Anne Pressly News Updates Only - No Discussion Please...

[lorettalockhorn]

Edwards: "I am no longer moving forward with the case"


..."I am no longer moving forward with the case. I'm not willing to put myself or my family through the emotional or financial turmoil of continuing to go through with the case."

Edwards says the weeks leading up to the start of the February 1st case were very difficult, because of multiple trial dates and hearings that had stretched out over months.

"There's no expectation from me that we'd ever get a different outcome than we did this time. So, we could keep doing this over and over and over again"...

http://www.katv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13966437

Video at link.

[lorettalockhorn]

Vance appeal goes to state high court

Attorneys seeking new murder trial




LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Supreme Court on May 12 will hear a challenge to the capital murder and rape convictions of the Marianna man who killed Little Rock TV personality Anne Pressly, about 18 months after a Pulaski County jury sentenced him to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Curtis Lavelle Vance, 30, is serving a sentence of life plus 70 years in prison for attacking Pressly in her own bed after breaking into her Heights neighborhood home in October 2008. The sentence was the strongest available after a Pulaski County jury refused to order the death penalty at his November 2009 trial. He also was convicted of residential burglary and theft for stealing items from her home after beating and raping her...

Vance’s attorneys, arguing that Vance at least deserves a new trial, have said the circumstances of the Marianna rape of teacher Kristen Edwards were so different from the fatal attack on Pressly that prosecutors shouldn’t have been allowed to use evidence from the Edwards’ case, including her testimony, at Vance’s murder trial...

Vance’s defenders are also challenging the legality of the incriminating statements Vance made to police, court imposed limits on expert testimony about his mental faculties and the propriety of comments made by prosecutors...

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2...ourt-20110415/

[lorettalockhorn]

Vance attorney: Cancel hearing

Citing family issues, workload, she says submitted briefs sufficient



LITTLE ROCK — An attorney for Curtis Vance is asking to cancel next month’s arguments before the Arkansas Supreme Court challenging his capital-murder and rape convictions for the October 2008 slaying of Little Rock TV news anchor Anne Pressly.

Briefs already submitted to the high court are sufficient for the high court to decide Vance’s appeal without requiring oral arguments, Janice Vaughn with the Arkansas Public Defender Commission, wrote in her petition submitted Friday. Vaughn cites unspecified family medical issues and her workload as reasons for asking to have the hearing canceled. The attorney general’s office, which represents Pulaski County prosecutors, doesn’t object to the cancellation, according to the petition...

In related proceedings, St. Vincent Infirmary MedicalCenter is seeking to have a lawsuit brought against the hospital by Pressly’s mother dismissed.

Patti Cannady is suing the hospital, a doctor with hospital privileges and two former employees, claiming they violated her daughter’s privacy by accessing Pressly’s medical records during the five days she was at the hospital before she died. The October 2009 lawsuit should be thrown out, the hospital argued in an Friday pleading, since Pressly is dead and can’t present evidence that she was harmed by the disclosure. No hearing has been scheduled...

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2...ring-20110426/

Link to Jay Holland sentencing hearing (transcript/PDF):

http://www.arkansasonline.com/docume...ng-transcript/

[lorettalockhorn]

The state Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the conviction and life sentence of Curtis Vance for the rape and capital murder of TV personality Anne Pressly of Little Rock, rejecting Vance’s five arguments on appeal in a ruling released Thursday...

No link at this time.

[lorettalockhorn]

Judge Asked To Dismiss Lawsuit In TV Anchor Attack



...The invasion of privacy lawsuit by Patricia Cannady -- the mother of Anne Pressly -- was filed after the doctor and former employees pleaded guilty to illegally looking at Pressly's medical records when Pressly was hospitalized after being found her beaten inside her home.

Attorneys for the hospital, the doctor and former workers say courts have ruled since the late 1800s that lawsuits claiming invasion of privacy expire with the death of the person who could claim harm.

http://www.4029tv.com/news/29393443/...#ixzz1Zy5j4jn5

[lorettalockhorn]

Ruling on Pressly suit in 10 days, judge says

Privacy violated in hospital, mom claims



LITTLE ROCK — A Pulaski County circuit judge said Tuesday that he’ll decide within 10 days whether an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit over unauthorized access to the hospital records of murdered television personality Anne Pressly should go to trial or be thrown out of court...

Arguing on behalf of Cannady and Pressly’s family, attorney Gerry Schulze said the lawsuit breaks new ground without overturning established precedent...

He said the Survival Statute, as interpreted by the Arkansas Supreme Court, allows all lawsuits to extend past the death of the injured party, with the exception of actions for libel, slander and injury to reputation. If a claim is not barred by statute, Schulze argued, then it should be allowed...

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2...says-20111005/

(Subscription access)

[lorettalockhorn]

Pressly mom can’t sue over medical-record peek



LITTLE ROCK — More than 125 years of Arkansas case law bars the mother of murdered TV anchor Anne Pressly from suing a Little Rock hospital where three workers illegally looked at her dead daughter’s medical files, a Pulaski County Circuit judge ruled on Friday.

