Results tagged “lawsuit”

Two uniformed cops who ejected a Red Sox fan from Yankee Stadium last summer when he tried to use the bathroom during "God Bless America" have cost NYC taxpayers some $20,000 in settlement money. But the good news is that Yankee Stadium will now allow attendees relieve themselves during the Seventh Inning stretch! You'll recall that last August, one Brad Campeau-Laurion refused to obey an NYPD officer who ordered him back to his seat when he tried to use the bathroom as "God Bless America" played. According to Campeau-Laurion, two officers then forcefully threw him out, with one of the officers telling him to "leave the country if he didn’t like it." In the wake of 9/11, Yankee stadium began requiring spectators to remain in their seats during patriotic songs, in some cases extending chains to block the ends of the aisles. But after a lawsuit filed by the NYCLU over "enforced patriotism," a settlement was reached yesterday whereby Campeau-Laurion gets $10,001 from the city, the NYCLU gets $12,000 for legal fees, and baseball fans are granted the liberty to micturate at will.

It was almost a year ago that a Times Square tourist happened to videotape a police officer's seemingly unprovoked assault on a cyclist during a Critical Mass group bike ride. The video, which depicts rookie cop Patrick Pogan slamming 30-year-old cyclist Christopher Long off his bike, sparked widespread outrage and ended up costing Pogan his job (getting caught filing a false police report didn't help his case, either). Long is now living in rural Wisconsin and working on a farm, but according to his lawyer, "There is psychological trauma, which explains why he is not living in New York City right now. It is a terrible experience for him to go through." So naturally he's suing the city, for $1.5 million, to help ease the pain.

In what doesn't seem like the brightest idea in urban planning, a Staten Island prison may be located too close to a facility where combatants pay a fee to simulate wartime conditions and chase each other around while shooting guns at one another—paintball guns that is. Now a prisoner at Arthur Kill Correctional Facility is suing the paintball facility for $3 million after he claims one splattery orange bullet sailed out of the paintball complex, over the wall of the prison and nailed him in the face while he was playing basketball. A medical report says that Steve McMillan's left eye was swollen and he complained of blurred vision, that "his hands, face and clothes were splattered with orange paint although none, apparently, was in his eye." But the owner of the paintball center told the SI Advance, "My gut instinct is it sounds like a fraudulent case. I don't think the [paint]balls can go that far." The paper also reports his claims that "the paintball fields are encased in woods, while the prison basketball court doesn't abut the fence alongside his center."

Patrick Swayze once memorably declared to Jerry Orbach, "No one puts Baby in the corner." But now a group of older men in Staten Island are declaring to their condo's board that "no one puts Poppy in the corner" either. The group of New Springville seniors call themselves "The Fined Five" after receiving $25 fines last winter when the board decided that their usual kibitzing in the lobby was loitering. The property manager said that "it's not a 55-and-older building," but compromised by finding them an unoccupied studio to hang out in. But now the men complain that they're being confined, with one saying, "I can't stay inside my sheetrock walls all day; I'll go crazy." So the Fined Five is suing the board, saying that their banishment is illegal and unnecessary. A neighbor whose apartment is adjoined to the lobby tells the SI Advance, "It's a bunch of old guys sitting around and talking about their wartime remembrances and fixing the motors in their cars. They're a lovely bunch of gentlemen." When asked what they do there, one of the Five told the Post, "We don't play Johnny on the pony in the lobby."

After widespread reports last summer that Olafur Eliasson’s waterfalls installation was damaging lots of nearby plantlife, the River Cafe has gone ahead with earlier threats and decided to sue New York's Public Art Fund and Eliasson to the tune of $3 million for an assortment of damages they say were brought on by their close proximity to one of the falls. Cafe owner Buzzy O'Keefe said, "There were 90 to 120 days of saltwater rain coming down on us. It ate up aluminum and steel. It short-circuited our electrics. We had fires on our roof. The paint was ruined, the awnings were ruined, our outdoor lights are broken, and a lot of our trees just couldn't take it. It's left the place destroyed. They did nothing." After initially denying that the waterfalls were causing any problems, the Public Art Fund did cut down the amount of time they were left on in half during through their run.

