But the case has taken some strange turns and has morphed into a Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim defamation suit with key evidence being Laurie Fine sex allegations, reports the New York Post.
]]> After former Syracuse ball boy, and purported Bernie Fine victim, Mark Davis stepped forward with the sexual abuse allegations, Jim Boeheim stepped up and defended his assistant calling Davis an opportunistic liar, reports the Post. As a result, Davis sued the university and Boeheim for defamation saying that the coach engaged in a smear campaign against him.To prove defamation, the plaintiff generally has to show that the defendant carelessly made a false statement that damaged the plaintiff’s reputation. In Jim Boeheim’s case, Davis says that the coach was negligent calling him a liar as the coach should have known there were strange sexual relationships going on between his players and Bernie Fine’s wife, thereby giving some merit to Davis’ claims of sexual abuse.
This claim seems to be a bit tenuous, but it has nevertheless generated plenty of tabloid fodder involving Laurie Fine sex allegations. For example, she was accused of having multiple sexual relationships with players and it was supposedly well known in the locker room that any player could have sex with her.
The Mark Davis sexual abuse claim has taken many twists and turns. The focus of the lawsuit now appears to be the Jim Boeheim defamation suit and salacious Laurie Fine sex allegations.
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This follows a similar incident three months ago when two juveniles threw a shopping cart onto a mother at a Harlem Target store. However, unlike the earlier incident, it appears that the Bronx shopping cart incident had more nefarious motives than just two kids playing around, as was the case at the Harlem Target, reports the New York Post.
]]> Police say that the two victims of the Bronx shopping cart crash may have been targeted. The victims, 52-year-old Camara Lounceny and 30-year-old Sagne Ibrahima, were both African immigrants and were livery car drivers. It’s believed that Dominican livery rivals deliberately attacked them as they walked to the Home Depot, reports the Post.The suspects are in custody and they will likely face criminal charges for assault and battery. They could also be sued in a civil suit, and unlike the Harlem incident, the suspects would be on the hook for the full extent of the damages they caused as they do not appear to be minors. In the Harlem Target incident, the parents of the minor suspects faced limited liability for the actions of their children.
When a Bronx shopping cart was thrown down from a parking garage, two African immigrants were seriously injured. Rival livery car drivers are alleged to be behind the shopping cart incident. The suspects face criminal liability and could be sued as well.
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An unidentified 29-year-old paralegal and aspiring model says that Good Day New York host Greg Kelly raped her after a couple of drinks at a Manhattan bar following a chance encounter on the streets, reports the New York Post.
]]> The woman says she was starstruck and had sex with the television anchor at the law firm where she worked. Whether the sex happened does not appear to be at issue; however, there is question as to whether the sex was consensual.As investigators look into the accident, including the pattern of text messages between Kelly and the woman, they are starting to believe that the woman agreed to the sex and then felt guilty about it, reports the Post. The two had apparently “sexted” several times leading up to the night of the alleged rape. After the alleged rape, the texting continued as the woman apparently wanted to hook up again.
If it is true that the woman fabricated the Greg Kelly rape story, you may be wondering what recourse the television anchor has. His reputation was damaged from the accusation, as evidenced by his time off air on his Fox morning show. Additionally, many people may stop following the story after the initial crush of Greg Kelly rape headlines.
Still, it’s not clear if Kelly can sue the woman for defamation as the charges were arguably made in a judicial proceeding — the statements made to police officers which could be used in a legal proceeding.
Greg Kelly was accused of rape. The facts appear not to support the accusation, and the television host may now be looking for ways to clean up his reputation.
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She says that she performed an “astounding sex act” on De La Hoya and when it was done, the boxing champ was still not ready to call it a day, attempting to wake her up several times during the night to do it all over again, reports the New York Post. Oscar De La Hoya does not deny any of this.
]]> According to the champ’s lawyer, De La Hoya and Cecora engaged in all of these sex acts. He summed it up as De La Hoya calling her up for dinner, eating dinner, having sex, having more sex, Cecora’s roommate coming over, leading to even more, wilder sex. And as the two adults allegedly consented to all this wild sex, his lawyer says there is nothing for De Lay Hoya to be liable for.In her lawsuit, Cecora wants $5 million from the boxer. In his response, De La Hoya wants the lawsuit thrown out as frivolous and Cecora’s lawyer sanctioned.
Generally, a frivolous lawsuit is one that has no legal merit. It may be a lawsuit that is brought simply to annoy, waste time, or to gain time in the spotlight. De La Hoya’s camp says that Cecora brought this sensationalized lawsuit just so the wannabe model could get her 15 minutes of fame.
