Date: 10/17/2008 11:05 PM
By KATE BRUMBACK and GREG BLUESTEIN
Associated Press Writer
DALTON, Ga. (AP) _ A bitter family dispute over property in north Georgia apparently erupted Friday when a 78-year-old man threw an explosive into a law firm that represented his son, causing a blast that killed the father and injured four people in the office.
The explosion blew out windows of the two-story, colonial-style house where attorneys worked, and some in the small blue-collar town of 30,000 felt vibrations from more than a block away.
Authorities identified the bomber as Lloyd Cantrell, a man known around town for wearing bib overalls and carrying a small Chihuahua. Over the years, Cantrell amassed several parcels of land in the area, and gave some of the property to his son.
His son had grown fearful of his father, though, and filed a lawsuit seeking to keep his dad off the property the son had been given, claiming the elder man stole tools, kicked down a door and was suicidal.
Authorities said it was too early to talk about a motive in the case, but the dispute between the father and son was well-documented in court records.
“Essentially, what we’ve got here is not an act of terrorism,” said Scott Sweetow, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “It is a depraved individual, by all accounts, who decided to launch what ended up being a suicide attack.”
Police were called Friday morning to a disturbance at the firm of McCamy, Phillips, Tuggle & Fordham in Dalton, 26 miles southeast of Chattanooga, Tenn. An officer saw a man get out of a sport utility vehicle and run behind the building. The explosion followed.
Authorities think Cantrell threw the explosive through a front window or door. As of late Friday, they hadn’t identified the nature of the explosive.
Inside the SUV, authorities found cylinders of natural gas, propane gas and gasoline, which they carefully removed before towing the vehicle late Friday.
Two of the injured were treated at a hospital and released, and one was admitted. A fourth, attorney Jim Phillips, was taken to a burn center in Augusta. Hospital spokeswoman Anne Cordeiro said he was in critical condition.
A block and a half from the blast site, bank executive Wayne Russell said he heard and felt the explosion.
“It sounded like a transformer that’s blown,” said Russell, 53, executive vice president of Omni National Bank. “We could actually feel a sort of rocking motion from the explosion.”
The firm housed the office for Samuel L. Sanders, who represented Lloyd Cantrell’s son in a bitter legal dispute that dated back at least two years. A police spokesman said he didn’t know whether Sanders was in the office at the time of the explosion.
Lloyd Cantrell’s attorney, David Blackburn, said Cantrell’s son, Bruce, filed a lawsuit seeking to block his father from the land, in part claiming that his dad carried a pistol with him and threatened to kill himself.
“He has repeatedly said that ‘The only thing that would keep me off the property is to be put in jail,'” according to a complaint filed by Bruce Cantrell’s attorney in 2006. Several attempts to reach Bruce Cantrell Friday were unsuccessful.
The case was set to go trial in August, but it was delayed.
“I know he got frustrated because it took so long,” Blackburn said of his client. He described the family as “abysmally dysfunctional.”
“He was a pretty nice old man,” Blackburn said of the father. “He was a little cantankerous at times, and I think he was really frustrated.”
Four miles from the explosion, investigators streamed in and out of the suspect’s house, which sits on a large wooded lot with a rusting tractor in front. The white house resembles a large garage with a small living area and a corrugated tin roof. A riding lawn mower and an old recreational vehicle were in the back.
Attorney Robert Smalley, a lawyer at the firm, left 15 to 20 minutes before the blast but turned back when he received phone calls about it.
“We’ll take today with our families and try to regroup,” he said “Our thoughts right now are with the injured and their families.”
Police cordoned off the block and shut down a post office near the law firm, which specializes in personal injury and wrongful death cases, according to its Web site.
Students at an elementary school across the street were evacuated to a nearby church.
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Bluestein reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Walter Putnam and Dorie Turner in Atlanta also contributed to this report.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
4 hurt in explosion at north Georgia law office
Date: 10/17/2008 1:43 PM
DALTON, Ga. (AP) _ An explosion at a small-town law firm in northern Georgia injured at least four people Friday, and authorities were seeking someone they believe may have been involved in the attack.
Witnesses said the blast around 10 a.m. blew out the windows at McCamy, Phillips, Tuggle & Fordham in Dalton, 26 miles southeast of Chattanooga, Tenn.
Police Lt. Bruce Frazier said the blast was caused by some type of explosive device. Investigators were looking into a person of interest in the case, but no one had been arrested, he said. He declined to provide more details.
Bomb squads were checking for sweeping the premises for other explosives, Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said.
Four people hurt in the explosion were in stable condition at Hamilton Medical Center, spokeswoman Emily Michael said. One of the four was being taken to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, spokeswoman Beth Frits said.