Well, they didn't knock him on the noggin like the Tony Awards, but they did play his song "Talk Dirty to Me" without permission. Cityfile reports on the latest in ASCAP/BMI lawsuits filed against New York clubs, saying "Earlier this week, BMI and a collection of labels and artists filed suit against Pianos on the Lower East Side" for playing that tune and others. The companies have been on a rampage, attacking Jay-Z's 40/40 club, Hiro, Cafe Wha? and others, but the site makes a good point: "securing the rights isn't all that expensive. A blanket license from ASCAP, for example, supposedly goes for as little as a dollar a day." Maybe a little more; when we talked to ASCAP VP Vincent Candilora, he told us "the average annual license fee for all bars, restaurants, nightclubs and similar establishments is less than $2.50 a day. With a maximum annual cost of $912.50." Well, the club certainly charges enough for their drinks to cover that cost, no?

Two nightclub bigshots have settled their lawsuit over their failed partnership opening a location of the legendary Laugh Factory inside Times Square's once X-rated Show World building. In the suit, Laugh Factory owner Jamie Masada (pictured) had claimed that Show World head Richard Basciano was hiding millions from him, threatened him with a gun and told him that "somebody could be killed if a certain comic was booked again. Basciano, an associate of the Gambino and Bonnano crime families, told the News that he was regretful for the "misunderstandings." Masada said, "We are pleased we were able to reach an amicable settlement" and that he "wishes Mr. Basciano all the best in his future endeavors." There was no word still on which comic could have really ended up killing if they had come back to the Big Apple—any hopes as to who it might be?

Nigerian heroin smuggler Rex Eguridu was just trying to be nice by complimenting correction officer Krystal Mack one fateful day back in April 2007, while he was being held at the Queens Private Correctional facility. But instead of a smile, all he got was a humiliating beating from Mack's supervisor for his remark, "Hello, baby. You look beautiful today." Eguridu appeared in Brooklyn Federal Court yesterday to testify against Lt. Marvin Wells, who he says overheard the compliment and proceeded to march him into the bathroom shower, ordered him to strip naked, and punched him three times in the chest and neck. Wells then allegedly forced Eguridu to kneel in front of Mack and apologize; he told a jury yesterday that "[Wells] said if I ever call an officer 'baby' again ... he's going to kill me." Eguridu sustained permanent injuries to his throat after the incident, and, according to the Daily News, received an $80,000 settlement from the GEO Group, which operates the jail under a contract with the U.S. Marshal's Service. Wells is now charged with violating Eguridu's civil rights, while Mack and two other guards are accused of conspiring to cover up the attack.

Thousands of pages of previously undisclosed documents compiled by lawyers for 9/11 victims' families probably won't be admissible in court. But they were passed along to the NY Times, which reports that they show Saudi "support for terrorist organizations" at least through 2006. Some documents, obtained from the Treasury Department through the Freedom of Information Act, include sworn statements from various witnesses detailing the transfer of millions of dollars from prominent Saudi charities to Al Qaeda and other extremist groups. At least one charity is controlled by members of the royal family, and another witness said in a sworn statement that he witnessed an emissary for a leading Saudi prince, Turki al-Faisal, hand a check for one billion Saudi riyals (now worth about $267 million) to a top Taliban leader in '98. The Justice Department, which recently urged the Supreme Court not to hear a lawsuit brought by families against the Saudi royal family, is now fighting to keep other leaked classified documents from surfacing in court.

An Upper East Side man is suing the owners of his building for $10 million after his doorman allegedly left him with severe injuries following "a seriously misguided effort to be social." 55-year-old Glenn Reit had just gotten back from a ski vacation when he crossed paths with doorman Fred Rosario, who excitedly told him to sit down and "close his eyes and pretend he was skiing," an always ominous request. Rosario's ski fantasy for Reit turned out to be less Bode Miller and more Sonny Bono when the doorman began laughing and yelled, "You've hit a tree!" and according to the suit, "planted a forceful karate chop on the back of the plaintiff's neck," that has left Reit "substantially disabled." Reit claims the chop cost him $7,000 in medical bills from "a herniated disc, vertigo, neck pain, blurry vision and a concussion." Rosario denies any karate chop and describes his interaction with Reit as being more like an Atomic Sit-Up, where the tree was simply played by a slap to Reit's forehead.

