We have been following the Penn State scandal and the school’s possible culpability in the matter. Now the long-awaited Freeh report has been issued (a copy is below). The report is a damning indictment of the school which is found to have failed to protect the children in order to protect the school from embarrassment. This included “striking lack of empathy for child abuse victims by the most senior leaders of the University.”
Category: Torts
In Detroit, a woman has died in a bizarre accident where a hug with an off-duty officer led to an accidental discharge of his weapon and the death of Adaisha Miller, 25.
Continue reading “Detroit Woman Shot And Killed After Hugging Off-Duty Officer From Behind”
Police in Texas are dealing with a bizarre tragedy where a suicidal man ran out in front of traffic and was hit by a car. At the time, he was being chased by a man in a gorilla suit. Paul Nimnicht, 32, had announced in the CoCo Bongo nightclub that he was going to commit suicide outside of the club around midnight. When he ran outside, he was chased by a waiter dressed as a gorilla. The chase took them to Highway 281 where Nimnicht was struck by a passing Infiniti.
Continue reading “Suicidal Texas Man Hit By Car . . . After Being Chased By Man In Gorilla Suit”
This video shows a terrifying moment as A Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) van on the Dallas North Tollway slams into a line of waiting cars on a ramp. It is astonishing that no deaths have been reported.
Continue reading “Texas Bus Slams Into Waiting Line of Cars On Highway Ramp”
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Tomas Lopez, a Hallandale Beach, north of Miami Florida, lifeguard was fired for helping to rescue a swimmer who was 1500 feet outside his company’s contracted zone of responsibility. Alerted to the distressed swimmer, Lopez did what comes naturally to lifeguards, he ran to help.
Continue reading “Lifeguard Fired For Saving Life Outside Contracted Area”
There is a bizarre lawsuit shaping up in Manhattan. Lawyer Kenechukwu Okoli has filed a defamation and assault complaint against Paul Hastings partner Allan Bloom over an encounter at a 2011 deposition. During the deposition Okoli slapped Bloom and now claims that he was assaulted by accidental spittle and defamed when Bloom called him “uncivilized, ignorant and incompetent.” Remarkably, Bloom did not file for assault but in his Motion To Dismiss, Bloom (the accused spitter) says that there is no grounds for libel or assault by Okoli (the alleged spittee), who is seeking $1 million.
A Virginia woman has filed a lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, its bishop, and an anti-abortion ministry for what she alleges was sexual assault during an exorcism. The woman claims that the Rev. Thomas Euteneuer, then president of Front Royal-based Human Life International Inc., made her repeatedly take off her clothes and then caressed and kissed her — saying that he was “blowing the Holy Spirit” into her. She said it gradually dawned on her that this was not your standard exorcism. The case will apparently explore the difference between showing why “Jesus Loves You” and showing how “Jesus loves you.”
Continue reading “The Rogue Exorcist Defense: Priest Accused Of Sexually Assaulting Woman During Exorcisms”
Now this is an interesting tort. A diner at Cheeseburger in Paradise in California, Maryland (yes, that is the city’s name) was bitten by a skunk on the foot as she sat eating her meal. Worse yet, the skunk was rabid.
Continue reading “Rabid Skunk In Paradise: Diner Bitten By Rabid Animal In Maryland”
In Texas, two school employees have been sued after they allegedly verbally abused a boy for being “smelly” and forced him to strip and shower in front of them. The boy was just eight years old and attended Peaster Elementary School. The child’s parents, Amber and Michael Tilley, also filed a police report but no charges were brought against the employees. The lawsuit names Peaster Independent School District and Peaster Elementary School employees Julie West and Debbie Van Rite in federal court in Fort Worth.
Continue reading “Texas School Sued After Forcing “Smelly” Kid To Strip and Shower At School”
There is an interesting defamation lawsuit announced this week by the Miss Universe Organization. The organization which runs the Miss Universe and Miss USA contests (and is co-owned by Donald Trump) is suing Sheena Monnin, who resigned recently as Miss Pennsylvania. Monnin, 27, charged that the competition is rigged and that a fellow contestant saw a list of the top five selectees in the Miss USA pageant before they were actually selected on the program.
Continue reading “Miss Pennsylvania Sued Over Allegations that Pageant Is Rigged”
A disturbing lawsuit has been filed against the Baltimore County Police Department by Linda Johnson over the death of her husband, Architect Carl D. Johnson on May 27, 2010. Johnson was pepper sprayed, tasered, and beaten before his death on the way home from Bible study class.
In May 2009, a mentally disturbed man, James Bayliss, then 21, was beaten at a traffic stop in Warren County, New Jersey. While the family and other demanded answers, the police said little. Now, a long withheld police video has surfaced that shows troopers severely beating Bayliss who was thrown to the ground and pummeled by multiple officers. Critics are now demanding to know why the film was withheld and why the actions taken by the police was also withheld from the public.
It is apparently not a good argument to compare contracting herpes to spilled coffee. It took just two hours for a jury to find a 69-year-old Oregon dentist liable for giving a nurse herpes. It was however the attorneys arguments in court that raises eyebrows. Defense attorney Shawn Lillegren attacked the nurse as a liar who said that she was just trying to be the next spilled coffee litigant to win the litigation lottery and that she needs to grow up. If so, she got it. The jury awarded her the full amount demanded in damages: $900,000 for her pain and suffering
In my torts class, we often discuss the per se categories of slander and how they can evolve with societal norms. In particular, we discuss whether calling someone gay should remain per se defamatory as a category of moral turpitude (it once was also viewed as falling under alleged criminal conduct). Now, a court in New York has ruled that being called gay, lesbian or bisexual is no longer defamatory. Justice Thomas Mercure of the Appellate Division’s Third Department based in Albany handed down the significant ruling.
Continue reading “New York Court Rules That Calling Someone Gay Is No Longer Defamatory”
Patricia Walker was no doubt flattered. While many husband have to be pushed to bring even flowers on their wife’s birthday, Walker’s husband Bobby Tennison showered her with gifts from Neiman Marcus — $1.4 million worth of gifts ($850,000 in 2009 alone). Then Walker discovered that Tennison was having an affair with her “personal shopper” at Neiman. Even the woman’s name seems to come out of a dime novel, Favi Lo. It was a clever concept for an affair: the wife gets a steady stream of gifts, the mistress gets commissions on the gifts, the husband gets the mistress. If true, it is like the Trade Triangle of Affair but instead of Molasses to Rum to Slaves, Tennison created Gifts to Commissions to Sex. Here is the really groovy part: Walker is suing Neiman Marcus.