Kenneth P. Thompson. Photo Credit: Rick Kopstein/ALM

The late Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson's widow, who has clashed with the deceased DA's relatives in court over dividing his estate, is in another court battle with Mount Sinai Hospital and other defendants alleging that they failed to timely diagnose his colorectal cancer.

And this week, the defendants in the medical malpractice suit filed to move the suit out of Brooklyn, citing Thompson's accomplishments during his abbreviated tenure as district attorney of New York City's most populous borough, including the launch of his office's “Begin Again” warrant clearance program, under which about 2,400 warrants have been cleared.

Thompson died in office in October 2016 at the age of 50. He was diagnosed with colorectal cancer about six months prior to his death and the cancer metastasized and spread to his brain within a few months of the diagnosis.

Lu-Shawn Thompson, who last year relinquished her rights to her late husband's estate and left her share to the couple's two children, alleges in the med mal suit against Mount Sinai, Carnegie Hill Endoscopy, Fifth Avenue GI and a physician who treated Kenneth Thompson that his death was preventable had medical professionals caught the cancer in time.

“He did everything his doctors asked of him and yet, he died because his doctors did not comport with accepted medical practice,” the widow alleges in her suit, which was filed in July. She is represented by Jordan Merson of Merson Law.

The defendants, represented by attorneys from Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker and Kaufman Borgeest & Ryan, have responded in court papers that Kenneth Thompson's death should be attributable to his own conduct.

They also argued that it may be difficult for them to get a fair trial in a locale where the deceased “pioneered judicial reform.”

Under Kenneth Thompson, efforts by the Brooklyn DA's office to investigate questionable convictions and push for exoneration of the wrongfully accused has attracted the attention of prosecutors and criminal justice reformers around the country.

To bolster their case, the defendants included in their exhibits the 2013 general election results, in which Kenneth Thompson received 235,666 votes and unseated six-term Brooklyn DA Charles “Joe” Hynes, who received just shy of 80,000 votes that year.

Merson did not respond to a request for comment on the motion for change of venue.  

Lu-Shawn Thompson has also battled in court with her late husband's relatives over the validity of his final will, which left everything to his wife and kids and which he signed in his final months.

A previous version of the will, which Kenneth Thompson signed in 2008, left $900,000 to Clara Thompson, Kenneth Thompson's mother, and other relatives. His mother argues that her son signed the final will after the cancer had spread to his brain and was in a weakened mental state.

In August, Acting Brooklyn Surrogate's Court Judge John Ingram vacated the probate for the final will, finding that the significant differences between the two wills, as well as other factors that arose in the hotly contested battle over Kenneth Thompson's estate, cast doubt on the validity of the final will.

Read more:

Judge Finds Reasons to Doubt Validity of Brooklyn DA's Will, Vacates Decree

Hynes Agrees to $40K Fine for Political Use of City Email as Brooklyn DA

Brooklyn DA Hopefuls Embrace Thompson's Record, Seek Distance from Hynes'