The widow of a Brooklyn man who died when he fall off an escalator last year is suing the Mets. 36-year-old Antonio Narainasami plunged 30 feet to his death when an escalator stopped suddenly at the Mets' old home. The lawsuit says that the escalator jerked, sending him over the railing and complains that it was "too steep, poorly maintained and needed higher railings." At the time of the accident last April, there was some speculation as to whether or not Narainasami was trying to slide down the rails when he fell. It was also customary for escalators at Shea to turn off in the seventh inning of games. The lawsuit filed in Queens Supreme Court by Ambeeka Narainasami also names the city and the elevator companies, Brink and Otis, as co-defendants. A lawyer for the city said, "We will review the case thoroughly, especially in a tragic case like this."

A group of NHL players is suing developer Ken Jowdy for taking the $25 million they invested in golf courses because they accuse him of "blowing it on parties packed with porn stars, hookers and his preferred baseball buddies, including ex-Yankees Roger Clemens and Reggie Jackson." The Post reports that one lawsuit's claims include: "Put a Clemens gal pal named Adrian Moore, described as a 'regular party attendee who was close to Clemens,' on his payroll 'as a personal favor' to the former Yankee Cy Young winner" and "Hired Brian MacNamee - the onetime Clemens trainer who told Congress he supplied the ballplayer with steroids - as a fitness trainer." The plaintiffs are seeking the $25 million back plus $15 million in damages, but Jowdy told the News, "There's not one statement of fact in the [lawsuit]...All I have to do is tell the truth. I have nothing to hide." Jowdy says he'll sue for libel.

Holden Caulfield has been preserved for the time being, as a federal judge ruled that the the unauthorized "sequel" to Catcher in the Rye cannot be published in the United States, at least temporarily. The NY Times reports that Judge Deborah A. Batts "granted a 10-day temporary restraining order forbidding publication in the United States of a new book by a Swedish author that contains a 76-year-old version of Holden Caulfield while she considers arguments in a copyright-infringement case filed by Mr. Salinger." This whole thing would be more interesting if J.D. Salinger were actually showing up in court. During one past lawsuit, some of his personal remarks (from letters he didn't want published) were leaked, including one written in response to his ex-girlfriend Oona O'Neill's marriage to Charlie Chaplin. He wrote, "I can see them at home evenings. Chaplin squatting grey and nude, atop his chiffonier, swinging his thyroid around his head by his bamboo cane, like a dead rat. Oona in an aquamarine gown, applauding madly from the bathroom." Old man still has those writing chops!

Bret Michaels is continuing to talk about his mishap at the Tony Awards, when he was clotheslined by a set, resulting in some injuries to his face, including a broken nose. The Poison front man and Rock of Love star tells People, "All in all, I'd like to think I feel okay. But I got to be honest with you, I feel pretty beat up....I want to make very clear to everybody that - first and foremost - I was honored to be asked to be at the Tonys. I'd never done it before and in all my life it's not something I thought I'd be on. I was really excited. There's no lawsuit. I'm not doing any of that. I'm taking the high road." Phew. And, um, somehow he's in People's Hottest Bachelors issue.

The 33-year-old author using the pen name J. D. California, who penned a sequel of sorts to the classic Catcher in the Rye, should have known that J.D. Salinger doesn't take too kindly to phony folk. California's book is described as “An Unauthorized Fictional Examination of the Relationship Between J. D. Salinger and his Most Famous Character,” and prior to its U.S. release it has landed in the courtroom. Unsurprising, since Salinger has even kept the likes of Steven Spielberg from touching his characters. While he hasn't published a new work since 1965, he's done a good job at preserving his old ones (often through lawsuits like this one).

