Old case subject of new lawsuit over liability of church

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Merits of pole dancing draws a crowd in small Ky. town; granny pole dancer has her say...

ADAIRVILLE - Personal or not, the discussion was sometimes heated during a public meeting Tuesday about the possibility of pole dancing in a small Logan County community.

About 100 people attended a public hearing Tuesday at the Red River Fish and Game Club to voice their opinion on the application for an entertainment permit for pole dancing.About 100 people attended the hearing to discuss the application for an entertainment permit for the Tenn-Tucky State Line Tavern. Owner Sheila Haley wants to pay her dancers, who now are entertaining patrons for free.

Haley had a dozen or so people speak in support of her business, including Bowling Green's Tattle Tails owner Tony Jones, who later said he thought Haley's rights were being trampled on.

Jones told the crowd that, statistically speaking, they had a "higher chance of dying riding in a church bus than getting shot at a strip club."

Jones said he got flak when he first opened Tattle Tails in
Bowling Green.

"But 20 years later, nobody cares," he said. "All they know is that I pay a bunch of money in taxes."

And Jones told the crowd that if they have ever been to a Chinese circus, then they probably have already seen pole dancers.

Pole dancing is all Haley said she has planned for the business. The dancers won't strip and they wear bikinis that cover their buttocks. Bare buttocks would make the business fall under an adult entertainment ordinance.

One of those dancers, who identified herself only as Jen, said she is one of the people the community has "judged the most."

"I wanted you to be able to put a face to what you've heard," Jen said. "I am a mother and a grandmother."

Jen, who lives in Bowling Green, said she has danced over the years as a way to support her children and that she would be proud to call herself an employee of Haley's.

Friends talked of Haley's commitment to the community and how she had helped numerous people over the years. They also detailed, as did Haley, the safety measures at the bar and how she provides free rides home to customers who are intoxicated.

City Councilwoman Donna Blake chastised the crowd for their judgment of Haley.

Many pastors said they weren't judging Haley personally, but rather the business she wants to have.

Mark Keith, who identified himself as a Russellville pastor, said the dancing would be sexual in nature and likened it to pornography.

"And I know an issue that is tearing many families apart is pornography," Keith said. Then he said mass murderer Ted Bundy was into pornography.

Jerry Robertson, who lives near the tavern, said he didn't doubt that Haley is a "fine" woman and would follow through with her plans to keep the business a safe place.

But what happens when "it becomes worth something" and someone else purchases the building? Robertson said prostitution, drugs and violence could follow.

Haley later said she had tried to sell the business when sales were suffering.

When no one wanted to buy it, Haley looked for other ways to raise revenue, and she came up with the idea of pole dancing.
Neighbors Mark Boylan and his wife, Leah Marie King, said Haley discussed her plans with them before applying for the permit.
"We see absolutely nothing wrong with it," Boylan said before the hearing. "I think they are making a lot of fuss about nothing."

At the hearing, King and several others in support of Haley's plan said the bikinis the dancers wear are nothing less than what people can see on television, at the beach or even in backyards in Adairville.

Richard Nelson of Trigg County was there as a policy analyst for the Family Foundation. Nelson said he helped Logan County write its adult entertainment ordinance 15 years ago and he thinks that this business should fall under those guidelines.

After the meeting, Logan County Attorney Joe Ross said that as it is planned now, the business doesn't fall under the adult entertainment guidelines.

If the business were to be permitted, it would have to adhere to the plans as they stand, Ross said.

Nelson also questioned where the state line really was and whether the pole and stage in question are on the Kentucky side. He said Haley should be asked to produce a survey of the property and building showing the state line.

Since Haley has owned the bar, for eight years she has been paying half of the building's property taxes in Tennessee and half in Kentucky. The entrance to the bar and the beer are sold on the Tennessee side.

He also questioned Haley's and others' previous characterization of pole dancing as artistic.

"If it's artistic ... then ask yourselves would you bring your family to watch this," he said. READ MORE

By ROBYN L. MINOR
The Daily News, Bowling Green

Nelson family sues church for boy's death

Multi-million-dollar lawsuit filed against Big Spring Assembly of God Inc. over campout where boy was killed...

 Jurors heard opening arguments Monday in a multi-million-dollar lawsuit that would hold the Big Spring Assembly of God Inc. in Bloomfield and its affiliates partially responsible for the 2009 death of 13-year-old Jamie Mitchell.

Debate in the lawsuit hinges on whether a campout in which Mitchell participated the night before his death was approved by the church. That campout was supervised by Ronald Derek Coulter, then 24.

Mitchell was at the wheel of a 1997 Chevy Blazer that drove off the shoulder of Old Bloomfield Road the afternoon of June 6, 2009. The vehicle overturned and Mitchell was ejected, dying at the scene. After initially telling investigators he was driving, Coulter admitted to letting Mitchell drive his vehicle, and was sentenced to five years in prison for first-degree reckless homicide and wanton endangerment in 2010.

Coulter was paroled after 20 months in prison.

