Burton Hoey vs. Everyone

continued

Though Hoey's been in and out of legal trouble for years, his biggest legal problem and the thing that'll likely sink him--if anything will--was an accident last year that left Mary Armbruster, then twenty-three, paralyzed from the waist down.

Armbruster started working at Jenny's September 3, 2011, says Don Ferris, Armbruster's attorney. "Her job was to drive the hayrides and work around the farm." Just three weeks later, on September 24, "she got pulled off the wagon by the horses because of unsafe equipment and an unsafe route. The reins were not even, and the seat was not bolted down, and when the horses went down the steep hill, the seat came off, and Mary stood up to try to keep control of the horses, got pulled forward, and was then run over by the wagon," breaking her spine.

A year later, after numerous surgeries and continuing physical rehabilitation, Armbruster is still paralyzed and likely to remain that way. Ferris says his client is looking for "compensation for her injuries, and that'll amount to whatever the jury says it is."

With a court date coming in February, Ferris says he's "looking for a jury trial," though he notes that "90 percent of all lawsuits are settled. It depends on how much money is offered."