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Maryland
‘I was sick inside:’ UMMS leaders detail Snyder’s alleged extortion in trial
When Dr. Stephen Bartlett, then one of the top officials at the University of Maryland Medical System, arrived at the Capital Grille in downtown Baltimore for dinner with medical malpractice attorney Stephen L. Snyder, he was guided to the bar where the maître d’ handed him an envelope.
It contained graphic images of a hospital patient whose transplant surgery had gone wrong. Snyder said he wanted $25 million to keep it quiet. They eventually sat down to eat with their significant others.
Snyder, who Bartlett recalled was red-faced with bloodshot eyes, said multiple times to Bartlett’s wife, “As long as he does what I want him to do, you’ll be OK.”
“I was sick inside,” Bartlett recalled. “I felt as if I had just had dinner with a very bad person.”
Bartlett was among the hospital system leaders who have testified at the federal extortion trial of Snyder, who earned hundreds of millions of dollars in his career and was regarded as one of the top plaintiffs attorneys in the state. Federal prosecutors say he went too far in 2018, demanding $25 million for a sham consultant position or else he would expose what he alleged were severe problems in the hospital’s organ transplant program.
Bartlett, who was one of the highest paid employees in the state when he departed in late 2018, defended the hospital’s program. He said the hospital recognized in the 1990s that more people’s lives could be saved or extended by using kidneys that were being discarded.
“People were not getting transplants who should have,” Bartlett testified.
Another official, Dr. Depriest Whye, testified Wednesday that Snyder’s accusations contained “inaccuracies, falsehoods and distortions.”
Snyder counters that data show the University of Maryland was out on a limb, and that he consulted with experts who agreed. Two of them are expected to testify during his defense presentation.
The hospital system agreed to pay settlements of $8.5 million and $5 million to two of his clients, which Snyder said was far above what would be expected. He called it a “Snyder premium” because he was known as an effective litigator.
Bartlett took part in a settlement conference for one of those clients, and said Snyder asked him to step out into the hallway where he said he knew of deeper problems at the hospital. He asked for Bartlett’s cell phone number.
“I really wanted to learn what it is he knew,” Bartlett testified.
That led to the dinner in March 2018. Bartlett’s wife testified that Snyder told the couple they could come to Miami and ride around in his Rolls Royce, but also kept directing the conversation back to her husband’s need to comply with his demand. She said she was “scared and threatened,” and believed Snyder was “unstable.”
“If you felt threatened, why didn’t you get up and leave?” Snyder, who is representing himself, asked her on cross-examination.
“I didn’t want to be rude,” she said.
At one point, Snyder asked Bartlett about what he said were “serious infections” of a kidney transplanted into a patient who died. Bartlett said he disagreed with Snyder’s assessment of the organ.
“Are you saying I made that up?” Snyder asked.
“I’m suggesting you don’t understand the medicine,” Bartlett replied.
A Maryland mother of a newborn daughter died on Monday after suffering fatal injuries in an incident involving a golf cart over the weekend, authorities said.
Mary Beth Blasetti, 32, was a passenger in an E-Z-GO golf cart driving on the 600 block of Maid Marion Hill in Annapolis on Saturday when she was thrown from the cart, suffering life-threatening injuries, the Anne Arundel County Police Department said.
Blasetti was airlifted to the University of Maryland R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, where she died two days later, police said.
Blasetti appeared to have been ejected from the golf cart after hitting “some sort of a dip,” police spokesman Justin Mulcahy told WJZ-TV.
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Mary Beth Blasetti, 32, died of fatal injuries after an incident involving a golf cart, police said. (Facebook/Mary Beth Blasetti)
“This is an extremely tragic, unfortunate situation,” Mulcahy told the station. “Our hearts go out to everyone impacted and we’re going to continue investigating it with the State’s Attorney’s Office just to determine what exactly happened here.”
The driver of the golf cart was identified as a 32-year-old woman from Crownsville, Maryland. No further information about the driver was immediately provided.
WIFE OF MURDERED MINNESOTA PASTOR HIRED 3 MEN TO KILLS HUSBAND AFTER AFFAIR: POLICE
Blasetti and her husband recently purchased their first home in Annapolis, and welcomed their 2-month-old daughter in September, friends wrote on an online donation page for the family.
Friends remembered Blasetti as a “devoted wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend, and her absence will be deeply felt by all who knew her.”
“Mary Beth brought joy to so many and had a wide community of friends and family who are devastated by her sudden passing,” the post read.
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Police said the incident remains under investigation.
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MARYLAND – The two spans that comprise the Bay Bridge are 50 and 70 years old. Now, FOX 5 is learning about some of the proposals for a fix or replacement.
For decades, families across the DMV headed to the beaches have loaded up for a journey to the beach. Part of that process is often some time in traffic at or near the Bay Bridge.
The State of Maryland knows it doesn’t have to be that way and started the process a few years ago about a potential fix. After initial studies, they’ve determined the bridge should remain in the same general location it is now. There was earlier consideration of other spots along the bay.
In a 50-page document, the Maryland Transportation Authority lays out the options they’re recommending at this point, and ones that they’re not.
For example, due to cost and environmental impact, the MDTA is recommending a bridge instead of a tunnel.
There are seven configurations that are being looked at most closely. Six of those options involve a new bridge and different numbers of lanes and configurations. The seventh option is a rehabilitation of the current bridge.
The MDTA is hosting three listening sessions to get feedback from drivers and stakeholders. Click here to see open house information.
“We’re hoping the public will come to provide input on the number of lanes—how big should we be building a bridge, how many lanes for the future, do we need to make it more affordable, do we need to just meet what we’re expecting or do we need to plan beyond that, and what kind of transit or shared use options,” said Bruce Gartner, the Executive Director of the Maryland Transportation Authority.
The Authority plans to decide what to do by the end of 2026.
Jacqueline McLee crosses the Bay Bridge often to visit her son in Delaware. She thinks something needs to change, but 10 lanes might be too many for her.
“I don’t know what to think. It’s good and bad. It makes me nervous, that’s a lot of lanes, it’s a lot of work. I don’t know about that one,” McLee said.
Jacqueline’s husband, Marny, welcomes some sort of expansion.
“There’s so much traffic flowing through here back and forth during the summer time and holidays, so it’ll definitely make a big difference and get across the bridge a little quicker,” he said.
Open House Information
Virtual
Wednesday, December 4, 2024
(6-8 p.m.)
baycrossingstudy.com
Submit a Question
Anne Arundel County
Monday, December 9, 2024
(6-8 p.m.)
Broadneck High School
1265 Green Holly Dr.
Annapolis, MD 21409
Queen Anne’s County
Wednesday, December 11, 2024
(6-8 p.m.)
Kent Island High School
900 Love Point Road
Stevensville, MD 21666
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