Louisiana
Settlement offers nearly $9M to nursing home residents kept in warehouse during hurricane
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Some of the elderly residents of seven Louisiana nursing homes who were sent in 2021 to ride out Hurricane Ida in a crowded, ill-equipped warehouse are being offered shares of a nearly $9 million settlement after they sued.
Retired state judge William “Rusty” Knight told The Times-Picayune of New Orleans that all the 427 former residents who filed legal claims are being sent letters outlining the proposed settlement. Knight said amounts differ based on patients’ individual circumstances.
People who don’t contest the amount offered can expect to receive money within a few weeks. A hearing for those who want to fight the settlement will be held in January.
“It’s been a longer road getting here than we wanted it to be,” Knight said. “Nobody’s getting what they should. quite frankly, because there’s not enough money.”
Bob Dean Jr., 70, owned seven nursing homes in New Orleans and southeast Louisiana. As Ida approached, Dean moved hundreds of residents into a building in the town of Independence, roughly 70 miles (110 kilometers) northwest of New Orleans.
Authorities said conditions at the warehouse deteriorated rapidly after the powerful storm hit on Aug. 29, 2021. They found ill and elderly bedridden people on mattresses on the wet floor, some crying for help, some lying in their own waste. Civil suits against Dean’s corporation said the ceiling leaked and toilets overflowed at the sweltering warehouse, and there was too little food and water.
Within days after the storm hit, the state reported the deaths of seven of the evacuees, five of them classified as storm-related.
By the time Dean was arrested on state charges in June 2022, he had lost state licenses and federal funding for his nursing homes. Dean pleaded no contest to 15 criminal counts in July and was sentenced to three years of probation, paying $258,000 in restitution and more than $1 million as a penalty.
Last month, Dean agreed to pay $8.2 million to the federal government to settle allegations that he misused assets and income from four nursing homes whose loans were insured by the Federal Housing Administration. Prosecutors say he funneled nursing home money to his personal bank accounts, using the money to buy antiques, guns and cars.
But Dean also faced civil lawsuits or legal claims from 427 of the 843 patients who were taken to Independence, or their surviving relatives. Many of the plaintiffs and their lawyers have suggested Dean was hiding other assets.
“There’s no true justice after what my clients endured,” attorney Matthew Hemmer, who represents hundreds of nursing home victims, told WVUE-TV.
Knight said he knows of 165 of Dean’s former residents who have died since the evacuation, and he said he expects to learn more people have died as responses to the settlement offer are returned.
Alabama
Judge says lawsuit over former NFL player’s jail death can proceed
REFORM, Ala. (AP) — A federal judge ruled that the family of former NFL player Glenn Foster Jr., who died in law enforcement custody in Alabama, can pursue a lawsuit alleging his death was the result of excessive force.
Foster, a former New Orleans Saints defensive end, died on Dec. 6, 2021, three days after being arrested and taken to jail in rural Pickens County for alleged speeding and attempting to elude police.
A judge ordered Foster taken to a medical facility in Tuscaloosa for a mental evaluation. Foster was found unresponsive in the back of a law enforcement vehicle when he arrived at the facility. He was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later.
His widow, Pamela Foster, filed a lawsuit against officers at the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office and jail saying Foster had been beaten, shocked with a Taser and strangled while at the jail. The defendants then asked a federal judge to dismiss the case.
U.S. District Judge Annemarie Carney Axon ruled Thursday refused to dismiss allegations of excessive force and failure to intervene. Axon dismissed other portions of the lawsuit. The ruling came a day before the third anniversary of Foster’s death.
Foster appeared in 17 games for the Saints in 2013 and 2014.
New York
Online library drops legal battle to provide free e-books without publishers’ permission
NEW YORK (AP) — A prolonged and closely watched copyright case involving an online library’s unauthorized offering of free e-books has ended after the defendant, Internet Archive, decided not to challenge an appeal’s court’s ruling against it.
In September, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a Manhattan federal court’s decision that found the Archive in violation of copyright law and granted a permanent injunction. The Archive had until this week to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but declined to do so.
