Convicted Murderer Drops Suit Against Boston SciConvicted Murderer Drops Suit Against Boston Sci

Ramona Winebarger, who had been convicted of murdering her first husband in 1995, has given up her legal fight against Boston Scientific. The medical device company had planned to enter the murder conviction into evidence in the trial, arguing that it hurts Winebarger's argument that the company's pelvic mesh affected her mental health.

Qmed Staff

Ramona Winebarger, who had sued Boston Scientific in a pelvic mesh case, has dropped her 2013 claims against the company after it became apparent that her 1995 murder of her first husband, Harmon Dennis Young, would be made part of the case.

Winebarger, who pleaded guilty to killing her first husband two decades ago and served eight years of jail time, had wanted to exclude that information from the trial stating that it was not relevant to her claims and would create a "side show trial."

Winebarger had claimed that she experienced mental anguish related to the 2010 implantation of the Uphold pelvic mesh device.

Boston Scientific's attorney Leslie C. Packer of Ellis & Winters LLP, however, had contended in court documents that Winebarger's medical records reveal that she had a "long history of anxiety, depression, and flashbacks unrelated to her 2010 surgery," which "is necessarily intertwined with her criminal record."

Judge Richard Voorhees of the U.S. District Court for Western North Carolina apparently was swayed by the Boston Scientific attorneys' arguments regarding the bearing that Winebarger's criminal record and mental health had on her claims.

In addition, Vorhees had rejected the Winebarger's attempt to quash a subpoena related to her employment history at the McLeod Addictive Disease Center.

Winebarger's case had been integrated into a multidistrict litigation case involving 72,000 total cases, of which roughly 16,000 were related to Boston Scientific's vaginal mesh products.

Her 2013 claims against Boston Scientific had included negligence, strict liability for design defect, manufacturing defect, failure to warn, and fraudulent concealment. She also had requested punitive damages against the company. Winebarger had brought a claim, too, for loss of consortium.

Jury selection for the case had been scheduled to begin on October 5, 2015.

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