Dignity at the End Of Life: From Suffering to Hope

2969 Cahill Main, Fitchburg, WI  53711

This full-day conference boasts a line-up of exceptional speakers covering a wide range of end-of-life topics.

Things have changed dramatically within our health care. To protect yourself and your loved ones, you need to be informed. The information you receive at this conference may be life-saving and it will certainly be life-affirming.

Those that attend will hear talks on perinatal hospice, grief, compassion, hope, patient advocacy and new pathways to care by expert speakers.

Please join us and help spread the word.

Speakers

Julie Grimstad, LPN
Founder & Executive Director of Life is Worth Living
PATIENT ADVOCATES (AND BEFRIENDERS) ARE DESPERATELY NEEDED
Julie is executive director of Life is Worth Living, Inc., past chair of Pro-life Healthcare Alliance and advisor to Human Life Alliance. She is a founder and coordinator of St. John’s Befrienders, a ministry to nursing home residents and homebound elderly. A nationally-known speaker and writer, Julie addresses all aspects of medical decision-making and patient advocacy. She has served as a volunteer patient advocate for over 30 years and was director of the Center for the Rights of the Terminally Ill, Inc. Julie is a contributing writer and editor to Imposed Death: Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, Informed: A guide for critical medical decisions, and the PHA Monthly e-newsletter. Her articles have been published in numerous Catholic and pro-life publications as well as elsewhere.

Byron C. Calhoun, MD, FACOG, FACS, FASAM, MBA
Professor & Vice-Chair, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, West Virginia University, Charleston, WV
PERINATAL HOSPICE: WHAT IT MEANS TO DO NO HARM-MEDICAL ETHICS AND ANOMALOUS PREGNANCIES
Dr. Byron C. Calhoun, MD, FACOG, FACS, FASAM, MBA is a Distinguished Graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and graduated from the University of Iowa Medical School with an MD. Dr. Calhoun completed his residency in OB/GYN at the University of Missouri-Columbia and finished a Fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine at the Oregon Health Sciences University. Dr. Calhoun is a diplomate of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology with board certification in general Obstetrics and Gynecology and in the sub-specialty of Maternal-Fetal Medicine. He is also board certified in Addictions Medicine. He has authored 85 peer review articles in the obstetric and gynecologic literature, presented over 100 scientific papers, and has published numerous articles on medical aspects of obstetrics and gynecology. Dr. Calhoun serves as Professor and Vice-Chair in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at West Virginia University-Charleston. Dr. Calhoun and his wife, Kathryn, have five children and 2 lovely granddaughters.

Mark Davis Pickup
Pro-Life Speaker
JOURNAL THROUGH GRIEF OF DISEASE TOWARD MEANING: A CASE STUDY
Mark Pickup’s life and testimony speak volumes about the profound meaning that can be found in human suffering and limitation, through relationship with Jesus Christ. Mark, who has advanced multiple sclerosis and is wheelchair dependent, will share the story of his journey from despair to hope as he found meaning through his Christian faith. He reminds us that everyone suffering needs the support of a significant community to overcome their fears of pain and powerlessness.

Ramón Luzárraga, PhD
Assistant Professor of Theology and Division Chair of Undergraduate Studies at Benedictine University in Mesa, Arizona
COMPASSION AS ACCOMPANIMENT WITH THOSE WHO SUFFER: A ROMAN CATHOLIC UNDERSTANDING OF SUFFERING
Ramón Luzárraga is Assistant Professor of Theology and Division Chair of Undergraduate Studies at Benedictine University in Mesa, Arizona. He holds a Master of Arts in Religion from Yale Divinity School, and a PhD in systematic theology and ethics from Marquette University. He is a member of the editorial board of The Journal of Moral Theology, the only Roman Catholic journal devoted to that subject. He also convened the moral theology group for the Catholic Theological Society of America, the Latino ethics group in the Society of Christian Ethics, a member of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States. He has written articles for references works and book reviews concerning moral and systematic theology.

