Word: brentwood
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Wearing combat fatigues and toting a .22-cal. rifle, Robert Wickes, 24, stormed into a junior high school social-studies class in Brentwood, N.Y., one day last month and took 22 pupils hostage. By the time the subsequent confrontation ended nine hours later, Wickes, a recently fired substitute monitor, had critically wounded one student, nicked the school principal in the face and shot himself dead. Within a week, the Brentwood school district was under siege once again, this time by lawyers announcing they would file suits on behalf of some of the children held hostage. So far, the parents...
...aftermath of the Brentwood tragedy follows a well-established and increasingly worrisome pattern in civil law: lawsuits aimed at wealthy or well-insured third parties rather than the people directly responsible for harmful acts. Says Professor Gary Schwartz of U.C.L.A.'s law school: "Robbers and muggers do not have liability insurance, and they do not have assets. The job of the lawyer is not simply to find the negligent party but the negligent solvent party." Russell Moran, editor of the New York Jury Verdict Reporter, puts it more bluntly: "A good lawyer will try to find anyone in gunshot...
...potential defendants today is "Be prepared." Some corporations are setting up million-dollar escrow funds to pay damage claims. Others are increasing their insurance coverage. One worried potential defendant upped its coverage last year from $5 million to $25.5 million. The prudent possessor of the deeper pocket: the Brentwood, N.Y., school district...
...author is an assistant professor of English at Suffolk Country Community College in Brentwood...
DIED. Pierpont Morgan Hamilton, 83, retired Air Force major general who was awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor in World War II for negotiating a truce with French soldiers during the Allied invasion of North Africa; in Brentwood, Calif. Hamilton, great-great-grandson of Alexander Hamilton and nephew of J.P. Morgan, later helped set policy for NATO forces...