In 2020, four major publishers — Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley & Sons and Penguin Random House — sued the Archive, alleging that it had illegally provided free copies of more than 100 books, including fiction by Toni Morrison and J.D. Salinger. The Archive had contended that its program of scanning and sharing books, “controlled digital lending,” was protected by fair use law.
“After five years of litigation, we are thrilled to see this important case rest with the decisive opinion of the Second Circuit, which leaves no room for arguments that ‘controlled digital lending’ is anything more than infringement,” Maria A. Pallante, president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers, said in a statement.
The Archive’s director of library services, Chris Freeland, posted a brief statement on the Archive’s web site saying that “While we are deeply disappointed with the Second Circuit’s opinion,” they would “continue to honor” an agreement to “remove books from lending at their member publishers’ requests.”
Florida
Parents of teen killed in fall from amusement park ride awarded $310 million
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The parents of a 14-year-old Missouri boy who fell to his death from an Orlando amusement park ride in 2022 have won a $310 million verdict against the attraction’s Austrian builder.
Late Thursday, the Orange County jury ordered that the manufacturer Funtime pay $155 million each to Tyre Sampson’s parents, Nekia Dodd and Yarnell Sampson. He died on March 24, 2022, after falling 70 feet (21 meters) from the Orlando Free Fall ride at Icon Park. The trial lasted only a day as Funtime never appeared in court to defend itself.
Icon Park, which rented the ride’s space to Orlando Slingshot, the ride’s owner and operator, had already settled with Sampson’s family for an undisclosed amount.
“The jury’s decision confirms what we have long argued: Tyre’s death was the result of blatant negligence and a failure to prioritize safety over profits,” the family’s lawyers, Ben Crump and Natalie Jackson, said in a statement. “The ride’s manufacturers neglected their duty to protect passengers, and (Thursday’s) outcome ensures they face the consequences.”
The family will now have to seek an order from an Austrian court to collect the damages.
Funtime did not respond to an email sent to its headquarters Friday seeking comment. The company’s website shows that it manufactures thrill rides that throw, drop and spin passengers at high speeds and from tall elevations, including attractions named Vomatron, Sling Shot and Chaos Pendle.
Sampson, a football standout who stood 6 foot, 2 inches tall (1.9 meters) and weighed 380 pounds (172 kilograms), was visiting Orlando on spring break from the St. Louis area when he went with friends to the downtown amusement park.
They rode the Orlando Free Fall, which placed 30 riders in seats attached to a tower, secured them with a shoulder harness and then dropped them 430 feet (131 meters). It didn’t have seat belts, something most drop rides have as an additional safety measure.
Because of Sampson’s size, the harness didn’t lock properly and he was ejected from his seat when the ride braked 70 feet from the ground.
His parents argued that Orlando Slingshot and Funtime should have warned their son about the risks of someone his size going on the ride and didn’t provide an appropriate restraint system. Adding seat belts would have cost $660.
The state ordered the ride closed after the accident and it never reopened. It is now being demolished.
Florida
Prosecutor seeks to clear records of people charged with buying police-made crack in 1980s
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida prosecutor says he will seek to vacate as many as 2,600 convictions of people who bought crack cocaine manufactured by the Broward County Sheriff's Office for sting operations between 1988 and 1990.
The Florida Supreme Court ruled in 1993 that people couldn't be charged in cases where the sheriff's office made the crack cocaine and undercover deputies then sold it to buyers who were arrested and charged.
Broward County State Attorney Harold F. Pryor said Friday that while his office was reviewing old records, prosecutors realized that many people may still have criminal charges or convictions on their records because of the sting operation.
"It is never too late to do the right thing," Pryor said in a statement.
It's just one example of how the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and early 1990s led to harsh police practices and heavy criminal penalties.
Some people may have been convicted of serious felonies because they bought drugs within 1,000 feet (300 meters) of a school. Conviction under that law required at the time that defendants be sentenced to at least three years in prison.
"They were arresting people not for selling, but for purchasing," Ed Hoeg, a defense lawyer, told the Sun Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale. At the time, Hoeg was a public defender who represented Leon Williams, whose appeal led to the state Supreme Court outlawing the practice.