Cristen Krebs, DNP, ANP-BC
Founder and Executive Director of Catholic Hospice Pittsburgh
HOSPICE CARE IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Cristen is the founder and executive director Catholic Hospice, graduated from Robert Morris University’s Doctor of Nursing Practice Program and has twenty-five years of end-of-life care experience. After years in the field of oncology and hospice nursing, she became disheartened with the trend of hospices becoming more business oriented than patient focused. Dr. Krebs began the first faith-based, nonprofit hospice program and first free-standing hospice serving residence in southwest Pennsylvania. Dr. Krebs embraces the prolife health care philosophy and spearheads education for both health care professionals and health care consumers.

Nan & Edward Weber
Founders of Holy Family Ministry Center and Loreto on the Plains
FINDING NEW PATHWAYS TO CARE FOR THE ELDERLY, THE SICK AND TERMINALLY ILL (A STORY OF FAITH IN ACTION – WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE)
Ed and Nan are founders of Loreto on the Plains Personal Care Home (an outreach of the Holy Family Ministry Center) whose mission is to care for those who are sick and terminally ill through respite care, transitional care and end-of-life care. They also educate the laity with the truth about end of life issues. Ed and Nan founded the Holy Family Ministry Center “for the Renewal and the Restoration of the family and Catholic Family Life through the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy.”
Ed and Nan are both spiritual directors and Secular Franciscans. They have experience in Marriage Encounter, inner healing prayer and Rachael’s Vineyard (a post-abortion healing retreat and prison ministry).
Nan has a BA in Education, taught for four years and homschooled for 13 years before earning her LVN (Licensed Vocational Nurse) at the age of 65. Ed has a BS in Engineering and is a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant). Ed and Nan have ten daughters, 45 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

 

Conference Schedule

 

8:30 a.m.	Registration
9 a.m.	Welcome – Dr. Cynthia Jones-Nosacek, MD
9:15 a.m.	Ramón Luzárraga, PhD – Compassion as Accompaniment with Those who Suffer: a Roman Catholic Understanding of Suffering
10 a.m.	Julie Grimstad, LPN – Patient Advocates (and Befirenders) are Desperately Needed
10:45 a.m.	Break
11 a.m.	Mark Davis Pickup – Journal Through Grief of Disease Toward Meaning: A Case Study
11:45 a.m.	Q and A
12:15 p.m.	Lunch
1 p.m.	Nan & Edward Weber – Finding New Pathways to Care For the Elderly, the Sick and Terminally Ill
2 p.m.	Cristen Krebs, DNP, ANP-BC – Hospice Care in the 21st Century
2:45 p.m.	Break
3 p.m.	Dr. Byron Calhoun, MD, FACOG, FACS, FASAM, MBA – Perinatal Hospice: What it Means to Do No Harm-Medical Ethics and Anomalous Pregnancies
3:45 p.m.	Panel
4:30 p.m.	Closing

Register online at:
https://www.humanlife.org/product/dignity-life/

SPONSORED BY

Pro-life Healthcare Alliance (a program of Human Life Alliance) & Wisconsin Catholic Medical Guilds

 
Source:
Dignity at the End Of Life: From Suffering to Hope

EM woman sues accusers in elderly exploitation case

An East Moline woman accused of elderly exploitation in 2015 is suing her accusers for malicious prosecution.

Alice M. Hipes, 60, filed the lawsuit in Rock Island County Circuit Court against Alternatives for the Older Adult Inc., one of its employees and East Moline police officer Darren Gault.

Ms. Hipes was arrested in February 2015 and charged in Rock Island County with financial exploitation of an elderly person. The arrest stemmed from an East Moline Police Department investigation based off a tip received by Alternatives for the Older Adult.

Ms. Hipes claims Alternatives for the Older Adult employee Katie Judge "falsely alleged" to East Moline police that Ms. Hipes had "financially exploited more than $70,000 from Donald Kinchner," whom Ms. Hipes served as a caregiver for about ten years, according to the lawsuit.

Further investigation reduced the alleged exploited sum to $47,300, according to the lawsuit.

According to Dispatch•Argus archives, Ms. Judge told police she visited the alleged victim, a 92-year-old man, several times and that he smelled of urine and lived in "substandard" conditions, which included a limited supply of expired food.

Ms. Hipes had been hired to run errands and buy groceries for the man. In exchange, she received $800 per month, plus "whatever money" she needed for personal use, according to East Moline police.