The family of a man who died from a lacerated liver during an altercation with correction officers at Rikers Island will sue the city for $10 million. Clarence Mobley, 60, was in custody at the jail on May 2nd, awaiting a psychiatric evaluation related to robbery charges, when he "took a swing" at an officer with a metal tray. He was subdued and placed in a holding cell, and was later found dead. Yesterday the medical examiner ruled it a homicide, finding that Mobley died from a tear in his liver caused by a blow; NYPD investigators are still looking into the incident. Mobley had taken a bus from North Carolina to NYC on April 25th to attend a family funeral, but he never contacted his family when he arrived, for reasons unknown to them. Five days later he was arrested trying to break into an apartment in Queens. His son Darian tells the Times, "Everybody is hurting. My father didn’t deserve that. He was a little guy." The civil lawsuit is just the latest related to a death at Rikers, where corruption among the guards is allegedly endemic.

The NY Times has a sad update about the family of the 5-year-old boy who fell to his death when a housing project elevator malfunctioned last year. The Times says, with the family of Jacob Neuman (pictured) is suing the Housing Authority for negligence, the HA wants to interview Jacob's brother, 9-year-old Israel who witnessed his brother fall from the 10th floor. However, his parents' lawyer has asked a judge to waive the testimony. The Neumans are worried about Israel's state of mind—"in play therapy, he drew an elevator shaft with red at the bottom," though he acts out against classmates, kids consider him a "rachmoonus" (pity) case— and a court-appointed psychologist wrote, "His defenses are so brittle that when thoughts regarding the incident reach or are introduced into his consciousness, he becomes despondent and he desperately defends against them. It is quite possible, given his present state, that serious mental decomposition may occur. That this will occur is not certain; if it does, it will be devastating indeed." The Housing Authority has a bad track record elevators; there are other lawsuits against the HA over elevator maintenance.

A Brooklyn man filed a $5 million federal lawsuit against Match.com yesterday, accusing the dating site of teasing users with profiles of "canceled subscribers or [ones who] never subscribed at all." As a result, Match sparked an inferno of "humiliation and disappointment" for 37-year-old user Sean McGinn, whose lawsuit argues that "Match's policy causes severe emotional distress and anxiety for some [subscribers], including those who keep writing e-mails to one member after another and never hear back because he/she is writing to people who've canceled... Because the writer has no way of knowing this, he or she may experience profound personal anguish, suffering which is easily preventable by Match."

For five unbearable years, the male CEO of teddy-bear giant Steiff "engaged in violent sexual assaults and other forms of sexual harassment" against a female employee, according to court papers filed in an $80 million lawsuit. 32-year-old Jane Collins, mother of two, worked as an assistant to Steiff's North American CEO Martin Frechen starting in 2002. She says that while they were attending a conference in Plymouth, Mass., Frechen asked her to come to his hotel room to help with a speech, then tried to force himself on her. She fled, but says Frechen wouldn't take no for an answer, asking Collins to meet him that night behind a gas station, which she declined. The following week, Frechen asked Collins to help him get his wife's car into a storage unit, and then closed the warehouse door and allegedly raped her. Collins insists she didn't report the alleged rape to anyone because she was a single mom and "terrified" she'd lose her job; in fact, she still works there! Collins tells the Post, "I cannot easily imagine working anywhere else. I adore the company's line of teddy bears." To be fair, they are beary adorable!

A man who pitched a tent in prison for over two days straight is suing the infirmary nurse for "cruel and uncivilized conduct" because she didn't help his erection go away. Dawud Yaduallah, 43, was doing time for assault at the Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill in March 2006 when his daily dosage of Seroquel was boosted by 25 percent. The anti-psychotic medication can cause side-effects such as "persistent and painful erections," and after 14 hours of wood, Yaduallah went to see the nurse, whose name is Judith Lovelace, tee hee. She told him to ice his rod and sent him back to his cell, but that didn't help and the two-day erection (this is where it's not so funny) left him with "severe damage to his penis, including erectile dysfunction, inability to ejaculate and pain during sexual intercourse." His lawyer blames Lovelace, telling the Post, "The medical literature is clear that if you see a doctor within 24 hours, you generally won't have any permanent damage. He didn't see a doctor for over two days." He's since been, uh, fully released from prison, but now his marriage is on the rocks and he needs a prosthesis "to possibly restore some sexual function."

