Two federal lawsuits that a former Pope County doctor filed Nov. 12, 2015 alleging that he received inadequate medical care after being arrested in a 2009 grenade attack in West Memphis were dismissed Wednesday.
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The lawsuits, one of which complained about Randeep Mann's treatment while he was a pretrial detainee at the Pulaski County jail, and the other focusing on his conditions of confinement under the care of the U.S. Marshals Service, were consolidated into one on Jan. 26.
Mann was arrested in March 2009 in connection with a grenade explosion outside the West Memphis home of Dr. Trent Pierce, then chairman of the state medical board, which was investigating Mann. Mann was convicted by a federal jury in August 2010 of aiding and abetting the use of a weapon of mass destruction, and was sentenced in February 2011 to life in prison. He is incarcerated at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind.
Pierce suffered permanent injuries when he moved a tire that was propped against the bumper of his vehicle in his driveway, causing a grenade that had been duct-taped to the underside of the tire to explode.
On May 13, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerome Kearney recommended that the consolidated lawsuits be tossed out of court for Mann's failure to file them within the three-year statute of limitations for the conditions he complained about. Although Mann alleged that he was filing the suits under the "continuing violations doctrine," Kearney said the doctrine didn't apply to either case.
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The doctrine provides that the statute doesn't begin to run until treatment by a medical professional for a particular condition has ceased. Kearney said even assuming a continuing course of treatment or nontreatment could be applied in Mann's case, it would have ended when he left the jail and the care of the U.S. Marshals' service for the confines of federal prison.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker filed an order adopting Kearney's recommendations, to which Mann had filed objections. Baker said she adopted Kearney's findings "in their entirety," and dismissed the consolidated case with prejudice, as frivolous. The "with prejudice" means that the case cannot be refiled.
Metro on 12/02/2016