(WOMENSENEWS)–A former Wal-Mart employee who was shot by her husband has filed suit against the Arkansas-based chain, alleging that the store’s management knew she was in danger and still failed to protect her and other employees from spousal abuse at its stores.
Two years ago, Marsha Midgett, a Wal-Mart employee in Pottstown, Penn., was chased down the aisles by her spouse armed with a .22-caliber handgun loaded with the bullets he had just purchased minutes before at the same store. He shot her in the head and then turned the gun on himself, committing suicide. She suffered brain damage.
The Legal Intelligencer, in an article by Shannon P. Duffy, reported Thursday that the lawsuit argues the Wal-Mart chain could have prevented the attack by implementing a policy to protect its employees from domestic violence.
Three days before the shooting, Bryan Midgett abused his wife and was arrested. Marsha Midgett had won a court order requiring her husband to stay away. Wal-Mart knew of the abuse and knew that after the restraining order the husband continued to visit the store, the lawsuit said.
WEnews Update
Abortion Doctor Rehired by University of Nebraska
(WOMENSENEWS)–Dr. Leroy Carhart, an abortion provider, will be reinstated by the University of Nebraska, which fired him after he successfully argued before the Supreme Court against the state’s abortion ban.
In a settlement announced Thursday, the University of Nebraska Medical Center agreed to reinstate Carhart, a volunteer faculty member, and to pay $60,000 in his attorneys’ fees.
Carhart filed a wrongful termination lawsuit, arguing that his First Amendment rights to free speech were violated by the firing. A federal district court judge last April agreed that his firing was linked to his successful participation in a Supreme Court case. The Supreme Court ruled Nebraska’s ban on “partial birth abortion” unconstitutional, saying the language of the law was so vague as to apply to and outlaw many legal abortions.
WEnews Update
Judge Orders Web Site to Remove Jane Doe Photo
(WOMENSENEWS)–An Illinois judge has ordered a preliminary injunction against anti-abortion protesters who posted on the Internet a photograph and private medical records of an abortion patient, identified only as Jane Doe.
Doe and the abortion clinic where she underwent her procedure allege that Doe’s right to privacy was violated; defendants asserted that they were exercising their First Amendment rights.
Madison County Superior Court Judge George J. Moran in southwest Madison County, Ill., on Wednesday ordered a preliminary injunction prohibiting all defendants from “obtaining, distributing or publishing the medical records, medical data and photograph of plaintiff Jane Doe.”
The defendants include St. Elizabeth Medical Center; Angela and Daniel Michael, Illinois anti-abortion activists; and Stephen Wetzel, founder of Missionaries to the Unborn and operator of the organization’s Web site.
The photo and records had remained posted on the Missionaries Web site, despite a temporary restraining order issued by the same judge that also demanded the photo and records be removed.
If the site’s operators continue to ignore the judge’s orders, they face possible contempt of court charges and could possibly be jailed until they agree to comply. — Deborah Prussel
