CHARLESTON – A Wyoming County couple has filed a new lawsuit against Charleston Area Medical Center for its part in the alleged mishandling of the remains of their stillborn son.
Angela and Denny Seth Lester filed their complaint August 11 in Kanawha Circuit Court against CAMC’s Women and Children’s Hospital. The filing comes two months after the state Supreme Court dismissed CAMC from the original complaint filed in Mingo Circuit Court. The Justices ruled the original lawsuit, which also listed Mounts Funeral Home and Mounts employee Nicole Cline as defendants, hadn’t been filed following proper medical malpractice complaint filing guidelines.
The latest complaint complies with the state Medical Professional Liability Act pre-suit requirements.
Tish Chafin
| File photo
According to the complaint, the Lesters are the biological parents of A.C.L., who died stillborn of natural causes on May 17, 2018, at CAMC Women and Children’s Hospital. The couple hired Mounts to handle funeral arrangements and final disposition of the infant’s body. Denny Seth Lester signed the authorization releasing the body to Mounts Funeral Home on May 21.
That same day, according to the complaint, Cline traveled to Charleston in her personal vehicle, a Ford Fusion, to take her husband Jeff Cline to a doctor’s appointment and to run errands, including a visit to Sam’s Club. She picked up the body at 4 p.m.
Groceries were piled in the back seat of the Clines’ car when they picked up the baby’s body. A CAMC employee lifted the body wrapped in paper out of a basket and placed it in the back seat beside the groceries, according to the complaint. The groceries began to shift during the 82-mile trip home.
“Fearing one or more of the large purchases would fall on the infant’s body, Mr. Cline reached around to the back seat, grabbed the body and held A.C.L. in his lap for the remainder of the long journey,” the complaint states.
On January 29, 2020, Jeff Cline posted a video on several social media outlets describing the process of transporting and embalming the plaintiffs’ infant son’s body and wrongfully suggesting the corpse was the result of Angela Lester terminating the pregnancy.
“The Cline video was shared numerous times and was viewed by a large number of people in Southern West Virginia,” the complaint states. “Plaintiffs were unaware of the circumstances of the transfer and mishandling of their son’s body until they were informed of the Cline video.”
The Lesters accuse CAMC of negligence; failure to exercise reasonable and prudent care in the treatment of the stillborn infant; failure to handle the remains with dignity, respect and care; permitting an unauthorized person (Mr. Cline) to participate in the receipt of the infant’s body and to create the social media post; failure to follow policies and procedures for decedent management; and failure to properly train and supervise employees on such matters.
They say they have suffered severe and permanent mental anguish, emotional distress, anxiety, depression, loss of consortium and companionship.
The Lesters seek compensatory damages, pre- and post-judgment interest, court costs, attorney fees and other relief.
In their separate answers to the original complaint in Mingo Circuit Court, both Mounts and Cline denied the allegations and sought to have the case dismissed.
Jeff Cline is a former Gilbert police officer who also ran for Mingo County Sheriff. In 2013, he was given federal immunity from potential crimes for testimony regarding former Mingo Circuit Judge Michael Thornsbury, who was charged with conspiracy to violate the constitutional rights of his former secretary’s husband. Thornsbury was sentenced in 2014 to more than four years in federal prison.
Jeff Cline was mentioned in the federal indictment of Thornsbury, who asked Cline to plant a metal box containing illegal drugs on the man’s car. But Cline apparently did not plant the drugs.
The Lesters are represented by Tish Chafin, Truman Chafin and Stacey Kohari of The Chafin Law Firm in Williamson.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 23-C-690