Judge Leon Johnson sided with attorneys for the hospital and the workers - two of them fired employees and the third a doctor who sometimes works out of St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center - who argued that privacy invasion claims died with Pressly, whose death was almost three years ago on Oct. 25, 2008...

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2...ord--20111015/

(Subscription access)

[Amy]

I can't read the entire article since I don't have a subscription. However, whatever 125 years of case law mean, the new and now prevailing law is the HIPAA law. Which includes, if you don't need the information to perform your job, you are breaking the law if you access the information. Pretty much cut and dried.

I don't understand about privacy invasion claims died w/Pressly---the privacy invasion occurs whether the patient is dead or alive, famous or just an every day ordinary citizen.

I suppose what it means is that Pressly could have sued over invasion of privacy, and, since she is dead, her mother can't do so. Firing people who break the HIPAA law isn't enough. They need enough "punishment" to make hopefully make sure they don't repeat breaking this law. IMO, of course.

[lorettalockhorn]

Amy, your supposition is spot on, and the punishment that the three received was pretty weinie IIRC.

According to the article, Mrs. Cannady haven't given up on her quest:

...Dr. Jay Holland, Candida Griffin and Sara Miller pleaded guilty to federal misdemeanor medical privacy violations. They were sentenced to probation and fined, and Griffin and Miller were fired.

Attorneys for the defendants argued that the case should be thrown out because the plaintiff could offer no direct proof about how Pressly might have been hurt by any disclosure of private medical information...

http://www.claimsjournal.com/news/so.../18/193178.htm

[lorettalockhorn]

Judge Sides with Hospital in Anne Pressly Lawsuit



...the defense relied on laws written in the 1800's that said we have no right to protect our privacy, or that of our daughter, Anne Pressly...

http://www.katv.com/story/15707383/j...ressly-lawsuit

[Amy]

Judge Sides with Hospital in Anne Pressly Lawsuit



...the defense relied on laws written in the 1800's that said we have no right to protect our privacy, or that of our daughter, Anne Pressly...

http://www.katv.com/story/15707383/j...ressly-lawsuit

Hope they are successful in getting an archaic law off the books. Matters not if the person is dead-her reputation could be hurt depending on what information was read and bandied about by people who had no business even looking @ her records (if I understand it correctly.) Again, there is the HIPAA law which should cancel out previous laws. Then again, I'm not sure HIPAA addresses what should happen to folks who break the law, in relation to dead people.

[FDInLaw]

Vance should be happy with life. . . there are those of us that believe that is just not enough. . .

RIP Anne

[lorettalockhorn]

Ark. court looks at mom of slain anchor's lawsuit



LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The mother of slain Little Rock TV anchor Anne Pressly should be allowed to proceed with a lawsuit against a hospital and three workers who illegally looked at her dead daughter's medical files despite a judge's ruling that privacy claims can't be pursued after someone's death, an attorney told the Arkansas Supreme Court Thursday.

Justices on Thursday heard oral arguments in Patricia Cannady's lawsuit against St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center over claims that her daughter's privacy was violated when the medical files were accessed. Cannady is appealing a Pulaski County judge's ruling that the law doesn't allow privacy claims to proceed after the affected person's death.

Gerry Schulze, Cannady's attorney, said justices should show the public that invasion of privacy won't be tolerated, even if the victim is dead.

"We have to say certain things are intolerable and we're not going to let you get away with them, even if your victim dies," Schulze told justices...

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/A...#ixzz26NuAYbyr

[lorettalockhorn]

Part of Pressly Suit Survives



The mother of murdered Little Rock TV anchor Anne Pressly will be able to continue her lawsuit against the hospital that treated her daughter in the days following her attack.

The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that a lower court got it wrong…at least in part…when it refused to allow Patti Cannady's lawsuit to go forward...

Justice Paul Danielson explained that in order to establish a claim for outrage, a person must demonstrate

1. There was intent…or at least the offender should have known that his/her actions would cause emotional distress.

2. The conduct was extreme and outrageous and beyond all possible bounds of decency.

3. The actions did in fact cause distress.

And 4. The emotional distress was severe...

http://www.katv.com/story/19740498/p...-suit-survives

[lorettalockhorn]

Anne Pressly's mom can sue hospital, workers



...Justices ruled Thursday that Patricia Cannady can sue St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center for outrageous behavior. But they upheld a lower court's ruling that Pressly's family cannot seek punitive damages for invasion of privacy...

http://www.todaysthv.com/news/articl...pital-workers-

[lorettalockhorn]

Anne Pressly's parents hope to change privacy laws



...Pressly's parents say no matter how the court rules they plan to do whatever they can to help change that privacy laws in Arkansas.

"It won't bring Anne back but it can certainly make things better. We need to bring the law up to date to protect all of us and all of our medical records. So that privacy doesn't end with death," said Pressly's mom Patti Cannady...

http://www.katv.com/story/19541418/a...e-privacy-laws

Link to interview:

http://www.katv.com/video?autoStart=...clipId=7723592