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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• Roommate referral website does not discriminate by allowing users to list their preferences for roommate characteristics. "Holding that the [Fair Housing Act] applies inside a home or apartment ... would be a serious invasion of privacy, autonomy and security."
Fair Housing Council v. Roommate.com

• Student alleges a prank involving a bottle rocket and another student's anus backfired, causing him to fall off the deck of a frat house.
Helmburg v. Alpha Tau Omega

• 5th Circuit reinstates a jury verdict finding a man employed by an engineering firm was sexually harassed by a male supervisor. "The text message 'I want cock' could be taken as an explicit sexual proposition." 
Cherry v. Shaw Coastal

• The ex-wife of a man who fatally shot himself with a gun he had stolen cannot sue the gun's owner for wrongful death. "We conclude that public policy dictates that [Charles] Milot's criminal conduct acts as a bar to recovery."
Ryan v. Hughes-Ortiz

• Pennsylvania woman alleges her former employer discriminated against her because she wore a fake penis to assist her in her female-to-male transition. "Plaintiff's use of the prosthetic device was concealed and in no way interfered with the ability of Plaintiff to do her job." Davis v. J&J Snack Foods

• Son of a woman charged with murdering her husband cannot use the proceeds from the victim's life insurance policy to fund his mother's criminal defense. "[A]llowing the distribution of these proceeds to a third party who has clear intentions to transfer part of these proceeds to her, undermines the principles underlying the Slayer’s Act and federal common law."
In Re: Estate of Michael Burkland

• Seattle judge says an actress cannot proceed anonymously in her suit against the IMDb.com website for publishing her age. "[W]hile Plaintiff may face public ridicule and embarrassment if she elects to go forward under her real name, the injury she fears is not severe enough to justify permitting her to proceed anonymously."
Doe v. Amazon.com

• Family of an 11-year-old girl who was crushed by a boulder of ice says forest ranger negligence caused her death. Rangers "did not warn users of the risk of harm associated with the dangerous, unstable snow and ice" at the Big Four Ice Caves in Snohomish County, Wash. Tam v. U.S.

• 3rd Circuit dismisses a breach of data security case against a payroll-processing company. "Appellants' allegations of an increased risk of identity theft as a result of the security breach are hypothetical, future injuries."
Reilly v. Ceridian Corp.

• Oregon judge denies First Amendment protections to a blogger. "Defendant cites no cases indicating that a self-proclaimed 'investigative blogger' is considered 'media' for the purposes of applying a negligence standard in a defamation claim."
Obsidian Finance v. Cox

• A transsexual who was fired from her government job while she was in the process of becoming a woman wins her sex discrimination suit. "[A] government agent violates the Equal Protection Clause’s prohibition of sex-based discrimination when he or she fires a transgender or transsexual employee because of his or her gender non-conformity."
Glenn v. Brumby

• New York man sues a Texas fertility clinic for wrongful insemination, alleging it failed to obtain his consent before using a sample of his sperm to impregnate his ex-girlfriend.
Pressil v. Advanced Fertility

• Nebraska judge rules that school officials may have illegally disciplined students for wearing t-shirts in honor of a slain friend suspected of gang membership. "[Q]uestions of fact remain whether Plaintiffs’ speech occurred in a context likely to provoke gang violence or other disruptions of school activities."
Kuhr v. Millard Public Sch. Dist.




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Judge Gets Wish as Video Shows Misuse of Taser Print


The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals may have tried to cover up a particularly deplorable decision in a civil-rights case by not publishing it. But the videotape of a Florida police officer repeatedly tasering a handcuffed motorist has now shown up on YouTube --- with the apparent support of the dissenting judge.

As the video graphically shows, Washington County Sheriff's Deputy Jonathan Rackard used his taser during a traffic stop not to subdue a resisting suspect -– the purpose for which the stun gun is designed –- but as a “pain-compliance” device to force Jesse Buckley to stand up and get into his police car.

The distinction was lost on a 2-1 majority of the 11th Circuit which, in an unpublished Sept. 9 opinion, reversed a trial court judge and summarily dismissed Buckley's excessive force case against Rackard.

“Defendant’s use of force in this particular situation was not outside the range of reasonable conduct under the Fourth Amendment,” Chief Judge J. L. Edmondson, referring to the tasering of Buckley as “moderate, nonlethal force” that properly effected the state's interest in “arrests being completed efficiently and without waste of limited resources.”

U.S. District Judge Beverly B. Martin of Georgia, sitting by designation, vehemently disagreed with the majority. “[T]he Fourth Amendment forbids an officer from discharging repeated bursts of electricity into an already handcuffed misdemeanant --- who is sitting still beside a rural road and unwilling to move -- simply to goad him into standing up,” she said in her dissent.

In the recent excessive force case of Scott v. Harris, the U.S. Supreme Court released the police videotape along with its decision. The 11th Circuit majority did not follow that example, but Martin sidestepped them.

“A video captured the events in question, and I suggest it be published together with this opinion,” she wrote, citing Scott.

Buckley attorney James V. Cook of Tallahassee, Fla., took the hint and posted the six-minute video on YouTube earlier this week. Any reasonable viewer can only agree with Martin that the arrest of Buckley was anything but efficient.

“Each five-second discharge [of the taser] in fact frustrated Deputy Rackard’s efforts in getting Mr. Buckley to stand and walk to the police car,” the judge said.

Rackard arrested Buckley, who was financially destitute and homeless, for refusing to sign a citation for speeding. After being handcuffed, Buckley received three taser discharges, leaving him with 16 burn scars.

In a concurrence, Circuit Judge Joel F. Dubina said that “Rackard’s conduct of applying the taser on the third occasion violated the Constitution,” but “such violation was not clearly established” in case law at the time.

Cook is preparing a motion for rehearing en banc.

UPDATE

  • The 11th Circuit denied Buckley's petition for rehearing Nov. 5, 2008.


  • This story linked by:


    By Matthew Heller
    9/17/08

     

     
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      A guest who paid for sex with a prostitute at a Motel 6 did not assume the risk of being attacked several hours later by the prostitute's pimp, a Pennsylvania judge has ruled in an unusual premises liability lawsuit against the motel operator.
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