PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "This will include whether or not Lengyel shared information about the case with his wife Yolanda who then posted it on social media. Lawyers representing the hospital say that Yolanda, attended at least one day of the trial in Venice, meaning she could have heard attorney discussions with the judge that were made outside of the jury's presence. Previous court documents state that Yolanda Lengyel posted on live YouTube feeds of the trial and in a Facebook chat group largely supportive of the Kowalski family. She is also accused of meeting with a social media influencer known as Jules, who, the motion states, is connected to the Kowalski family. It cites as evidence a video Jules posted on her TikTok page stating that she gave Maya Kowalski her rosary beads before Maya's live testimony on October 9. Yolanda also allegedly discussed on social media questions her husband intended to ask of witnesses and about a juror note sent while the jury was deliberating. A motion in the case seen by abc7 reads: 'Much of Defendant's initial motion focuses on the alleged actions of Juror #1′s spouse."
STORY: "Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital wins motion to interview 'biased' jury foreperson in desperate attempt to overturn $261M payout awarded to Netflix's Maya Kowalski," by Reporter Joe Hutchison, published by The Daily Mail, on December 22, 2023. (Joe Hutchison joined DailyMail.com in April 2023 as a news reporter after a two-year stint as a reporter for the Scottish Daily Mail in Glasgow. An experienced print and digital journalist, he also previously worked for Deadline News Agency in Edinburgh prior to joining the Mail and has covered events including the 2019 UK General Election, the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine.)
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- KEY POINTS:
- Lawyers for Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital have been given the greenlight to question Paul Lengyel over alleged misconduct in the Maya Kowalski case
- Lengyel has been accused of violating strict conduct rules during proceedings and of sharing details of the case with his wife
- Kowalski was awarded over $260 million in November after she won her lawsuit against the facility, with a jury finding them have imprisoned and battered her
GIST: "A judge has allowed lawyers representing Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital to question a juror in the Maya Kowalski trial after they cited juror misconduct.
Judge Hunter Carroll ruled on Wednesday that lawyers representing the hospital can subpoena juror Paul Lengyel to appear in court on January 3 for a hearing.
The hospital, which was found to have falsely imprisoned and battered Kowalski, had accused Lengyel of violating strict conduct rules during proceedings.
Lengyel had served as juror No. 1 on a six-person jury that decided last month that Johns Hopkins had falsely imprisoned and battered Kowalski, 17.
Kowalski was awarded over $260 million after she won her lawsuit against the hospital in November.
This will include whether or not Lengyel shared information about the case with his wife Yolanda who then posted it on social media.
Lawyers representing the hospital say that Yolanda, attended at least one day of the trial in Venice, meaning she could have heard attorney discussions with the judge that were made outside of the jury's presence.
Previous court documents state that Yolanda Lengyel posted on live YouTube feeds of the trial and in a Facebook chat group largely supportive of the Kowalski family.
She is also accused of meeting with a social media influencer known as Jules, who, the motion states, is connected to the Kowalski family.
It cites as evidence a video Jules posted on her TikTok page stating that she gave Maya Kowalski her rosary beads before Maya's live testimony on October 9.
Yolanda also allegedly discussed on social media questions her husband intended to ask of witnesses and about a juror note sent while the jury was deliberating.
A motion in the case seen by abc7 reads: 'Much of Defendant's initial motion focuses on the alleged actions of Juror #1′s spouse.
'Defendant's motion states that Juror #1′s spouse attended the trial on October 30, 2023.
'Defendant points to screen captures from the media feed that depict a woman believed to be Juror #1′s spouse talking with another person in the gallery, whom Defendant identifies as 'Jules,' who apparently has her own on-line show on TikTok and who would call into other online programs on YouTube.'
Defense lawyers had previously attached a filing to their motion for a new trial with notes allegedly from Lengyel.
In it, they claimed that Lengyel compared Dr Sally Smith to a Nazi Germany organization who they claimed he had an extreme dislike of.
In the note, each time Sally Smith is mentioned the letter S at the beginning of each name is written differently than any of the other S's on the page.
'Juror No. 1 has printed letter 'S' throughout the note normally, with a curve in the spine, EXCEPT that he printed his 'S' with sharp angles when printing Dr. Sally Smith's name,' the second supplemental motion reads.
'Both the second and third times that Juror No. 1 prints Dr. Sally Smith's name, the letter 'S' is shaped in a manner identical to the symbol of the Nazi Schutzstaffel.'
In the order issued this week however, this claim made by the hospital's attorneys has been dismissed.
Maya, 17, was just 10, when she was removed by the state after doctors accused her parents of faking symptoms for her rare condition - complex regional pain syndrome.
The jury found the emotional distress caused to her mother Beata Kowalski - who was forbidden from seeing her daughter for three months - led to her suicide in 2017.
The case gained national and international attention, after it was popularized in a Netflix documentary film.
At the conclusion of the trial Maya, her father Jack and brother Kyle broke down in tears as the jury's findings were read out at the court in St. Petersburg.
Jurors found the children's hospital liable for false imprisonment of Maya, battery of Maya, fraudulent billing of her father Jack; inflicting emotional distress on Beata; wrongful death claim for the estate of Beata; and intentionally inflicting emotional distress on Maya.
The family argued that the grief-stricken mom fell into a depression and ultimately hanged herself in the family garage, but Johns Hopkins had vehemently denied that it caused her death or abused Maya."
The entire story can be read at:
| PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog; |
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/47049136857587929
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices.
Lawyer Radha Natarajan;
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
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