John Doe A v. Penn State
First Penn State scandal lawsuit says Coach Jerry Sandusky sexually abused a boy more than 100 times and the abuse was enabled by the school's "negligent oversight."
Bradley v. Lohan
Former Betty Ford Center employee sues Lindsay Lohan for assault, alleging the actress threw a phone at her and yanked her wrist while refusing to be breathalzyed.
N.D. v. New York Post
Hotel maid allegedly raped by French politician sues the New York Post for falsely reporting that she is a prostitute who "routinely traded sex for money" with male guests.
Reinhart v. Mortenson
Two Montana residents allege the author of "Three Cups of Tea" "fabricated material about his activities and work in Pakistan and Afghanistan" to sell the book.
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• Maryland appeals court says dog owners can be held strictly liable for pit bull attacks. "Because of its aggressive and vicious nature and its capability to inflict serious and sometimes fatal injuries, pit bulls and cross-bred pit bulls are inherently dangerous." Tracey v. Solesky

• Woman who has been diagnosed as a sex addict sues a school district for failing to prevent her from having sex with male students on the school bus when she was in 11th grade.
Barksdale v. Egg Harbor Township Bd. of Ed.

• Civil rights activist challenges Georgia's "stand your ground law." "By not defining what actions create a reasonable perception justifying the use of deadly force, the Act[] potentially deprives all Georgia[n]s of the right to life without due process of law." Hutchins v. Deal

• Former patient of a Rhode Island doctor sues him for featuring her in a book about drug addiction. "Plaintiff had expected, as any reasonable patient would, that her private conversations during her treatment sessions with the Defendant would remain private and confidential."
Lisnoff v. Stein

• Class action alleges the YMCA deceives consumers by representing that it practices "Christian" values while allowing its gyms to be used for gay sex trysts. "YMCAs around the country ... are currently being used as brothels for cruising, with the YMCA's knowledge and implicit consent."
Keister v. YMCA

• Social workers are not liable for a sexual assault on a 5-year-old boy by a 16-year-old male placed in an adoptive home. "To rule against the individual defendants in this case would definitely break new ground."
Doe v. Braddy

• Student sues college for refusing to grant her the "reasonable accommodation" of a single room after she complained about her roommate's exhibitionist behavior.
Blankmeyer v. Stonehill College

• School district can be sued over a guidance counselor's sexual relationship with a student who was over the age of consent. "The inherent imbalance of power between a guidance counselor in a public school and a student may render opportunistic sexual predation sufficiently shocking, even with a 'consenting' student over sixteen, to form the basis of a substantive due process claim."
Doe v. Fournier

• Utah judge finds a "credible threat" that Utah County officials will prosecute a polygamist and his wives for bigamy. The officials' acts "suggest that an actual prosecution of Plaintiffs is forthcoming."
Brown v. Herbert

• Louisville, Ky., strip club sues a competitor for displaying an electronic sign outside a convention center that said "Don't go to Godfathers, their girls are ugly and have crabs."
The Godfather v. Trixie's Lounge

• A lawyer cannot sue two women he dated for posting derogatory comments about him on liarscheatersrus.com. "[W]hen viewed within the larger context of the website on which they were posted, there can be no doubt that a reasonable reader would understand the comments to be opinion." Coulotte v. Ryncarz

• Oglala Sioux tribe sues beer makers and Whiteclay, Neb., bars for enabling alcohol abuse on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The illegal trade in alcohol has "caused devastating injuries to the Lakota people and massive financial damages to the [tribe]."
Oglala Sioux Tribe v. Schwarting




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Jury Clears Publisher of Injuring Girl with Gay Porn Ad Print

A former reality show contestant has lost an unusual negligent mailing case as a Tennessee jury found a publisher was not liable for exposing his 12-year-old daughter to an ad for a gay porn magazine it had mailed to him.

Kent Blackwelder

Kent Blackwelder's daughter thought she was getting an offer for a Disney video when she opened a plain white envelope marked only with the words, “New! Free DVD Offer Enclosed.” Instead, Madison Blackwelder saw an ad from Specialty Publications of Los Angeles soliciting subscribers to its Freshmen magazine.

The girl was “horribly shocked to see numerous sexually explicit photographs of completely nude males showing genitalia sexually aroused,” Blackwelder said in a complaint in which he and Madison requested a whopping $3.85 million in emotional distress damages.

Postal regulations say sexually oriented advertising must be enclosed “in a sealed envelope or cover” unless the exterior envelope is marked with the words “Sexually Oriented Ad.” But a jury in Knoxvile, Tenn., last week rejected the Blackwelders' claim that Specialty was negligent in failing to follow those rules.

“Do I wish it hadn't happened?” Specialty attorney Richard L. Hollow asked jurors in his closing argument. “Yes. Do I believe children should be protected? You bet. But it's not up to everybody else to take care of our children.”

Kent Blackwelder, who was a contestant in the second season of the “Big Brother” reality show, also argued Specialty was liable for sending him unsolicited advertising. “He didn't solicit this,” his lawyer, David A. Burkhalter II, told jurors. “He's not gay — not that there's anything wrong with that.”

But Hollow said Blackwelder's name and address wound up on Specialty's mailing list because he had previously entered an online contest sponsored by The Out Traveler, another of the publisher's gay magazines. The contest offered an all-expenses paid trip for two to a “gay friendly” destination.

Specialty's porn bomb arrived in the Blackwelders' mail on May 28, 2007, offering a free gift of the “TitanMen's Farm Fresh” DVD with a subscription to Freshmen. Madison testified that the envelope contained a tri-folded brochure with no warning label and with only a small “wafer seal” to prevent it from opening automatically.

“Did you open that seal?” Hollow asked Madison. “It looks to me like it's been cut. Nobody cut that?”

“No,” she replied.

A former postal inspector testified for the Blackwelders that the wafer fastener was not an adequate seal and the contents of the brochure could still be viewed even if the wafer was intact. “Clearly the composition of this mailing did not confirm to the regulations issued by the United States Postal Service,” Russell Fallis concluded in his report.

Madison, though, only glimpsed the contents for about five seconds and she may have strained credulity by testifying that what she saw made her afraid of “being kidnapped.”

Specialty also had a First Amendment defense, arguing in a brief that it “had a right to use the U.S. Mail for the purpose of transmitting [constitutionally protected material] to the Blackwelder home. The Defendant was not required to obtain the consent or approval of Plaintiff, Kent Blackwelder, for the purpose of any mail solicitation sent to him.”

Blackwelder denied entering the Out Traveler contest but Hollow suggested former co-workers at a temporary employment agency submitted his name and address “as a prank or act of vengeance.” Specialty's records showed he received at least one of its other mailings without complaint.

Other Sources


This story linked by:


By Matthew Heller
12/20/10


 

Editor's note: On Point's RSS feed has moved to this link.

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