Rock Island County prosecutors dropped charges against Ms. Hipes on April 8, 2016, after a judge blocked the use of a message recorded by Mr. Kinchner before his May 2015 death.

Prosecutors were not allowed to use the recorded message in a trial because it would have violated the defendant's right to cross examine all witnesses, according to the ruling.

Ms. Hipes' attorney told the Dispatch•Argus that no forensic accounting was done to investigate his client's case. He said after the investigator learned Mr. Kinchner paid his bills primarily in cash, the investigator subpoenaed bills and other financial statements, which accounted for the "vast majority" of the money alleged to be missing.

The lawsuit describes the harm Ms. Hipes suffered because of the case, saying she "sustained substantial damages to her reputation, severe emotional and mental distress" and "lost income from employment as a caregiver." Additionally, she was incarcerated in Rock Island County Jail, had her arrest publicized in local news outlets and was deprived of continuing her relationship with Mr. Kinchner.

Ms. Hipes is requesting damages in excess of $100,000.

Alternatives for the Older Adult was unable to comment on the litigation. East Moline Police Department said it does not agree with the allegations and will let the case play out in court.

Full Article & Source:
EM woman sues accusers in elderly exploitation case

Get affairs in order to avoid guardianship, conservatorship

I’ve received questions asking for recommendations to minimize the possibility of a court-supervised guardianship and conservatorship proceeding.

When an individual becomes incapacitated, the courts might become involved to name a “guardian” to make health care decisions and a “conservator” to make financial decisions. This can be expensive and result in an invasion of privacy.

A properly drafted and maintained estate plan can help minimize the likelihood that a proceeding will be necessary if a person were to become mentally incapacitated. Here are some general recommendations to discuss with your own estate planning attorney.

• Make sure your trust is funded.

Even though a trust is not necessary for everyone, trusts generally provide protection against the possibility of a court-supervised conservatorship proceeding down the road. The trust agreement should provide clear authorization for a trustee to make financial decisions and administer assets in the event of a grantor’s incapacity.

The trust agreement only pertains to assets that are titled in the name of the trust. If you have a trust, please make sure that it is properly “funded.” In other words, deeds should be recorded transferring real estate into the name of the trust, and nonqualified (meaning nonretirement) accounts should generally be transferred into the name of the trust.

• Update your statutory power of attorney every three years.

Even if you have a trust, and your assets are properly titled in the name of the trust, an updated statutory power of attorney is still essential. Qualified retirement accounts (such as IRAs) cannot be “owned” by your trust. Your designated financial agent would need to use a statutory power of attorney to make decisions pertaining to your qualified retirement account such as changing the investment strategy, authorizing a withdrawal, etc.

If you do not have a trust, it is essential that you update your statutory power of attorney every three years.

• Provide your statutory power of attorney to financial institutions and advisers.

Consider providing your statutory power of attorney to each financial institution that you work with, as well as to your other trusted advisers (CPA, financial adviser, etc.).

Verify that each institution accepts the form you provide, and notes it in their records. Some institutions have their own version of a power of attorney. Discuss with your attorney how to coordinate the institution’s document with your estate plan.

• Carefully select your financial and health care agents.

Does the person you named as your health care or financial agent know your wishes? Does he have the skills and the time available to properly serve as your agent?

Do not name a child as an agent only because he is the oldest child. Verify the child has the appropriate characteristics to serve as agent.

• Trust your instincts; be clear about your concerns.

Do you have a sense that someone may cause a problem in the event of your incapacity (or death)?

Even if you feel it is a remote possibility, please talk to your attorney about it. Your estate planning documents can be useful tools to speak for you, if the time comes when you cannot speak for yourself.

• Update your HIPAA release.

Update your HIPAA release to specifically list by name those individuals you give permission to, so that they can have access to your private medical information.

• Meet regularly with your advisers (attorney, CPA, financial adviser, etc.).

Keep your advisers updated about your situation. Do your advisers know your wishes and your concerns? Is a beneficiary a spendthrift or particularly litigious?

Have you reviewed your current assets (including titling and beneficiary designations) with your advisers? Have you discussed concerns regarding any disagreements or disputes in your family?

One of the most important steps you can take to prevent an unwanted guardianship and conservatorship is to keep your advisers informed.

