Vegas Law Talk

Kevin Krall: You're listening to
special programming sponsored by

Stovall and Associates law firm.
The content of this program does

not reflect the views or
opinions of 91.5 Jas and more.

The University of Nevada Las
Vegas or the Board of Regents of

the Nevada System of Higher
Education.

Unknown: Las Vegas, this is
Laura center how butser your co

host of Vegas law talk. I'm
joined by my wonderful host, Mr.

Leslie Mark Stovall, Attorney at
Law.

Good morning. How you doing?

Doing great listeners, I'd like
you guys to know that today we

are going to be discussing
current legal affairs. And in

the last part of the show, we're
going to discuss how you can

come to an estate planning
seminar. If you're interested in

getting an estate plan set up,
which includes either getting a

will a trust, a power of
attorney,

Marisa, I was really interested
in prosecutions that are

occurring in Germany, Germany is
appears to me to be taking the

lead on prosecution of war
criminals coming out of Syria.

As you know, 1000s, hundreds of
1000s of Syrian refugees went

into Europe and a lot of them
ended up in Germany. The Germans

are using a theory called
universal jurisdiction to

prosecute these individuals for
war crimes. Last month, there

were news reports about a
intelligence officer in the

Syrian army that was prosecuted
and has been sentenced to life

in prison. He was involved in
more than 5000 persons deaths in

Syrian prisons, prior to his him
fleeing Syria for Germany. And

recently, there's published
reports of a Syrian physician, a

doctor, if you can believe it,
who was involved in the torture

of Syrians that were in custody
during the Civil War. When was

the Civil War? Well, is still
going on as far as I know, it

started when we pulled out of
Iraq, so I think I think it's

been going on for about 10 years
now. It's our Bashar is the

president of Syria, and he has
tortured and use chemical

weapons on his population. Why
would you do that? I don't think

he wants to give up power, and
the Russians have been

supporting his regime. But
what's interesting to me is that

European countries France, for
example, in Germany are

prosecuting these individuals
that were involved in

suppression and torture of
Syrians in Europe, and they're

using a theory called universal
jurisdiction. Have you ever

heard of it? I have not. What
universal jurisdiction is this

idea that a national court can
prosecute individuals for

serious crimes against
international laws, such as

crimes against humanity or war
crimes or genocide or torture?

Now, the United States hasn't
universal jurisdiction. And in

fact, it appears that the United
States criminal code would not

allow for use of such a theory
because of the way it's

structured. In the United
States. What has been used as

the Alien Tort Statute? Well,
this is a it's been around a

long time. And what it does is
it allows for non residents, non

US resident aliens to come in
who are in the United States, if

they've been injured outside of
the country, by a non US

citizen, they can bring a an
action here in the United

States, where the United States
has used the statute for

prosecution of foreign persons
who have engaged in these kinds

of acts. That statute requires
the defendant to be in the

United States that they've acted
under color of law of their

country, even corporations can
be prosecuted under this

statute. And it's been used to
prosecute people for torture,

extrajudicial killings, and
things like that here in the

United States. I just think it's
really interesting that

countries are European countries
are using this prosecute war

crimes and and are currently
being very active in that issue.

Have you seen anything recently
that's been of interest to you?

I

have the lawsuits and
settlements regarding the sexual

assault of students.

You know, University of Michigan
has just entered into a $490

million settlement involving a
doctor, and this doctor had been

employed by the University of
Michigan for over 30 years.

He died recently though, well,
in 2008, right. Yeah. What was

his name?

Well, his name was Robert
Anderson, and he was a physician

and he really dealt with a lot
of athletes at the University of

Michigan.

So he was like a Larry Nasser,

kind of like a Larry Nasser, you
know,

settled that lawsuit against the
Olympics for like 300 and

something like 380 million.

Yeah, it was a ton of money. And
you know, he was allowed and had

access to students for 2030
years. Apparently he was also

involved. NASA was involved in
the Olympics. Isn't he the guy

that abused the gymnast?

