Appeals court throws out $750K for teacher
DETROIT (AP) — The state appeals court has thrown out a $750,000 verdict for a Detroit teacher who says she lost her job after criticizing the school district’s handling of a sexual assault.
The court has ordered a new trial but narrowed the alleged violations of law. Beverly Garvin claims her First Amendment rights were violated.
She can continue to sue certain school officials but not the school board or the district.
Garvin was a Detroit teacher in 2004 when a fourth-grade girl says she was forced into a sex act by other students. Garvin says the principal and other school officials didn’t do enough to help the girl and others after the incident.
The district says Garvin’s dismissal was tied to many reasons, not because of her criticism about the playground incident.
No extra time to sue for securities fraud
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says the federal government doesn’t get more time to sue for securities fraud.
Justices on Wednesday said the Securities and Exchange Commission must file suit within five years of an alleged fraudulent security action, but that the SEC can’t start the clock running whenever it discovers a bad practice.
Writing the court’s unanimous opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts said this was the law’s “most natural” reading.
The case involved Gabelli Funds LLC executive Bruce Alpert and former executive Marc J. Gabelli, who said the SEC missed its chance to sue them for allegedly committing securities fraud by allowing a hedge fund to rapidly trade shares of a mutual fund.
In a second opinion, the court also voted 6-3 to make it easier to file security fraud class action lawsuits.
Fourth teen sentenced in woman’s beating
MEDIA, Pa. (AP) — A fourth teenage girl has been sentenced in the videotaped beating of a mentally disabled woman as she sat on her stoop in a city near Philadelphia.
Investigators say the six teens punched and kicked the 48-year-old Chester woman and hit her with a shoe and a chair in September, apparently for fun. One recorded the beating, which was posted online.
The Delaware County Daily Times reports Janyea Bell, 16, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit aggravated assault and conspiracy to recklessly endanger another person. She’s sentenced to 6 to 23 months in prison.
Two other juveniles and a 19-year-old woman have also been sentenced to prison in the case. The remaining defendants want their cases moved to juvenile court.
Report: Deal near in Facebook explusion case
HAMMOND, Ind. (AP) — Court documents say three eighth-grade girls who were expelled from school for making comments on Facebook about killing classmates are getting close to settling with their school district.
A report filed in federal court in Hammond says both sides are finalizing an agreement and hope the case will be settled soon. The report was filed jointly by lawyers for Griffith Public Schools and the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, which is representing the girls.
The district says the comments showed the girls posed a threat. The ACLU says the comments were jokes and the district violated the girls’ civil rights by expelling them on the basis of a personal, off-campus conversation.
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