Full Article & Source:
Get affairs in order to avoid guardianship, conservatorship

Sikeston woman fights to get mother out of a guardianship

KFVS12 News & Weather Cape Girardeau, Carbondale, Poplar Bluff

SIKESTON, MO (KFVS) - The daughter of a Sikeston, Missouri woman who is fighting to get her mom out of a guardianship is taking her battle to Jefferson City.

Teala Mainzer testified on Wednesday, February 1 before a Senate Committee on behalf of Senate Bill 104.

Sponsored by Cape Girardeau Republican and Missouri Sen. Wayne Wallingford, the measure would require the court to prove that a spouse or family member is not able to care for that loved one before placing them with a third party like a public administrator.

Mainzer's been fighting to bring her mom home for nearly three years.

"My desire is to bring her back home to her family, where she wants to be," Mainzer said. "She never wanted to be in a nursing home. I mean, she wouldn't want to be under the care of a stranger. She wants to be around her children. She's happy when her kids are around."

Missouri Sen. Wallingford says he's encouraged the measure will be voted out of committee in the next couple of weeks.

Full Article & Source:
Sikeston woman fights to get mother out of a guardianship

Scams Targeting Older Adults on the Rise: Report

Scam artists target all types of people: men, women, young people and senior citizens. A new report from the Senate Aging Committee zeroes in on the top scams victimizing our parents and grandparents.

Number one on the list: IRS impersonations.

That was followed by sweepstakes scams, robocalls, computer scams, financial abuse, grandparent scams, romance scams, government grant scams, check fraud and identity theft.

In 2016, the most scam reports came from Maine with 800 reports.

Texas had 271 reports.

The Senate Aging Committee says knowing about the reports is key to fighting these scams. That's why they have a "fraud hotline." More than 2,200 calls were made last year.

If you think you are a victim of fraud, report it to the hotline at 1-855-303-9470. They can offer tips on how to avoid becoming a victim.

Full Article & Source:
Scams Targeting Older Adults on the Rise: Report

Disability advocates threaten to sue Texas over special education cap

AUSTIN -- Disability advocates on Monday threatened to sue the Texas Education Agency unless the state permanently ends its special education enrollment benchmark within the next month.

The advocates said immediate action was necessary because of the "devastating harm" caused by the benchmark.

The state already has suspended and pledged to eventually eliminate the decade-old benchmark, which punished school districts for giving special education services to more than 8.5 percent of students. But the state has angered advocates by not saying when it will permanently end the policy.

"The time for action to protect and support Texas's children with disabilities is now," the advocates from the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities and Disability Rights Texas wrote in a letter to the Texas Education Agency and Commissioner Mike Morath.

Asked to comment on the letter, agency spokesman Gene Acuña said that officials were already working to eliminate the 8.5 percent metric. Changes to the policy should be proposed in the spring, he said.

"As always, we continue to seek input from stakeholders during this process," Acuña said.

The Texas Education Agency has denied that any child has been harmed by the benchmark

Page 1 of Ltr to Honorable Mike Morath Commissioner Texas Education Agency 1 30 17

DocumentCloud

Contributed to DocumentCloud by Houston Chronicle of Houston Chronicle • View document

The threat adds a new dimension to the debate over the benchmark, which already is a topic in the state Legislature and the subject of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education.

Legal action also could open the door to an effort to obtain compensation for the tens of thousands of students with disabilities who have been denied services due to the benchmark. Federal law requires schools to serve all eligible students with disabilities.

The four-page letter cited a 2016 Houston Chronicle investigation that revealed the policy and the damage it caused.

The Chronicle found that officials arbitrarily chose the 8.5 percent target while facing a $1.1 billion state budget cut and did not consult lawmakers, the federal government or any research.

Nationwide, about 13 percent of students receive some type of special education services such as tutoring, counseling or therapy -- a percentage that has not significantly changed for years.

In Texas, after the benchmark took effect, the percentage dropped from near the national average down to exactly 8.5 percent. That is the lowest rate in the United States, by far.

More than 100 current and former school employees admitted to the Chronicle that they delayed or denied services to students with disabilities due to the benchmark.

