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Wrongful death trial gets started "Who is responsible for the death of Terry Cheeseboro?" asked Kevin Clark, one of the defense lawyers in a wrongful death civil suit that started in Clarke County Circuit Court Tuesday. Lawyers for Ingrid Watson, the girlfriend of Cheeseboro, a Packards Bend resident, and mother of their two minor children, contend that Liberty Mutual Insurance is responsible for his death by not ensuring that safety regulations were followed and that safety guards were in place in the bark pit at the old Gulf States Paper mill in Demopolis where Cheese-boro became entangled in moving parts and was killed in 2003. Watson sued several defendants in the case initially, not just Liberty Mutual Insurance, including Gulf States Paper Company, BE&K Engineering, Imperial Technologies, American Insurance and Burkes Mechanical of Thomasville, whom Cheeseboro worked for at the time of his death. However, only Liberty Mutual was represented at the defense table Tuesday. Labarron Boone of the wellknown plaintiff lawyer group Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis and Miles of Montgomery where former Lt. Gov. Jere Beasley is the senior partner, is representing Watson along with Grove Hill attorney Ric Gilmore. Judge Thomas Baxter is presiding over the trial. Some court observers are speculating that the plaintiff lawyers will ask for a multi-million judgement for Cheeseboro's death. Boone contended in opening arguments Tuesday that the 19- year-old Cheeseboro was trying to work to provide for the woman he was soon to marry and their two children but had no experience working near a conveyor belt such as the one where the accident took place. He said Cheeseboro worked in maintenance for Burkes Mechanical and was a cleanup person who was only following orders. Cheeseboro did not know that the conveyor belt in the bark pit should have been locked out or tagged out before he got under it to clean out bark and other debris. Boone showed photos that showed that there were no guards or other safety features in place and blamed Liberty Mutual Insurance because the company had conducted safety inspections of the plant and did not make sure safety procedures were followed. He detailed national safety regulations that said manufacturers and companies are responsible for seeing that safety measures are adhered to. Kevin Clark, in defense of Liberty Mutual Insurance, agreed that Cheeseboro's death was a "tragic workplace accident" but "Liberty National did not cause this man to die." He said the insurance company didn't own the plant and didn't know what Burkes Mechanical was doing there. "Mr. Cheeseboro made a tragic mistake by putting himself in harm's way by going under that moving conveyor with a shovel," said Clark. Gulf States Paper required its employees and contractors to be aware of safety issues. "We [Liberty Mutual] had no way of foreseeing or anticipating this [accident] and we could not prevent it," Clark added. "Liberty Mutual makes loss prevention visits, not wall to wall safety inspections," he said, adding that no one from Liberty Mutual ever went into the pit area. Clark concluded in his opening statement, "Who was in the best position to prevent this accident? Who is responsible for the death of Terry Cheeseboro?" The trial is expected to last the rest of the week, given the many boxes of materials that plaintiff and defense attorneys brought into the courthouse Monday. The trial meant that many other cases on Judge Baxter's docket were continued. Judge Stuart DuBose had four cases on his docket for the week and they were all either continued or settled. DuBose told his jury panel as he dismissed them, "This court doesn't have one single matter in any county of any nature…[civil, criminal or domestic]… that's not ruled on or set on date certain for disposition."
The Clarke County Grand Jury is
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