Debra Opri
MEDIA COMMENTS
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"The Senate's confirmation of Elena Kagan today is a wonderful historic event in the name of human equality everywhere. For the first time in history, our nation's highest court has the voices of three women justices giving new meaning and hope that our future has bright and endless possibilities." - DEBRA OPRI (August 5, 2010)Miss Kagan, 50, will be the youngest US supreme court justice in the court but is not expected to alter the ideological balance of the court, where the man she replaced, John Paul Stevens, was considered a leader of the liberal bloc. Her arrival will mean that for the first time the nine-member court will have three women sitting at once. She was President Barack Obama's second appointment, after he selected the court's first Hispanic justice, Sonia Sotomayor, last year.
Coleman`s Living Will Scandal; Reality Show for Sail?; Joran Trouble (transcript at CNN)
BEHAR: Right.
Debra, she didn`t have the right to pull the plug, did she? She wasn`t married to the guy.
DEBRA OPRI, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: She was the designated --
BEHAR: Go ahead.
OPRI: Well, we have a series of layers of the onion skin that are being pealed back. First, you know, she`s arguing common law marriage. In the state of Utah, common law marriage is, you know, acknowledged. However, she has to show they had an intent to be married and there was a divorce a few years prior.
o when you get past the common law marriage, we then say look to the health care directive, which in some states is called the living will. And she was a designated health care agent. She was given a long list of authority and, except for that one area where he said, don`t do this if you can save me and prolong my life under generally accepted medical procedures, you then have to go to the last page of this health care directive and it`s almost like Gary Coleman is jumping out from the grave and having the last word. He basically is saying, in my opinion, in that document, if you feel, Shannon, that they won`t be able to save me, do what you need to do.
BEHAR: Really? Well, Shannon has said the doctors advised her to take him off of life support.OPRI: It`s very important that he gave a lot of credence to the opinions of the doctors, but she made the final decision.
BEHAR: Well, ok. Let`s go to Debra. She says she was in a common law marriage. So did that give her the right to pull the plug? Let`s get that clear.
OPRI: Well, just because she`s in a common law marriage and that common law marriage argument is upheld -- and I don`t think it would be because there was a divorce and, therefore, no intent to be married and be held out as a marriage.
BEHAR: Right.
OPRI: If there is a common law marriage, it still doesn`t give her the right to say, I don`t care what you say, Gary, I want the plug pulled. So if we can set aside that common-law marriage authority that she had and just go to that written document, it`s a contract.
And Gary gave her such authority by saying, you`ve got at least eight elements of authority here to do what you need to do. Don`t prolong my life. Don`t give any additional medical procedures. I don`t want to be sustained like this without the quality of life. And then he says, by checking a little box, oh, and by the way, don`t pull the plug too soon, in not so many words.
But the phrase is so convoluted, Joy, in terms of don`t do something if it`s going to interfere with the accepted medical procedures, if you can prolong my life that way, whatever`s reasonable. Then you go to the last page and he says, hey, listen, irrespective of everything I`ve just said, you get to make that decision.
In his last page, if you look to the last page of that directive --
BEHAR: It`s so confusing.
OPRI: Yes.
BEHAR: It`s very confusing.
OPRI: He got the last word.
BEHAR: It`s also disturbing, to me. Because the Utah Medical Association says family members` wishes trump the living will. So the living will is not worth the paper it`s written on, right? Who would like to answer that?
OPRI: I don`t agree with that.
(................)
OPRI: If I may?
BEHAR: Yes, go ahead.
OPRI: You have to give a little credit to her because she lived, from what I understand, with a very difficult person. And she didn`t sound cold-blooded. She just sounded matter of fact, here we go again. And you got to give her a little credit. And if she was putting up with this for a long time and saying, yes, he`s suicidal, banging his head against the wall, she put up with a lot. And I think that`s what you were hearing in the voice.
BEHAR: Yes.
Well, also, you have to give her the edge also because she did call 911. She didn`t let him just keep banging his head, right?
OPRI: No, she didn`t.
BEHAR: This story is not going to go away so fast, I have a feeling. The judge appointed a third party to guard the estate while the two women figure it out.
Now, how long before this is settled? Debra -- or whoever knows the answer to that?
OPRI: I can jump in here. When I was last on your show, we were talking about the contents of his will. As these people should come, and I don`t want these people that have financial interest in me. It appears to me that Gary Coleman had a lot of emotional difficulty in dealing with people in his life.
And if this woman was in his will in 2005 and there is a holographic will, handwritten, in 2006 or 2007 for Shannon, and she is the name that appears on most of the legal documents since, and he divorced her in 2008 and she was still living with him and taking care of him at the time of his death, it would appear to me for all intents and purposes including the pension, that she may be the person who is the beneficiary here.
KESTER: Well, except for the 2007 document, it`s not a will. It clearly is stated at the beginning. This is an addendum. I`m not revoking my prior wills. I`m maintaining them in full force and effect. I`m simply changing some of the terms of the distribution of my property.
OPRI: Right.
KESTER: And under Utah law -- under Utah law an addendum or codicil is terminated and of no force and effect after a divorce.
BEHAR: All right.
OPRI: There is conflict, it cancels each other out.
BEHAR: I`m going to have to let that be the last word. So thanks very much.
Opri & Associates
8383 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 830
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
Tel: 323.658.6774
Fax: 323.658.5160
Email: info@DebraOpri.com
8383 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 830
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
Tel: 323.658.6774
Fax: 323.658.5160
Email: info@DebraOpri.com
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