"The children and families of Texas deserve, need, and are legally entitled to better," the advocates wrote in their letter.

The letter also outlined the group's legal theory.

First, the advocates said, the benchmark was inappropriate because states are allowed to monitor school districts "only as necessary to ensure compliance with federal law." Moreover, they argued, the benchmark actively violated the law "because it directs, incentivizes, and has caused school districts to deny enrollment in special education programs to eligible students."

The advocates said they would not file the lawsuit if Morath and the agency counter-sign their letter and initiate the process of permanently ending the benchmark within 30 days.

"We genuinely hope and believe such a lawsuit is unnecessary given our joint interest in making sure the children with disabilities of Texas get the support and services they are legally entitled to receive," the advocates wrote.

Full Article & Source:
Disability advocates threaten to sue Texas over special education cap

Questions Surround Trip Taken by Judge, Lawyers, Women

In wake of Leigh Terry’s death, Judge Casey Moreland defends conduct in and out of court 

by Steve Cavendish & Walter Roche

By the time Metro police showed up at The Stahlman building on May 25, 2016, one of the building custodians had already been in Unit 907 to check out the smell. A complaint from a next-door neighbor about a strong odor led him inside.

What he found was the body of Leigh Terry, 34, dead from a gunshot wound to her right temple. Police would later conclude that she died May 5, based on when she was last seen as well as her cellphone records. They also reasoned, based on her internet search history, which included details about the death of Marilyn Monroe, that Terry had committed suicide.

Leigh Terry

The weekend before, Terry and two other women had been the guests of some well-known (and married) members of the Nashville legal community at a condo on Dauphin Island, Ala.: Bryan Lewis, his law partner Larry Hayes and Judge Casey Moreland. Terry, though, was sent home early from the trip after arguing with Lewis. She returned to Nashville — to an apartment leased for her by Lewis, who police files say was listed as her boyfriend and emergency contact on The Stahlman’s paperwork — and would eventually be found dead on her bed. A gun, which Lewis lent to Terry for her protection, was in her right hand.

The death, the trip and threats Terry had made about exposing the relationship between the judge and Lewis are spelled out in great detail in an investigative report into the woman's death by the Metro police department.

The trip to the Gulf Coast did not get off to a good start. Terry, the daughter of prominent Nashville surgeon Richard Terry, at first refused to go, but changed her mind following a conversation with Moreland’s friend Natalie Amos. Terry, according to the police reports, had gotten into an argument with Lewis over a withdrawal she had made from his bank account.

Lewis told police, "Leigh acted crazy and cursed people on the trip."

According to the reports, Terry argued with Lewis on the flight down, and by the time they reached Alabama, he had decided she was going home. At dinner, according to Amos’ police interview, Terry said that “she would ruin [Lewis],” something she reiterated later in texts to him, when she claimed she would “expose their relationship, Natalie’s and Casey’s.”

Judge Casey Moreland

Moreland tells the Scene that he had met Terry only a few times. Moreland was not on the plane — he and Hayes drove separately and joined up with Lewis and the two women when the plane landed. (He would later return to Nashville on Lewis' private plane.)

Lewis and Amos — the latter a former DUI defendant who appeared in Moreland’s court in 2014 — took Terry to the Homewood Suites hotel in Mobile. Lewis paid for her room and threw several $100 bills to her, and he and Amos left, according to the report, which included a written account from the hotel clerk on duty when Terry was checked in.

Lewis would later tell police he did not believe Terry's threats were serious. He also described Terry in one interview with police as “a friend with benefits.”

Terry contacted a friend in Nashville, Brian Pesterfield, who flew down in his private plane, picked her up and brought her back to Nashville. Pesterfield told police that Terry said she “got out of a DUI by sleeping with Judge Casey Moreland.” The Scene could not independently verify whether the charge was true.

When asked if he had ever had sex with Terry, Moreland says, “I fully reject and deny any personal relationship with Leigh Terry whatsoever.”

There is some disagreement over the origin of the trip. Moreland tells the Scene that he thought it was supposed to be a fishing trip with Lewis and other guys and didn’t realize the women would be coming. Amos told police in an interview that she and Moreland “originally started the discussion about having the Alabama trip” and that she didn’t realize “other people were going to come on the trip.”