The Oscar De La Hoya lawsuit charges the boxer with dressing up as a woman and performing all sorts of weird sex. While all of this may be true, it may also be perfectly okay behavior between two consenting adults.
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Susanna Barrett filed the Toddlers and Tiaras lawsuit against TMZ, Huffington Post, and Daily Mail after the three news outlets criticized her for having young Isabella Barrett parade around a stage singing the lyrics to "I'm Sexy and I Know It" while reportedly "gyrating," reports the New York Post.
]]> Barrett does not deny that her daughter was on the stage. Nor does she deny that the five-year-old was singing a song about being sexy. Instead, the mother denies the reports that she acted as a disc jockey (another person was the DJ), that the event happened at a club (it was a restaurant), and that her daughter was gyrating (she was sitting), reports the Post.As a result, Barrett says that she and her daughter suffered harm because they were subject to ridicule and her daughter was sexualized in the media. To win her defamation claim, Barrett would have to show that a published statement was made that was false and caused her injury.
Assuming the statements to be false, Barrett may still have a hard time showing that the incorrect statements actually caused her injury. A lot of the outrage over the "I'm sexy and I know it" performance may have been due to the fact that the five-year-old was singing this song at all, and not so much the venue or whether the little girl was sitting or standing.
In addition, Susanna Barrett willingly thrust her girl into the public eye by participating in Toddlers and Tiaras, which focuses on the apparent ridiculousness of entering toddlers in beauty contests. If the mother was so afraid of publicizing or sexualizing her daughter, she might have reconsidered participating in the show in the first place.
Susanna Barrett brought a Toddlers and Tiaras lawsuit against three media outlets that essentially criticized her mothering skills. Even if the media outlets were factually incorrect in small ways, the Barretts may have a hard time proving injury as their appearance on the show may work against them.
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In the most recent incident, Burress was accused of rear-ending a Florida woman, Alise Smith, with his Mercedes-Benz in 2008. In the Plaxico Burress car accident lawsuit, the woman says that she suffered neck and back injuries, reports the New York Post.
]]> Burress apparently did not want to settle the case and let the case go to trial. The facts of the case were not reported, but trial may have been the wrong choice as the court found him culpable and ordered him to pay Smith $125,000, plus interest.Typically, in a car accident claim, the court will look at who was at fault or negligent in causing the accident. If Burress was speeding, texting and driving, drunk, or otherwise distracted while driving his Benz, he could have been found responsible for rear-ending Smith.
The year 2008 was not kind to the wide receiver. Besides the Plaxico Burress car accident lawsuit, he also famously shot himself in the leg at a Manhattan nightclub. Since that time, he has gone to jail, been released from both jail and by the Giants, and was signed by the New York Jets.
He has remained relatively trouble-free since his release from prison, to the detriment of New York attorneys.
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Jonathon Bari suffered severe injuries in the Long Island car accident, and this week a jury awarded him $100,000, reports the New York Post.
]]> When Romano was only 18 she was introduced to Bari by a mutual friend. They hit it off, or at least Romano thought they did, and she was furious when she discovered that Bari wanted to see other women and only wanted to be friends, reports the Post.While most heart-broken teens would have cried or listened to sad music on an endless loop, Da Darkside Angel sharpened her assassin's instincts she honed from playing fantasy games four hours a day for ten years and plotted her revenge.
In October 2004, Romano tailed Bari's car on Nicholls Road. She was apparently only inches away from his car forcing him to veer away and lose control. Bari's truck rolled over twice, and he was in a coma for 14 days. He also suffered facial fractures and knocked-out teeth, reports the Post.
In his civil suit against Romano, the jury awarded Bari $100,000 after finding that Romano drove recklessly. In its ruling, the jury said that Romano was 67 percent negligent, suggesting that Bari's bad driving may have contributed to the accident as well.
In New York, the negligence of the driver in causing a car accident is not an automatic bar to collecting damages. Instead, a New York City car lawyer will tell you that the state uses a comparative negligence standard where the victim's own negligence may reduce damages, but does not eliminate them.
Ashley Romano took her fantasy avenger role too seriously by causing a Long Island car accident that severely injured her love interest, Jonathon Bari. Both drivers were found to have driven negligently, but because Romano was determined to be more at fault, Bari collected $100,000.
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Perhaps BMW should retract their slogan, “The Ultimate Driving Machine,” as they were apparently aware of this problem since 2009. The company failed to take steps like recalling the vehicle or notifying the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) until the NHTSA began its own independent investigation, reports The New York Times.