Jamie Mitchell’s mother and father, Rebecca Coleman and James Mitchell, and his aunt and administrator for his estate, Melissa Stevenson, filed suit in February 2010 against Coulter, the church, and the church’s overseers, the General Council of the Assemblies of God and the Kentucky District Council of the Assemblies of God.

Family members claim negligence on Coulter’s part and negligent hiring, retention and supervision by the church. Emotional distress was aggravated, they claim, when Coulter presided over Jamie Mitchell’s funeral ceremony, where he continued to insist he was driving the vehicle when he was not.

The initial complaint filed in the suit states that “the Mitchell family was so appalled at Coulter’s lie and deceit, especially during Jamie Mitchell’s funeral service, that a separate funeral service was held on what would have been Jamie Mitchell’s 14th birthday.”

Coulter recalled the accident on the stand Tuesday morning, moving Rebecca Coleman to tears, as attorney Thomas Clay asked Coulter whether he had told Stevenson that Jamie had spoken to him just before he died.  READ MORE

By Erin L. McCoy
The Kentucky Standard

From around Ky. and W.Va...

W,Va. News: by Jack Flint

New Hand Sanitizer Cocktails Compared To Bottle Of 80 Proof Vodka

Coming on the heels of cough medicine, hand sanitizer is the latest in a string of household products used to  induce intoxication, and it has public health officials worried, as a  few squirts of hand sanitizer could equal a couple of  shots of hard liquor.

Liquid hand sanitizer is 62 to 65 percent ethyl alcohol, or ethanol, the main ingredient in beer, wine  and spirits, making  it 120-proof.  To compare, a bottle of vodka is  80-proof.

To read the entire story, go to:

http://westvirginianews.blogspot.com/2012/04/teens-drinking-hand-sanitizer-to-get.html

Overcoming crash, Grant teen is ready to inspire

By William Croyle
The Kentucky Enquirer

DRY RIDGE — The trauma inflicted on Cody Shively’s brain was so massive that paramedics at the grisly crash scene gave the 12-year-old almost no chance of making it to 13.

Cody was one of 17 Grant County Middle School students injured when their school bus split a utility pole on U.S. 25 the morning of Jan. 17, 2007.

After being airlifted to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, the seventh-grader lay in a coma while his parents, Steve and Tammy, and his younger brother, Dustin, held a round-the-clock bedside vigil.

Today they recall the overwhelming joy they felt when Cody finally awoke after three weeks. They remember him being able to speak to them for the first time a few weeks after that.

But it was what he said to them 55 days after the crash, on March 13, that resonates the most in their minds today.

“He asked us how it felt to go to his funeral,” Tammy said.

His funeral?

“I actually went up to Heaven and saw God and Jesus, and I said hi to them and they said hi to me,” Cody said in an interview at school last week.

During that heavenly encounter, which happened sometime soon after the crash, Cody also saw his deceased grandmother and grandfather. He said they told him they loved him.

“But they said my time was not now,” Cody said. “They said I would go back to earth and inspire thousands of people.”

Cody is now 17 years old and in relatively good health after years of rehab. He will graduate next month from Grant County High School and is ready to inspire by telling his story - though he’s unwittingly been inspiring those around him for more than five years.

“It’s been rough watching him struggle through the years,” Tammy said. “But with his drive and determination and faith, nothing stops him.”

THE CRASH

The crash happened about 7:50 a.m., just north of Taylor Lane, on the way to school.

State police said the day of the crash that the driver, Angelynna Young of Williamstown, had over-corrected after going off the right side of the road. She crossed back over the center line and went off the left side into a utility pole.

Tests later showed that Young, 28 at the time, had several illegal drugs in her system when the wreck occurred. She was charged with 25 felony and misdemeanor counts for assault, wanton endangerment and drug use.

Cody, one of the most seriously injured, suffered traumatic brain injury. Doctors had to remove part of his skull to ease the brain’s swelling. That piece of bone was put in a freezer and reattached months later.

He had to learn to walk and talk again, and had to endure multiple surgeries on his head and his throat. He suffered third nerve palsy in his left eye, giving him incurable double vision.

Cody was released from the hospital April 13, 2007.

Three months later, after pleading guilty to all 25 charges, Young was sentenced to 22 years in prison with eligibility for parole after 10 years and two months. She is serving her time at the Western Kentucky Correctional Complex in Lyon County.

Cody was in the front row at all of her court appearances. Wearing a bicycle helmet to protect his skull, he was given the opportunity to address her at her sentencing.

“I told her ‘Look what you did to me. You put me in the hospital for three months,’ ” Cody recalled.

Then he zinged a line at her from his favorite pro wrestler, John Cena, a moment he vividly recalls today.

“I said ‘Your time is up, my time is now,’ ” he said. “She just sat there and showed no reaction. But I was finally able to get that weight off my back.”

Tammy was glad he faced Young. She said it helped him relieve some anger.

Cody is glad he did it too, but was happy when it was over.

“I never want to see her again,” he said. READ MORE