Yes. And there was a local
attorney. She was local. She

moved away to Texas. But she was
a plaintiff in that lawsuit. She

was in, in the Olympics, a
gymnast. And she announced the

settlement and that she was a
defendant. So it was it's not

confidential.

Well, I gotta tell you, it's
kind of shocking. One of the

things that seems to stand out
to me, or the does stand out to

me about all these cases is
people within universities were

aware this was going on in the
Nasser case. The other case was

the Sandusky case at Penn State
is sick. And so you have these

administrators or other people
within the university that are

well aware of what's going on
and they don't report it and

they allow it to continue on.
You know, the

northeast part of the reason why
it settled for so much money,

right? Well,

that in the number of victims,
this guy Anderson, it's reported

that there was over 1000
individuals who accused Dr.

Anderson of sexual abuse at the
University of Michigan, if you

can believe you would think that
that's one institution that

would be very progressive and
its policies and reporting. Even

the coach of the shum bachler,
who was the coach of the

football team, his son was
sexually assaulted by Dr.

Anderson when he was a student.
When you talk about the other

settlements, 2013, Penn State
paid nearly 60 million for the

couple dozen victims of Jerry
Sandusky, Michigan State paid

$500 million in 202,018, the
victims of Dr. Nasser

the statutes changed on
reporting sexual abuse and being

able to sue or bring charges
against somebody criminally

well, they

have all over the country. For
example, Nevada, and this has

been some time ago in 1990, the
Supreme Court said there was no

statute of limitations on child
sexual assault claims, if the

assault occurred when the
individual was a minor.

Criminal. No, that's a civil
case. And here in Nevada, the

statutes have been the criminal
statutes for sexual assault have

been changed. So there's a 20
year statute of limitations on

adults, if you are sexually
assaulted, and you report the

sexual assault to the police,
that the statute of limitations

is told the individual can be
prosecuted at any time. And if

the sexual assault involves a
minor, or, or a sex trafficking

of a minor, the statute of
limitations is age 36 of the

victim.

Now sexual assault is a pretty
broad term. That doesn't just

mean rate, right? Station

molestation, improper touching
of a person.

So just means has to be a
contact me.

That's right. A sexual contact
with a with an individual.

Okay. And but if it was
something that didn't involve a

contact, that would not be
sexual?

Well, no, it in those kinds of
cases where you have like a

hostile work environment or
somebody who is spouses

themselves? Well, exposure is a
little bit different than

exposure, I think may fall
under, it's not a sexual

assault, it's lewdness. And
depending on what the

consequences of lewd act are, I
think they're more serious

consequences to that than simply
exposing yourself. It's it can

be a very serious crime.
Interestingly enough, the

University of North Carolina
School of Arts which has been

around since the 60s, is a
premier school for arts

including dance and paint and
things like that. They have just

been named a defendant, as a
result of it looks to me like

mostly dancers that were
involved in this for sexual

abuse of students. And this goes
back for many years. In this

lawsuit, it talks about another
29 defendants, eight of whom

were recruited are accused of
actually sexually abusing

students. And then 19 former
administrators who are named

defendants who allowed this
cultural exploitation to exist,

and that case,

didn't they just settled the Boy
Scouts lawsuit and they're still

looking for victims

Boy Scout lawsuit? I think
they've set up a fund for

victims. It's just amazing to me
that individuals who the sexual

predators are allowed to be in
an environment where people

don't report

MTech sounds like people do
report and then it's being

ignored.

Well, that sure seems to be the
situation, these university

cases.

Yeah. And you've, you've done
quite an number of cases where

you've represented victims of
sexual abuse and assault, right?

I have, and what types of what
types of evidence is is used to

prove those kinds of cases? It
just like a he said, she said,

or you have to have like emails
or

will often you either it's a
combination of evidence, you can

have physical evidence where you
have a violent sexual assault on

an individual. And, in fact, the
hospitals are set up in Metro

setup, or local police
department to take victims who

report and do a physical
examination. Most hospitals have

certified nurses who do sexual
assault.