Moreland denies he and Amos were there together.

“It wasn’t a weekend for me and her. That might have been her plan or Leigh Terry’s plan,” Moreland tells the Scene. “I never had an inappropriate relationship with Natalie Amos.”

Attempts to reach Lewis and Amos were unsuccessful.

When asked about Terry’s and Amos’ appearances in his court, Moreland is adamant that he recused himself from their cases.

“Because I had even a minimal acquaintance with both Ms. Terry and Ms. Amos, when their cases were assigned to my court — as a result of a process that is entirely random — I took the proper step of recusal to ensure the matters were handled in other General Sessions Courts,” Moreland says to the Scene in a separate statement. “At no time did I intervene on their behalf during or after judgments were rendered by the appropriate courts. There are questions from the media about my stamp and signature on case dispositions following successful completion of ordered probation — in both cases my sign off [is] administrative in nature.”

On Terry’s DUI charges, the General Sessions Court disposition form is signed by Judge John Aaron Holt and marked with a stamp from Moreland. But on at least two of Amos’ disposition forms from May 14, 2014, the signature line carries Judge Moreland’s trademark capital “C” signoff.

This was not the first trip that Moreland and Lewis had taken — the pair went to Costa Rica together in 2013, according to images on Moreland’s Facebook page. But it’s their relationship in and out of the courtroom that has drawn scrutiny.

Lewis is scheduled for a three-day hearing beginning Feb. 13 before the state Board of Professional Responsibility on charges that he improperly sought and got Moreland's assistance in gaining the early release of developer David Chase from a mandatory 12-hour hold. Chase had been arrested on suspicion of domestic violence.

The official complaint charges that Lewis attempted to influence a judge by improper means, had an ex parte contact with the judge and assisted the judge in the violation of the code of judicial conduct. The complaint notes that Moreland was publicly reprimanded for his actions in releasing Chase before the mandatory 12-hour hold.

The Metro Nashville Police Department would not confirm or deny whether they had forwarded Terry’s allegation to the TBI, FBI or the Board of Judicial Conduct. In similar cases, MNPD spokesman Don Aaron says, the department has shared information from investigations with other agencies. He also says the department never directly asked Moreland if he had sex with Terry.

“The primary investigation for the police department was the death of Leigh Terry,” Aaron says.

“There are other issues, obviously, that are documented in the file, that the Nashville police department has not investigated.”

Terry's decomposing body was brought from her apartment on May 25 to the state medical examiner's office, which would eventually concur in the suicide finding. In September, MNPD received a bloodstain analysis from the crime lab, which concluded that the evidence did not suggest “anyone else was present in close proximity of the victim when the shot was fired.”

Metro police officially ruled the death a suicide and closed the case on Oct. 31.

Full Article & Source:
Questions Surround Trip Taken by Judge, Lawyers, Women

Judge, attorney face questions about woman's suicide

WSMV Channel 4 NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) -

A well-known Nashville judge and attorney were interviewed in connection with the suicide of a young woman who had recently returned from an out-of-state trip with them last year.

A recently released investigative file compiled by Metro Nashville Police Department detectives shows that police initially considered the death of Leigh Terry suspicious, in part, because several eyewitnesses told police that while on the trip, Terry had made statements threatening to expose the judge and attorney.

Friends of Terry said she had it all. She was beautiful, smart, classy: the daughter of a Belle Meade surgeon.

But there was a dark side, her friends said. Terry drank and mixed alcohol with prescription drugs.
A series of drunk-driving charges landed her in the court system.

Her interactions during a trip to Mobile, AL, in late April 2016 with Davidson County General Sessions Judge Casey Moreland and his friend, attorney Bryan Lewis, became part of a police investigation into her death.

Terry’s body was discovered May 25, 2016, by a maintenance man at the Stahlman Building in downtown Nashville. He called 911 after residents complained of a foul smell.

"I'm pretty sure someone passed away,” the maintenance man told the 911 dispatcher.

Terry was found on her bed with a Smith and Wesson handgun at her temple. Police traced the gun to its owner, Bryan Lewis.

Police later established Terry had been dead about three weeks.

Metro police conducted an investigation that would take months. They eventually concluded it was a suicide.

