Bill to OK taxi driver lawsuit vetoed

AUGUSTA – Gov. Angus King on Wednesday delivered his third veto in two days, the latest one a proposal to allow the estate of a murder victim to sue the state.

Lawmakers will return to the State House next Wednesday to decide whether to sustain or override King’s vetoes.

The latest bill rejected by King stems from the bludgeoning death last Oct. 14 of 60-year-old taxi driver Donna Leen, whose body was found in her cab in Corinth.

The victim’s family said the alleged killer, Carl Wayne Heath of Fryeburg, should not have been released from the state corrections system before Leen’s death. Heath, who was 20 at the time of the killing, had a criminal past and a history of mental problems.

The bill vetoed by King sought to drop the state’s protection from lawsuits so a wrongful death suit could be filed. Leen’s daughter, Michelle Booker, wanted to sue the Corrections Department.

“I am very sympathetic to the victim’s family, but I cannot support the resolve as drafted because I believe it is fundamentally flawed in several respects,” King said in his veto message to lawmakers.

For example, King said, the Corrections Department did not release Heath to the public, but rather to county law enforcement authorities. The Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department released Heath after a judge gave him credit for time served on a theft charge.

King also said the bill is premature until Heath is tried, and that it created “unlimited exposure” to the state by failing to put a cap on damages.

King said Tuesday he also had decided to veto bills that would expand unemployment benefits for those seeking part-time jobs and health benefits for people suffering from mental illness.

The bill that would expand unemployment benefits for people seeking less than full-time jobs would raise the cost of unemployment insurance benefits by 5 percent a year, the governor said.

The bill seeks to use a one-time cash infusion of federal funds, but King said the costs eventually would be passed along to employers.

“The use of federal funds merely delays, but does not prevent, this increase,” the governor said.

People who lose their jobs and are seeking full-time work are still covered.

King said the other bill he vetoed, which would expand the number of mental illnesses that insurers must cover, is well-intentioned but “offered in a period of dramatically escalating health care and insurance costs.”

“As we look for ways to reduce the costs of health care, we must not exacerbate the problem by adding new mandates,” King said in his veto message to the Legislature.

“When you are in a hole, the first rule is not to dig any deeper,” King said.

Lawmakers will have an opportunity to try to override King’s vetoes when they reconvene on April 24.