$122.5M Award Upheld in Imprisoned Arkansas Doctor’s Bombing Case

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A former Arkansas doctor has lost his appeal to the Arkansas Supreme Court of a $122.5 million jury award stemming from case that encompasses a suspended license to practice medicine, overprescribing of pain medications, criminal assault charges and one count of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction in order to injure a person or property.

Randeep Mann is now serving a life sentence in federal prison after being found guilty on criminal charges connected to the bombing in 2009 at the West Memphis home of Dr. Trent Pierce, in which Dr. Pierce was severely injured and almost killed.

Prosecutors alleged at the criminal trial that Mann either planted or caused to be planted an explosive in a spare tire that was subsequently placed against Pierce’s car, which was parked outside his home. The device, thought to be a grenade, was triggered to go off when the tire was moved, which was what happened on the morning of Feb. 4, 2009, when Pierce tried to move the tire away from his vehicle.

Pierce was at the time chairman of the Arkansas State Medical Board. He was also head of the medical board in 2003 and 2006 when the board sanctioned Mann and then suspended his medical license for violations of the state medical practices law.

Mann, who owned a pain clinic in Russelville, had been accused of overprescribing pain medications to numerous patients, some of whom died. The Associated Press has reported that Mann lost multiple lawsuits brought against him by families of those who died and was ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result.

In the criminal case against Mann, prosecutors theorized that Pierce was targeted because of his position as head of the medical board that sanctioned Mann.

During an investigation by the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) Mann revealed “that he owned a sizable collection of weapons, at least one of which was observed to be equipped with a grenade launcher. After the bombing, city workers discovered ninety-eight grenades buried approximately 875 feet from Mann’s residence,” Associate Supreme Court Justice Robin F. Wynne wrote in Court’s Dec. 1 slip opinion.

Mann was found guilty and sentenced in 2011 to life imprisonment on the criminal charges, and ordered to pay more than $1 million in restitution.

The Civil Award

Dr. Pierce and Melissa Pierce in 2010 had filed a separate, civil complaint against Mann and three “John Doe” defendants. The Pierces alleged that as a result of the explosion, they were entitled “compensatory damages for injuries to Dr. Pierce and loss of consortium by Melissa Pierce.”

In December 2013, the Crittenden County Circuit Court granted the Pierces’ motion for partial summary judgment against Mann on the issue of liability. After a subsequent jury trial on the damages, Dr. Pierce was awarded $12.5 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages. Melissa Pierce was awarded $5 million in compensatory damages for loss of consortium and $5 million in punitive damages, bringing the total judgement against Mann to $122.5 million.

In his appeal to the Supreme Court, Mann alleged that in the trial that awarded damages to the Pierces, the circuit court was wrong in applying “offensive collateral estoppel” in the civil case, which prevented Mann from introducing evidence that he said would prove he wasn’t responsible for the explosion.

Offensive collateral estoppel, according to the Arkansas Supreme Court, “bars the relitigation of issues of law or fact actually litigated by the parties in the first suit, provided that the party against whom the earlier decision is being asserted had a full and fair opportunity to litigate the issue in question and that issue was essential to the judgment.”

The Court acknowledged that aside from murder, offensive collateral estoppel to date “has not been applied to a conviction for any other kind of criminal offense.” However, the Court’s opinion states, “there is no reason why it cannot be so applied.”

The justices also found that Mann had ample opportunity during his criminal trial to prove he wasn’t responsible for the explosion, and that he offered no compelling argument as to why offensive collateral estoppel should not have been applied in this case.

With its decision, the Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed the circuit court’s order of partial summary judgment, as well as the $122.5 million monetary judgment against Mann.

It’s unclear how the judgment will be paid. The AP reported that a case is pending in federal court over the fate of 94 firearms owned by Mann. Robert Cearley, Pierce’s attorney, said if they are sold the gunds could generate $1.5 million to $2 million to apply to the judgment, according to the AP.

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