s award, said Neal Devlin, a lawyer for the county.

McLaughlin noted aspects of the case are being litigated in other courts. Still unclear is the final amount the county might owe, if any, and also what jurisdiction McLaughlin has to preside over various aspects of the post-trial disputes.

The county and Bryan’s lawyers disagree over whether a private “high-low agreement” struck before the verdict should stand.”

Erie County ordered to post bond in OCY civil suit

[Insurance News Net 3/2/13]

This isn’t Erie County OCY’s only lawsuit-their ineptitude was on display with the  2004 Death of Brittany Legler . See  here