A paralyzed man who broke his neck in that 2003 Staten Island Ferry accident wants his lawyer to have a bigger share of his $18.3 million settlement. That's right: He wants to give his lawyer more money. James McMillan, who did not, apparently, suffer head trauma during the accident, appeared in court again yesterday to ask a magistrate to reverse another judge's ruling which reduced his lawyer's fee by almost $2.5 million. McMillan thinks his poor lawyer is entitled to a third of the money (which would be about $6.1 million), telling the Daily News, "I want him to have it. He worked for it. There's a hundred lawyers on TV saying, 'I'm the best,' but this man has walked with me through many things people wouldn't understand. He said, 'James I'm your lawyer' and I needed that comfort." It's unclear what kind of nefarious occult spell attorney Evan Torgan has cast over his client, but the judge who previously reduced his percentage was concerned that McMillan didn't understand the retainer he signed in his hospital bed just days after the crash.

Will the 90-year-old J.D. Salinger be forced to leave his New Hampshire home and return to New York City after leaving in 1953? The reclusive and elusive author filed a lawsuit yesterday in Manhattan federal court. The NY Post reports that the move was to "block an anonymous author from cashing in on the iconic coming-of-age novel with a follow-up titled 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye." The book has a character named Mr. C leaving a nursing home to visit many of the places Holden Caulfield did in the 1951 novel Catcher in the Rye. The book is dedicated to Salinger, where he is called: "the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life." The author, who goes by John David California, calls the hermetic legend a "great inspiration." If Salinger wins, all of California's copies of the book will be destroyed, and "he's also seeking unspecified damages from the alleged copycat author, saying his copyright 'is worth an enormous amount of money.'" This isn't the first time he's sued in a copycat case. Aspiring authors: the world doesn't need a sequel to any great classics (Catcher in the Rye 2: Electric Boogaloo just doesn't sound right).

A retired NYPD lieutenant is suing Bumble Tuna and Costco after choking on a bone that turned up in his tuna fish sandwich two years ago. In May 2007, Bob McKenna was eating lunch at home on Staten Island when an inch-and-a-quarter-long curved fishbone that was mixed into the tuna got lodged in his throat. He tells the Daily News, "I was choking on that bone for more than a minute. It felt like forever." After "nearly blacking out," McKenna managed to cough it up, but that was only the beginning of what court papers describe as "permanent and emotional pain and suffering."

Less than a week before President Obama's visit to Saudi Arabia, the Justice Department has filed a brief before the Supreme Court urging justices not to hear a lawsuit brought by families of some of the 9/11 victims against the Saudi royal family. The lawsuit, which was formally filed by the families' insurance companies, contends that members of the House of Saud helped finance Al Qaeda preceding the 9/11 attacks. A district court threw out the lawsuit, finding that the Saudi royal family has legal protection under the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act. The Justice Department says their filing had nothing to do with the President's upcoming visit, and was just "coincidental." (A spokesperson explains that the brief had to be filed soon because the Supreme Court is deciding whether to hear the case before their June recess.) Kristen Breitweiser, a leader of the families, tells the Times, "I find this reprehensible. One would have hoped that the Obama administration would have taken a different stance than the Bush administration, and you wonder what message this sends to victims of terrorism around the world."

The NY Post is hearing from some state lawmakers that Brooklyn Diocese Bishop allegedly "threatened [them] by vowing to close churches in their districts -- and blame them for the closures -- if they dared support a bill making it easier for people who were sexually assaulted as kids to sue." The Child Victims Act, sponsored by Assembly Member Margaret Markey (D-Queens), is headed to the Assembly for debate soon "seeks to extend the statute of limitations for lawsuits involving the rape or molesting of youngsters. It could cost the Church hundreds of millions in payouts to victimized parishioners." Apparently DiMarzio confronted lawmakers about the bill last fall; one Assembly member described, "He said, 'If it passes, we will close a parish in each of your districts and we will tell your constituents that it was your fault.'" DiMarzio's spokesman denies the charges of blackmail, but did note, "The consequences for our community would be profound," adding, "We're dealing with an anti-Catholic bias that's pervading the New York state Assembly."

