Woman left for dead in '97 settles lawsuit against Florida firm

— A West Memphis woman who was kidnapped, stabbed 27 times and run over with her own car by three teen-agers has received a settlement in a lawsuit against a Florida company she alleged was negligent.

Roberta Thompson sued Associated Marine Institutes Inc. of Tampa, Fla., for compensatory and punitive damages. The amount of the settlement was not disclosed.

The settlement was filed in Jonesboro on March 2, two days after Thompson's story was published by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette as part of a series on juvenile justice.

"A confidentiality agreement prohibits us from disclosing the terms of the settlement," said William H. Sutton, who is the managing partner of the Little Rock law firm, Friday, Eldredge & Clark, which represented Thompson.

"Suffice it to say, we are generally satisfied," Sutton said. "It is nice that Miss Thompson will not have to undergo the ordeal of testifying."

Thompson, the 65-year-old manager of the Days Inn/West Pyramid in West Memphis, was kidnapped in April 1997 by teen-agers Robert Shaw and Donnie Allen.

The boys forced Thompson into the trunk of her new car and terrorized her for hours before leaving the car with Clinton Flowers.

Flowers drove Thompson to a park in Memphis, let her out of the trunk and then kicked, stomped and stabbed her. He also drove over Thompson with her car. A park security guard chased him away.

At the time, Shaw and Allen were in the custody of the Division of Youth Services, a part of Arkansas Department of Human Services. They had been placed in serious-offender wilderness camps operated by Associated Marine Institutes. During the abduction, they were in the aftercare program, a type of juvenile probation.

Shaw and Allen were supposed to be personally supervised by an employee of the wilderness camps. After Thompson was attacked, state officials said Shaw and Allen had not received the required visits.

Flowers is serving 40 years in prison for aggravated robbery and criminal attempt to commit capital murder. Shaw is serving 25 years for criminal conspiracy and aggravated robbery, and Allen is serving 25 years for aggravated robbery.

"Any time a case like this is settled, everybody is pleased," said George Petkoff, an attorney for AMI. "There would have been a lot of witnesses, and it would have taken a lot of time to take this to trial."

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