The eight-lawyer firm, founded in 1932, works out of a two-story, colonial-style house. Police cordoned off the block and shut down a post office near the law firm, which specializes in personal injury and wrongful death cases, according to its Web site. An elementary school across the street was locked down, though it wasn’t damaged.
State and federal investigators were assisting local authorities.
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On the Net: http://www.mccamylaw.com
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
DALTON, Ga. (AP) _ An explosion at a small-town law firm in northern Georgia injured at least four people Friday, and authorities were seeking someone they believe may have been involved in the attack.
Witnesses said the blast around 10 a.m. blew out the windows at McCamy, Phillips, Tuggle & Fordham in Dalton, 26 miles southeast of Chattanooga, Tenn.
Police Lt. Bruce Frazier said the blast was caused by some type of explosive device. Investigators were looking into a person of interest in the case, but no one had been arrested, he said. He declined to provide more details.
Bomb squads were checking for sweeping the premises for other explosives, Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said.
Four people hurt in the explosion were in stable condition at Hamilton Medical Center, spokeswoman Emily Michael said. One of the four was being taken to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, spokeswoman Beth Frits said.
The eight-lawyer firm, founded in 1932, works out of a two-story, colonial-style house. Police cordoned off the block and shut down a post office near the law firm, which specializes in personal injury and wrongful death cases, according to its Web site. An elementary school across the street was locked down, though it wasn’t damaged.
State and federal investigators were assisting local authorities.
___
On the Net: http://www.mccamylaw.com
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Judge rules in McMahon’s favor in hospital lawsuit
Date: 9/23/2008 7:55 AM
By ANTHONY McCARTNEY
AP Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Ed McMahon’s lawsuit against a hospital and doctors he claims failed to properly diagnose and repair his broken neck has passed a key legal hurdle.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled last week that McMahon’s lawsuit against Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and two physicians lays out adequate legal ground to pursue claims that include negligence, elder abuse, battery, fraud and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Attorneys for Cedars-Sinai had challenged the legal basis for six of the claims.
But Judge John P. Sook disagreed, and his ruling also allows McMahon to seek punitive damages.
McMahon, 85, filed suit in July and is seeking an unspecified amount for injuries he sustained after a fall last March at a Los Angeles socialite’s home.
According to his lawsuit, doctors at Cedars-Sinai failed to perform an X-ray and determine that he had a broken neck when he was brought into the emergency room. The suit also claims that a doctor at the hospital’s spinal-care center improperly performed two surgeries.
“The court’s ruling rejected the contention by Cedars-Sinai that it could not be responsible for the botched surgeries,” said McMahon’s attorney, William Stoner. “It was a very important day for Ed McMahon.”
A phone message for an attorney representing Cedars-Sinai left after business hours Monday was not returned.
Cedars-Sinai was given 20 days to reply further to the lawsuit.
Stoner said McMahon’s injuries contributed to his money woes, which include falling behind on mortgage payments and being sued for unpaid loans and by a New York attorney who represented his daughter in her divorce and claims he has not been paid.
“He was making a good living, and he was very active in the business,” Stoner said.
McMahon is seeking a jury trial; a date has not yet been set.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
By ANTHONY McCARTNEY
AP Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Ed McMahon’s lawsuit against a hospital and doctors he claims failed to properly diagnose and repair his broken neck has passed a key legal hurdle.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled last week that McMahon’s lawsuit against Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and two physicians lays out adequate legal ground to pursue claims that include negligence, elder abuse, battery, fraud and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Attorneys for Cedars-Sinai had challenged the legal basis for six of the claims.
But Judge John P. Sook disagreed, and his ruling also allows McMahon to seek punitive damages.
McMahon, 85, filed suit in July and is seeking an unspecified amount for injuries he sustained after a fall last March at a Los Angeles socialite’s home.
According to his lawsuit, doctors at Cedars-Sinai failed to perform an X-ray and determine that he had a broken neck when he was brought into the emergency room. The suit also claims that a doctor at the hospital’s spinal-care center improperly performed two surgeries.
“The court’s ruling rejected the contention by Cedars-Sinai that it could not be responsible for the botched surgeries,” said McMahon’s attorney, William Stoner. “It was a very important day for Ed McMahon.”
A phone message for an attorney representing Cedars-Sinai left after business hours Monday was not returned.
Cedars-Sinai was given 20 days to reply further to the lawsuit.
Stoner said McMahon’s injuries contributed to his money woes, which include falling behind on mortgage payments and being sued for unpaid loans and by a New York attorney who represented his daughter in her divorce and claims he has not been paid.
“He was making a good living, and he was very active in the business,” Stoner said.
McMahon is seeking a jury trial; a date has not yet been set.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.