]]> In a report, BMW, the parent company of Mini, said that the auxiliary water pump designed to dissipate heat from the turbocharger in the engine was the cause of the fires, reports the Times. Apparently, the pump's circuit board may malfunction, allowing the board to overheat and the water pump to fail.The first report of a water-pump failure occurred in 2009. While BMW said they monitored the situation, they did not notify the NHTSA.
In October 2011, the NHTSA began its own investigation after receiving numerous complaints about Mini engine fires from owners, reports the Times. After the NHTSA took action, BMW finally decided this month to recall the vehicles. The models affected by the recall are:
If you have been injured by a car involved in the Mini Cooper recall or other defective product, you should contact a Manhattan product liability attorney. An experienced attorney can help you learn your rights and recover the damages you are entitled to.
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State Health Commissioner Nirav Shah says that the radioactive tissue boxes were never a threat to the people in the state as they were removed from store shelves before being sold, reports the New York Daily News. Still, shoppers in other states may have been exposed.
]]> Bed Bath & Beyond has kept New York City products liability lawyers busy recently with exploding firepots, and now the company may be facing new issues with radioactive tissue boxes. Who could have thought that home products could be so dangerous?According to officials, the Dual Ridge tissue boxes contained small amounts of cobalt-60. It’s not clear why the metal boxes contained the radioactive element, but consumers exposed to the elements in the product for prolonged periods may experience an increased risk for cancer, reports the Daily News.
Perhaps learning from its past recalls, Bed Bath & Beyond has reportedly pulled the product from their sales floor and has issued a full recall as well as offers of a full refund, says the Daily News.
However, if you have been injured by the radioactive tissue boxes, or any other consumer good, you may want to speak with a New York City personal injury lawyer to learn your rights. Companies are generally responsible for dangerous and defective products that hit store shelves, and you will want to know how you can collect damages.
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However, pedestrians may want to consider bucking this trend and removing their earbuds and headphones while walking. This is especially the case given a new University of Maryland study that found a much higher rate of pedestrian headphone injuries and accidents, compared to the number of accidents involving pedestrians not wearing headphones, reports Fox News.
]]> According to the study, pedestrians walking around with headphones were three times more likely to be involved in a pedestrian-car accident. Additionally, 70 percent of these accidents turned out to be fatal, reports Fox News.Most of the injuries happened to pedestrians under the age of 30, and a researcher branded the effect of walking and listening to music “inattentional blindness,” as the pedestrian is so distracted by stimuli that he or she fails to see an oncoming car or other road hazard.
To make matters worse, those injured in a pedestrian-car accident may not be able to sue for damages. Pedestrians who cause accidents, or were equally careless in causing accidents, are unlikely to prevail in lawsuits and probably won’t be able to collect damages.
Pedestrian headphone injuries are on the rise. However, this may not be a case for a New York City products liability lawyer as distracted people are seemingly causing injuries as opposed to defective products.
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Many in New York may not know who Michael Brown is, but apparently he is well known in Houston social circles where he used to be a successful hand surgeon before losing his medical license for drug use several years ago, reports the New York Post.
]]> Between his medical practice and self-published books about safaris, Brown appears to have made lots of money, including enough money to charter a private plane and ski in Aspen.In fact, it was in Aspen where Brown met the unidentified Manhattan businesswoman he allegedly gave herpes to. In a romance that developed over the summer and ended the day after Christmas, the longest-lasting gift that Brown may have given the woman was the STD, reports the Post.
Now the businesswoman has sued Brown for staying silent about his STD. Her lawyer says, "if you've got a disease and you don't tell your partner, it's illegal."
So can you sue someone for giving you an STD? The answer is yes, however, whether you prevail will depend upon the facts.
Generally, if you punch someone, you can be liable for battery for intentionally touching someone and causing injury. Similarly, if you know you are contagious with a disease, you could arguably be held liable for personal injuries if you knowingly have the disease and have sex with someone without telling them about it. Like with a punch, someone can be severely injured (or even die) from an STD.
Former Houston doctor Michael Brown is probably more comfortable talking to New York City medical malpractice lawyers than he is personal injury lawyers. But the ex-doctor better get himself a good New York City personal injury lawyer soon.
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And this recall is for a pretty big mix-up, reports The Associated Press.
]]> Apparently, the Novartis manufacturing plant in Lincoln, Nebraska may have allowed strong prescription painkillers like Percocet, Endocet, Opana and Zydone to be mixed in with the much milder over-the-counter medications listed above. As a result, those reaching for something to settle their stomachs or help them stay awake may be in for a deadly surprise when they take a powerful opiod instead.According to the AP, not all of the drugs are subject to the recall: Only Excedrin and NoDoz medications with expiration dates of Dec. 20, 2014, and Bufferin and Gas-X medication with expiration dates of Dec. 20, 2013 or earlier, are affected.
