Appeals Court Orders Third Trial In Battle For Funds

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ An appeals court has ordered a third trial to determine a revised amount of damages for operators of several private mental health clinics in Oklahoma. <br/><br/>In a 3-0 decision

Thursday, August 23rd 2007, 2:08 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ An appeals court has ordered a third trial to determine a revised amount of damages for operators of several private mental health clinics in Oklahoma.

In a 3-0 decision of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, judges on Wednesday upheld a jury's verdict in 2003 against two of the officials, Michael Fogarty and Terrie Fritz, for retaliating against the clinic operators in the funding battle from 1998 to 2002.

Fogarty was chief executive of the Oklahoma Health Care Authority and Fritz was the authority's director of behavioral health.

The appellate judges ruled a new trial is required, solely on the issue of how much damages should be awarded.

A U.S. District Court jury in Oklahoma City in 2003 awarded $34.4 million in damages to be paid by the state to the clinic operators.

The trial judge, Joe Heaton, overturned the verdict in 2004 and ordered a new trial. In it, a different jury awarded $16.25 million to the operators.

The appellate judges on Wednesday concluded that Heaton had ``abused (his) discretion'' in granting the defendants a new trial.

He had concluded that jurors had insufficient evidence to conclude that the officials had retaliated against the clinic operators.

The appellate judges described the case as arising ``from a bare-knuckled political battle over state funding for outpatient behavioral and mental health services.''