I am seeking a Texas civil attorney to help me with a suit against SMX for damages resulting from the attack on me... Please contact me, quickly.
At 0800 on October 22, a rainy morning in Round Rock, Texas... I was instructed by the site worker to back my truck into a place on the lot of the construction site of the Round Rock Middle School so they could unload me, and I noticed the flatbed truck driver of SMX truck #9790 standing on top of his load on top of his truck looking at me really hard. "What's his problem?" I thought. He jumped off his truck and headed my way.
The next thing I know that driver was in my face threatening me while I was at the back of my truck opening the doors, in the presence of the witness, accusing me of trying to get unloaded ahead of him. I told him to go to the site foreman and tell him, there was nothing I could do, it was a different company unloading me than was unloading him.
After he threatened me, he went to the far side of his truck, and I told the site worker that I wanted to talk to the site foreman to tell him I was just threatened by the SMX driver, and I grabbed my still camera to go ask the guy why he'd threatened me and you can view that video clip at the youtube account linked below and see his response to me. Then you can see the other two clips I put up that show when he attacked me.
What happened next is in the police report that I filed and what the witness filed. The SMX driver (truck 9790) jumped on me, straining to get my camera so he could smash it. The strap was wrapped around my wrist very tightly and he reached over me for it as I held it past my driver's seat trying to get the strap off my wrist so I could throw it in the back away from him. He grabbed me in a headlock and my neck popped, and when I slipped out of it, I was immediately punched in the head, which I've got a photo of the red mark and scratch.
I held him back with my left hand while I got the strap off and then threw it to the middle of the truck, and he immediately went for my fire extinguisher to hit me with it, even getting it unhooked from the floor. I backed away from the truck at that time to get away from that... And his partner finally came around the truck at me with a tiedown-tool at that time toward me. I thought 'I'm going to have to fight for my life' and somehow they just walked away, with the driver saying "I was trying to get his camera and he hit me." What? I NEVER hit him!
I told him at that time "You're going to jail over this." I called 911, the Williamson County Sheriff Department and told them immediately what happened. When the SMX driver saw me on the phone with them he made a call of his own. The deputies talked to him first when they got there and already made their mind up that I was the aggressor, in their own words. They said that the witness said that, too. I said, "Who, Him?" while I was pointing to the only witness, the site worker. They said, "No, HIM." pointing to the older SMX driver who had been on the other side of the truck the whole time. (video footage corroborates this.)
The deputies told me they had better things to do than to stand in the rain, so I had to make a decision whether I was going to press charges or not. They reminded me, though, that if I pressed charges they would be forced to write me a "Class C ticket" (misdemeanor disturbing the peace) and I would have to appear before a judge within 30 days. I stated to them that I was the one who was attacked, that it would not be proper to write me the ticket. Then they left as the rain got heavier. They never got any personal information from either the attacker or me.
I've been out of work since that day, as the work-related umbilical hernia was enlarged, and my neck (and shoulder and back) was messed up. I went to a medical center the company sent me to in Round Rock, and they put me off work until 11/24/07 for the neck, back, and shoulder. Then I went to a doctor's office in Austin for the hernia. I knew the hernia wasn't going to be covered. (It happened at work in August but my company chose a doctor to send me to who said that I was 40 years old, and that everyone falls apart when they turn 40. I had the hernia because I was 40 years old. And, after she said that, they pushed me out of the door. So, two years later, after I'd been working carefully so as not to aggravate the hernia, an emotionally unbalanced trucker enlarges it while I try to keep him away from my camera.)
The Austin Doctor showed me a chart and said "Your hernia looks like this. It is incarcerated and emergent. It needs operated right away on an emergency basis. We will do it tomorrow." The next day (October 31) I called and asked them if they were going to get me in like they promised, and they said we'd have to do it the next day. I told them it was costing me $200 per day to stay there, I was out of money, and I had to go home. After loading the rental van slowly, piece by piece (no piece was over the 15 pounds I was allowed to lift) I drove home, arriving on November 3rd. I slept, and my brother came with me in the morning to unload my van for me so I could turn it in.
That was on November 4th. On November 6th, I contracted a volatile flu. It kept me sick, flat on my back for a week, puking, and all the other bad stuff that went along with it... (at my brother's house so I could be watched... I was so sick) until I finally drove out to see if anything had come in the mail for me, and went home.
On November 14th I drove over to Johnson City to fax to Dr Peterson's office in Kingsport the information I had from the Medical Center in Round Rock, TX and the name and number of the doctor in Austin, TX who wanted to do my surgery. I got a call from Sheila Reine (Zurich Insurance Adjuster, Nashville TN) on the way there to do that. She asked me who I had chosen on the list of the three possible doctor choices she had given me, I told her I'd chosen Doctor Peterson, and I was going to fax his office. She said "Be sure to tell them they need to call me right away so we can schedule your appointment." I called Dr. Peterson's office and Debbie there told me that Dr. Peterson was at a different facility now but they would still see me, but they couldn't get me in until December.
On the fax I sent them that day (I have the fax transmission report and the pages that I sent them) I told them Sheila was requesting they call her immediately. After my fax, I called them again, and verified that they had received the fax. My phone records corroborate that statement.
The work comp insurance adjuster, Sheila Reine, at Zurich Insurance in Nashville, Tennessee, said she was going to help me through this, and made every attempt to gain my confidence. However, she lost my confidence on December 4th. My company knew that I was having the hernia surgery, and they also knew that I expected them not to cover it. Sheila Reine and I had discussed it many times, also. My company called me at noon on December 4th, knowing fully well I was having the surgery that morning. (I had previously told them that I would)
I returned my company's call when I awoke from the surgery and got my phone turned on, and they asked me what I was doing. I told them they knew what I was doing, I had just had surgery. The person in the work-comp department of my company who called me asked me if I had chosen my doctor for the neck/back/shoulder injury yet. I told her she knew that I had, I told her so. She asked me when the last time I'd spoken to them was, I told her November 14th. She sounded angry and hung up. I believe she called Sheila at Zurich and told her to cancel my work comp benefits... Because... (next paragraph)... Then...
I tried to call Sheila many times on and after that day but all I could do was leave messages, she would not answer my phone calls, and she held my final check, cutting it to 1/3 of the expected amount, telling me in the letter that I chose to go to a non-worker's comp doctor for the hernia surgery and it was not going to be covered by them. I was shocked. It was as though she had amnesia all of a sudden. This was already discussed and very thoroughly understood by all parties involved, that I'd have the surgery done before seeing the Kingsport doctor. There was no question between any entity involved as to how this was supposed to transpire.
I don't care if I get the money from the missing last 6 weeks of being taken off work comp, I only want my company and Zurich insurance to acknowledge the course of events. I am seeking a civil attorney (in Texas), however, to help me with the SMX truck driver attack, and that attorney to deal with my company and Sheila Reine.
I saw an attorney about the work comp related issues who put me in touch with a TN Dept. Of Labor employee (something like a judge) who is helping me. He seemed to knowss many things about this case already... Makes me wonder how.
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