But isn't there like a backlog
on processing those

four genetic material? There is
a delay, but the physical

examination there is not the
nurses available, she has the

equipment necessary to do the
examination and photograph. They

also do diagrams of the

so what if somebody sexually
assaulted and they don't know,

the perpetrator? Would they
still be able to sue somebody,

there's two things that a victim
of sexual assault should do.

First thing is they need to
report it to the police, they

need to go to the hospital and
have a sexual assault done. If

they were raped, or if there was
physical penetration. The second

thing is they should contact a
lawyer because you have criminal

prosecutions which are handled
through the police department.

And then you have civil claim
related to the sexual assault

the civil claims, usually our
claims against the individual

and against the facility in
which the sexual assault

occurred.

So like if it was, like a school
or like a place as opposed to

somebody's house, like, correct.
Okay. So if they needed to talk

to a lawyer, they could talk to
you about this, the listeners,

right?

Sure. And it's interesting. What
we really look at is,

particularly in public events,
in hotels and casinos or in

shopping,

like Yeah, like in there leaving
the grocery store late at night?

That's exactly right. It's
whether or not there was

adequate security, what the
security situation was, what

noticed that the owner have with
regards to crimes against

persons,

if it's out of venue, then there
needs to be adequate security.

And if there's not, then there
could be criminal liability and

civil where they could sue,
right?

That's right. Exactly. Right.
Okay.

And if somebody wanted to talk
to you about that, they could go

to the website,

contact the office, and

it's 702-258-3034. That's where
we're at less stovall.com.

Unfortunately, that happens.
Oftentimes, victims of sexual

assault really don't know what
to do. And, again, victims

should report immediately to the
police and have an examination

done. And secondly, I really
recommend that a person who has

been a victim contact a civil

lawyer to determine the personal
injury lawyer, not just several

personal injury lawyer who can
give them advice with regards to

how they can recover for their
damages, civilly, let's recover

money to help them out. I was
also interested recently in self

autonomous vehicles, self
driving vehicles, right? That's

right, self driving vehicles.
And there was a newspaper,

excuse me a news article about a
engineer, Dan O'Dowd, I think is

his name. And he runs the Green
Hill software company. And they

supply software for a lot of
applications, like aeroplanes,

and space craft and things like
that. Military applications. And

he was very, he came out on it
with an ad criticizing Tesla in

particular. And he was saying
that self driving vehicles, the

software that they're using, is
really a Microsoft based

software that's just been
changed to us and vehicles. So

self driving, can they not stop
at a red light? Well, they're

supposed to, they're supposed
to, doesn't the driver have to

press the brake?

No, I think these autonomous
driving systems, you hit a

button and it's supposed to
drive and

Okay, well, there was a guy who
was charged with manslaughter

for running the light on self
driving, but you would think if

you see the lights red, and
you're on the self driving mode,

you would slam on the brakes.

You're seeing the advertisements
where they have people singing

and clapping their hands and
doing other things reading. Los

Angeles Times just reported a
auto accident where two people

were killed. They're driving
along and a Tesla went through

the intersection on autopilot.
and hit these people and killed

them. The driver of that vehicle
who was using the autopilot was

charged with manslaughter. And
this is the according the LA

Times the first case in the
United States where a person

using autopilot in a car self
driving feature has been charged

with felony manslaughter. I
don't know. It seems to me if

you're going to use autopilot in
a car, you want to keep your eye

on stuff. But I suspect a lot of
people would say, well, it's

autopilot. They told me I can do
this and get out a book and

start reading or have lunch or
talk to their family or

something like that. I don't
know. Well, this fella Dowd says

the problem. This is that Don
project, he said that, in his

study of the software that's
being used in these cars like

Tesla, is that there's a
malfunction eight every eight

minutes, every 36 minutes.
There's some sort of unforced

error that occurs within the
software sounds like a lawsuit

to Tesla, you're right, Larissa,
these car manufacturers that are

using or installing and
advertising automatic autopilot

or autonomous driving. They do
have liability if there's not a

waiver in the in the contract
that a court might court might

find to be enforceable. Excuse
me. One other thing that I

thought was interesting that I
saw in the news I thought you

might be interested in was this
removal of Theodore Roosevelt's

statute at the Museum of
American

it's a mismatch of Natural
History. Yeah.