During the investigation, witnesses whose statements were recorded by Metro police detectives recounted threats that they said Terry had made to expose an affair between herself and Lewis.

Police would later learn Lewis and Terry’s names were on the Stahlman apartment lease, and that she had listed him as her boyfriend on the emergency contact sheet. Both of them had keys.

Lewis would confirm in a June 27 interview recorded by police at Central Precinct that he and Terry had a sexual relationship.

"It would be classified a friend and a friend with benefits. Had I had sex with her on occasions? Yes," Lewis said during the recorded interview with a detective.

The relationship began, he had said in the earlier interview, after Terry became his client.

"I'll give you the whole history. Met Leigh about three years ago, when I first represented her for free on a DUI case. She was in with a whole group of friends,” Lewis said in the recorded interview.

Paperwork on file at the court clerk's office shows that Lewis represented Terry on a 2013 drunk driving arrest; it was a charge of DUI second offense.

The charge was reduced to reckless driving in General Sessions court. She received a sentence of six months’ probation. Court records show Judge Casey Moreland’s stamp on a document that appears to terminate Terry’s probation a few months early. Moreland is the same judge who had been on the Alabama trip just days before Terry's suicide.

It was trip that witnesses said turned awkward, ending with Lewis sending Terry home early.
"She was just mad that whole day and was just abusive toward everybody," Lewis said on the police recording.

Terry's friend Natalie Amos was also on that trip. She told police investigators that Terry was arguing with Lewis.

"Very heated. She and Bryan are yelling at each other," Amos told the detective interviewing her.

In the June 27 interview, Lewis’ second with police, he was asked by a detective about text messages the detective said Terry sent Lewis that night. Detectives said the texts threatened to reveal intimate relationships between he and Terry, and between Amos and Judge Moreland, who is also married.

“’Cause she said in there that she was going to expose Casey and Natalie's relationship on the text. And that she was going to talk about, to your wife, did she do any of those things?" the detective asked.

"No, she did not," Lewis replied.

"I took it as an idle-type threat from her, something that was made in the heat of the moment. And that she wouldn't follow through with," Lewis told the detective.

But Amos thought there was more to the threat than just jeopardizing marriages.

Terry had been working at Lewis' law office. Amos says during the trip, Terry threatened to reveal something she recently discovered that she said could ruin Lewis personally and professionally.

"She said, ‘OK, I hope you're ready. I will ruin you.’ She said, ‘I know things, you all both know what I'm talking about,’" Amos told the detective.

"She was adamant she knew she had information that could really blow up his life," Amos added.
Two months after Terry's body was discovered, detectives interviewed Judge Moreland at his office in the courthouse. Police confirm the judge's interview was not recorded.

The detectives' notes indicate Moreland was asked about Terry's threats.

Moreland said he thought "she would calm down and come to her senses,” and that he “felt sadness about her death.”

The detective's investigation concluded that Terry did in fact commit suicide, and closed the case. The TBI confirms that they were not asked to investigate further.

As our Channel I-Team investigation continues, you'll hear our exclusive interview with Natalie Amos,   Terry's friend and former roommate.

"She's gone. Yeah. I'm scared. And I was quiet for almost a year," Amos told the I-Team.

Amos had DUI charges of her own. As our investigation continues, we’ll look into whether court procedures were circumvented, and hear how Amos said it was Leigh Terry who first suggested the judge could help her.

"And she says, 'Well, I can call Casey.' And I was like, ‘Casey?' She says, 'Judge Moreland,'" Amos said.

And you'll hear what she said Terry told her about her own interactions with Judge Moreland.

"She was like, ‘Natalie, I was out of options. It was that, or I was looking at serious jail time,’" Amos told the I-Team.

The I-Team has made a number of attempts to do an on-camera interview with Judge Moreland; so far he has declined. So has Lewis, who told the I-Team’s Nancy Amons she would hear from his attorney.

Full Article & Source:
Judge, attorney face questions about woman's suicide

Moreland, Lewis made headlines in David Chase case

Judge Casey Moreland and his longtime friend, attorney Bryan Lewis, made headlines in a case that dominated Nashville news for months. (1-31-17)

View news report:
Moreland, Lewis made headlines in David Chase case