You do not mess with burlesque dancers—we learned that the hard way when a passing comment about the pervasiveness of cellulite on some performers sparked a mini-avalanche of irate emails. Now it's The Learning Annex's turn; they're being sued by Veronica Varlow, a big-name neo-burlesque star who taught a class there about seductive dancing. She also did instructional videos for the company's affiliate, oneminuteu.com, and her lawsuit accuses them of misrepresenting her online as a "Young Sexy P0rn Star Stripper Dancer How to Put Lipstick On" and "Big [Breasts] Sexy Teen Girl Love Sex Advice How to Be Flirty."

Michael Mineo didn't hold back outside Brooklyn Federal Court yesterday, where he appeared to file a $220 million civil rights lawsuit against the city, the NYPD, and the officer accused of sodomizing him with a retractable baton last October in a Brooklyn subway station. Mineo, a body piercer employed in a tattoo parlor, explained, "It's humiliating. This is considered a rape. I'm a man. I was raped by 4 guys holding me down... putting a baton in my rectum. How am I supposed to feel? There is no forgiveness... There's no way I could've lied and made this up. They've tried to slander my name from the beginning...This is going to be in history. My kids are going to know about this when I have a kid." Mineo says he still experiences "enormous pain," including bowel problems, and is seeing a therapist. And his attorney says $220 million would send a message to the city that "we will no longer tolerate these kinds of egregious incidents of brutality." In response, Patrolmen's Benevolent Association lawyer Stuart London tells the Daily News, "The lawsuit is consistent with my feeling that this was always about money, not a search for the truth."

It sounds like one bad apple really spoiled the barrel at Duane Reade...to the tune of $240,000! City Room reports that the company today settled a lawsuit brought on by the federal Equal Employment Commission for "a pattern of sexual harassment and retaliation," but it sounds like it all stems from actions taking place at one Bronx location. The commission released a statement saying, “The store manager, Madiaw Diaw, frequently made vulgar remarks about women’s private parts, sexually propositioned female employees, made lewd comments about their pregnancies and bodies, assigned unfavorable job duties to pregnant employees and repeatedly grabbed female employees, including grabbing their buttocks." Duane Reade said that they will instill new training policies, possibly starting with the trick question, "Aren't pregnant women just the laziest?" All of this begs the question if this whole mess could have been avoided if the drug chain was a little more careful about stocking up on some of their OTC offerings.

Back in 2005, Glenn Storman, a guidance counselor at P.S. 212 in Gravesend, entered a special education classroom in which a fifth-grader was kneeling on his chair cursing at the teacher. What happened next is a matter of debate: Storman says he happened to be holding a rolled up piece of paper when he told the boy to "zip it." But according to the Times, the student says Storman "brushed the paper against his lips and embarrassed him." After an investigation, Storman got an unsatisfactory rating in his annual review, which is a big deal because it prohibits him from getting extra work as a summer school teacher and a tutor. But after a long legal battle, it looks like the alleged paper punisher will be vindicated: A judge ruled earlier this month that Storman's actions did not constitute corporal punishment, and said the unsatisfactory rating "shocks the conscience, was arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion." The Department of Education is reviewing the decision while defending another lawsuit brought by Storman in federal court. And it's unclear if the student has yet to recover from his brush with rolled up paper.

The 24-year-old Brooklyn tattoo artist (pictured) who says three police officers beat and sodomized him in the Prospect Park subway station last October will be suing the city. Michael Mineo's lawyer tells the Post his client will seek $220 million in damages for the "physical pain, suffering and mental anguish, along with punitive damages suffered." In December, a grand jury indicted the three officers, and a criminal trial is expected to begin this fall. Mineo says the brutality took place after he ran from cops who accused him of smoking marijuana as he approached the station around noon on October 15th, 2008. After they apprehended him near the token booth, Mineo says Officer Richard Kern sodomized him with a baton. A transit cop who was in the station is expected to testify that he saw Kern put his baton on Mineo's buttocks. The damages sought in his civil lawsuit dwarf the money sought in other police brutality lawsuits—by comparison, Abner Louima, who was Mineo's predecessor in the annals of NYPD sodomy victims, sued the city for $155 million back in 2001, but got $8.6 million in a settlement.