So if you have any of these drugs in your medicine cabinet, you should throw them out or contact the company for a refund.
Additionally, if you've been injured by such a recalled or defective product, you may want to contact a New York City products liability lawyer to learn your rights. Generally, the manufacturer of defective drugs or improperly labeled drugs are liable for any mistakes they make. A competent attorney can help you enforce your rights and recover damages for any injuries.
The Excedrin recall and Gas-X recall are all part of a massive recall by Novartis. Consumers who have the affected batches of these drugs should stop taking these products immediately.
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On January 6, Minhee Cho stopped by a local Papa John’s to get a pizza. To her surprise, when she checked her receipt, she saw that her customer name was written as “lady chinky eyes,” reports ABC. Cho quickly tweeted an image of the Papa John’s racist receipt and the story went viral.
]]> Papa John's took swift action and apologized, adding that the offending employee was going to be terminated, reports ABC. But while this story was resolved mostly likely with advice from a NYC employment lawyer, you may be wondering if Minhee Cho would be able to resolve her complaint with a New York City personal injury lawyer as well.Unfortunately, as offensive as the receipt may have been, Cho probably does not have a personal injury claim that can win her any damages.
For example, a single racist receipt probably does not rise to the level of discrimination or harassment. Companies may be held liable for race discrimination or harassment against customers, but the offensive actions usually have to be pretty severe before someone would be able to collect damages.
Additionally, Minhee Cho would probably have a hard time convincing a jury she suffered severe emotional distress due to the stupid racist comment.
Not all offensive conduct leads to legal liability. In the case of the Papa John's racist receipt, the offending employee was fired. But this move was probably more of a public relations maneuver than a legal maneuver.
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In the New York Sports Club lawsuit, the gym is being sued by two members who claim that a female employee barged into the men’s locker room and ordered the customers out. The customers were in varying stages of undress and the female employee allegedly would not leave and let them dress in peace, reports the New York Post.
]]> At about closing time, two gym members say the female employee identified as "Shaymean" barged into the locker and started yelling at everyone to get out as the gym was closed, reports the Post. Despite pleas to leave, Shaymean hung around for ten minutes, refusing to leave while barking orders at the patrons to hurry up, get dressed, and go.After finally getting dressed, the two gym members complained to management and filed a harassment claim with cops. They are now suing for sexual harassment and should consider adding an invasion of privacy claim as well.
When you join a gym (especially a Manhattan gym it seems), you don't have many expectations of privacy. After all, you should expect very many people changing together packed in relatively small confines. But having little expectations of privacy does not mean having no expectations of privacy.
Regardless of how small a gym you join, you don't expect members of the opposite sex to barge in while you are changing. That's why there are separate locker rooms for men, women, and oftentimes families.
So when a female employee barged into the men's locker and refused to leave as alleged in the New York Sports Club lawsuit, what little expectations of privacy the gym members had were arguably broken. Now the sports club may be on the lookout for a good NYC business attorney who can argue Shaymean's acts were not the company's acts.
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But when elevators do not work properly, they come down in a crashing heap and we have a Manhattan elevator accident like the one that killed sales executive Suzanne Hart last month or the one that allegedly crippled fitness trainer Corey Hill back in November.
]]> Corey Hill, 34, is a former fitness trainer in Manhattan and lived in a 26th floor luxury West Side apartment, reports the New York Daily News. On November 12, Hill says he stepped inside the elevator of the luxury building, where the elevator then took a sudden free fall before jerking to a halt.Hill says he suffered neck and back injuries from the fall and that he was hospitalized for two weeks, reports the Daily News. Additionally, Hill claims that he suffered spinal damage that affected his ability to walk, thereby putting an end to his personal training career.
In his lawsuit, the trainer sued his landlord as well as the elevator company that maintained and inspected the building's elevators -- Transel Elevator and Electric. If Transel rings a bell, that's because they're the same company that worked on the Madison Avenue elevator that killed Suzanne Hart.
However, just because Transel was involved in both accidents, this does not mean an automatic win for a Manhattan product liability attorney. Instead, to prove fault, the plaintiffs still have to show that something Transel did (or didn't do) contributed to the accident and caused the injuries.
For example, if something beyond Transel's control, like an unforeseeable power surge or misuse of the elevator, caused both accidents, the elevator inspection company could argue that they should not be held liable.
Transel Elevator and Electric has been involved in two elevator accidents recently. The company's culpability has still not been determined, but they will likely need a better defense than gravity to avoid blame.
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