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Colorado News Roundup: Aspen-area hospital sued over possible privacy violation (06.15.16)

Here’s what’s going on around Colorado:

PRIVACY



FORMER EMPLOYEE SUING ASPEN HOSPITAL OVER PATIENT PRIVACY

ASPEN, Colo. — A former employee is suing Aspen Valley Hospital, saying a human resources manager broke patient confidentiality laws by outing him as HIV-positive.



The Aspen Times reports that Denver firm Killmer, Lane & Newman LLP filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Denver on Friday. Attorney Mari Newman says the plaintiff’s name is concealed because he wants his privacy protected.

The plaintiff claims he was fired in January 2015 after complaining about the hospital to the Office for Civil Rights and the Department of Labor. He argues that the hospital’s “continuing retaliation” has left him unable to find a job in the Roaring Fork Valley.

Hospital spokeswoman Ginny Dyche says interim CEO Terry Collins said the hospital will “vigorously defend its actions at the appropriate time.”

PUBLIC SAFETY

COLO. SPRINGS HIKER APPARENTLY FELL TO DEATH IN BLACK CANYON

GUNNISON, Colo. — Investigators are trying to determine how a 24-year-old backpacker apparently fell to his death while hiking in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

The body of Ryan Wood Moss of Colorado Springs, who was reported overdue Saturday, was recovered Tuesday from the base of a cliff. It’s the first death in the canyon since 2013.

The National Park Service said he was originally from North Carolina, but the coroner says had family in Virginia.

Moss is believed to have been hiking the Warner Route, the longest of the extremely steep trails that lead from the canyon’s rim to the Gunnison River, after a night of camping.

Supervisory park ranger Brant Porter says the routes into the canyon follow unmaintained and largely unmarked gullies but can be hiked without special equipment.

AUSTRIAN COURT: MAN GUILTY OF MURDERING OF COLORADO WOMAN

VIENNA — An Austrian court has found a Gambian man guilty of killing an American woman and sentenced him to life in prison.

The victim, 25-year old Lauren Mann of Colorado, was found dead in her apartment in January. Police and firefighters who forced open her door found her body on a mattress in the bedroom. Police say she was suffocated.

The court in Vienna found the perpetrator guilty of murder before handing down the sentence Wednesday. He was identified only as Abdou I., in line with Austrian privacy laws.

The man says he did not kill the victim. His lawyer, Astrid Wagner, says she will appeal.

The prosecution had argued that the perpetrator had killed Mann after finding her with another partner.

TEEN CRITICALLY INJURED CAR SURFING IN GRAND JUNCTION

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — A teen is in critical condition after falling off a moving car in an apparent car-surfing accident in Grand Junction.

Sgt. Jim Creasy told The Daily Sentinel that the 19-year-old was riding on the car’s trunk as the vehicle was going less than 40 mph when he fell off Monday, sustaining serious head injuries.

The accident comes two months after an 18-year-old from Rifle died after falling off a moving car. Authorities initially described that as a case of car surfing but later said it was really more a case of spontaneous goofing around. The teen had been sitting on the hood of a friend’s car when he pulled out of his parking spot.

— The Associated Press


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