This, this statute shows
Theodore Roosevelt on a horse.

And he's really buffed out, you
know, Theodore Roosevelt was

kind of a chunky guy. He wasn't
this big, giant guy. And walking

next to his horse is a Indian
with with a headgear on, on one

side of him, and on the other
side is a African American. And

it really is, yeah, that's

pretty faux pa now. Yeah.

And they're removing it, the
board of the museum, voted

several years ago to remove it,
because it's very offensive.

It's racist, and also a symbol
of colonialism.

So since they removed it, are
they going to sell it? No, it's

gonna go to the presidential
library for Theodore Roosevelt.

And that's probably an
appropriate place for it. It's

part of his history and it was
made for to celebrate Theodore

Roosevelt's presidency, however
misguided it might have been.

Now I understand what this a
year are doing. The state

planning seminars, tell me about
the seminars that you're going

to be putting on, I'm going

to be putting on estate planning
seminars that are open to the

public. The only thing that's
required is registration on my

website, which is southwest
estate planning.com. The

seminars will be the third
Wednesday and Thursday of every

month. So this will be starting
in February. And I'm going to be

running them monthly in the
seminars, the audience will

learn about trusts wills, estate
planning in general, we will

discuss life insurance policies,
and we will discuss a family

wealth planning sessions. And I
think that this topic is finally

getting the attention that it
deserves. Due to the pandemic

more and more people are aware
of their mortality and taking

appropriate steps to protect
their loved ones, their family

and their legacy. So in in these
seminars, we will be talking

about how to keep your family
out of court and conflict,

meaning creating proper state
planning documents that family

members cannot contest once a
person is incapacitated or they

have passed away. And this is
important because a lot of

people are unaware of the
probate process, which is the

process that occurs when a
person dies to transfer the

assets of a living person or
excuse me, of a deceased person

to living beneficiaries. And
also, people are unaware of the

guardianship process. If a loved
one or family member becomes

incapacitated and does not die,
but they're unable to manage

their financial and medical
affairs. I've been working in

these areas of law for several
years. And I think that it's a

topic that deserves a lot of
attention from the public

because it will touch most
people's lives. So these

seminars are purely educational.
And as I mentioned, the only

thing required is registration.
There will be light hors

d'oeuvres and a wine tasting
Going along with an estate

planning seminar, and if any of
the listeners are interested in

going they just need to register
at Southwest estate

planning.com. So registration at
Southwest estate planning.com

under the in person events tab.
I hope to see everybody there

and I look forward to helping
everybody that's listening.

Marisa, you've had quite a lot
of experience in handling

probate and estate matters, have
you not?

I have I have represented
celebrity estates, BB King

estate, and I've also
represented celebrities in

estate planning. So that is my
expertise. It's what I love. I

love helping with the planning
and in giving people that peace

of mind and security that their
affairs will be handled in the

event they can't handle them
themselves. And I love assisting

people with the complicated and
perplexing probate process.

Well before we sign off Larissa,
did you have fun today?

I did. Well, I

did too. It's always nice to sit
down and spend a little bit of

time talking about current
affairs with you.

Kevin Krall: You've been
listening to special programming

sponsored by Stovall and
Associates law firm. The content

of this program did not reflect
the views or opinions of 91.5

Jazz and more, the University of
Nevada Las Vegas or the Board of

Regents of the Nevada System of
Higher Education.