
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 27, 1990                   TAG: 9004270947
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ARLINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

JURY REJECTS MOTHER'S NEEDLE-PRICK CLAIM

Operators of a hotel where a boy jabbed himself with a needle his parents said he found in their room exercised "ordinary care and diligence" to protect guests, a Circuit Court jury ruled in a rejecting the parents' $1 million claim.

Brenda Baah had accused the Imperial Hotels Corp. of failing to provide a clean and safe environment.

"I believe that, based on the evidence, they satisfied their duties as the owners and operators of the hotel," juror Susan Essig said after the verdict was announced Thursday.

Baah said in her suit that her son, Jordan, now 4 1/2, continues to suffer physical distress and emotional trauma from the November 1988 incident when he pricked himself in the lip.

Brenda and Stephen Baah were staying at an Imperial Inn with their two sons for a few weeks after a fire forced them from their Arlington apartment.

The Baahs said Jordan has been troubled by frequent nightmares, bed-wetting, insomnia, insecurity and phobias since the incident.

The defense disputed that these events resulted from psychological trauma and said they are common in a child Jordon's age.

Brenda Baah also said she was concerned her son might contract AIDS or some other disease from the needle.

Jordan has tested negative three times for AIDS and hepatitis. But his mother maintained that the long incubation time associated with those illnesses does not mean he won't get them in the future.

The Baahs' lawyers argued that any chance of contracting such a disease, however slight, casts a shadow over Jordan's future.

by CNB