"They had detention deputies posing as dealers," Hoeg said. "They would sell it, and these poor people who were addicts were buying it. And they were selling it within 1,000 feet of schools, so the penalties would be greater."
The sheriff's office said at the time that it began making crack because it didn't have enough of the seized drug to use in its sting operations and because it didn't have to later test the cocaine content of crack made by a sheriff's office chemist.
"We find that the law enforcement's conduct here was so outrageous as to violate Florida's due process clause," the state Supreme Court wrote in the decision.
Pryor said he notified Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony that Pryor would ask judges to vacate the convictions. Pryor said Tony supports the plan. Some defendants may also be able to seal or expunge the records, the prosecutor said.
The review will take "a considerable amount of time," Pryor said. He said his office will contact people who may be affected.
Settlement offers nearly $9M to nursing home residents kept in warehouse during hurricane
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Some of the elderly residents of seven Louisiana nursing homes who were sent in 2021 to ride out Hurricane Ida in a crowded, ill-equipped warehouse are being offered shares of a nearly $9 million settlement after they sued.
Retired state judge William “Rusty” Knight told The Times-Picayune of New Orleans that all the 427 former residents who filed legal claims are being sent letters outlining the proposed settlement. Knight said amounts differ based on patients’ individual circumstances.
People who don’t contest the amount offered can expect to receive money within a few weeks. A hearing for those who want to fight the settlement will be held in January.
“It’s been a longer road getting here than we wanted it to be,” Knight said. “Nobody’s getting what they should. quite frankly, because there’s not enough money.”
Bob Dean Jr., 70, owned seven nursing homes in New Orleans and southeast Louisiana. As Ida approached, Dean moved hundreds of residents into a building in the town of Independence, roughly 70 miles (110 kilometers) northwest of New Orleans.
Authorities said conditions at the warehouse deteriorated rapidly after the powerful storm hit on Aug. 29, 2021. They found ill and elderly bedridden people on mattresses on the wet floor, some crying for help, some lying in their own waste. Civil suits against Dean’s corporation said the ceiling leaked and toilets overflowed at the sweltering warehouse, and there was too little food and water.
Within days after the storm hit, the state reported the deaths of seven of the evacuees, five of them classified as storm-related.
By the time Dean was arrested on state charges in June 2022, he had lost state licenses and federal funding for his nursing homes. Dean pleaded no contest to 15 criminal counts in July and was sentenced to three years of probation, paying $258,000 in restitution and more than $1 million as a penalty.
Last month, Dean agreed to pay $8.2 million to the federal government to settle allegations that he misused assets and income from four nursing homes whose loans were insured by the Federal Housing Administration. Prosecutors say he funneled nursing home money to his personal bank accounts, using the money to buy antiques, guns and cars.
But Dean also faced civil lawsuits or legal claims from 427 of the 843 patients who were taken to Independence, or their surviving relatives. Many of the plaintiffs and their lawyers have suggested Dean was hiding other assets.
“There’s no true justice after what my clients endured,” attorney Matthew Hemmer, who represents hundreds of nursing home victims, told WVUE-TV.
Knight said he knows of 165 of Dean’s former residents who have died since the evacuation, and he said he expects to learn more people have died as responses to the settlement offer are returned.
Alabama
Judge says lawsuit over former NFL player’s jail death can proceed
REFORM, Ala. (AP) — A federal judge ruled that the family of former NFL player Glenn Foster Jr., who died in law enforcement custody in Alabama, can pursue a lawsuit alleging his death was the result of excessive force.
Foster, a former New Orleans Saints defensive end, died on Dec. 6, 2021, three days after being arrested and taken to jail in rural Pickens County for alleged speeding and attempting to elude police.
A judge ordered Foster taken to a medical facility in Tuscaloosa for a mental evaluation. Foster was found unresponsive in the back of a law enforcement vehicle when he arrived at the facility. He was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later.
His widow, Pamela Foster, filed a lawsuit against officers at the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office and jail saying Foster had been beaten, shocked with a Taser and strangled while at the jail. The defendants then asked a federal judge to dismiss the case.
U.S. District Judge Annemarie Carney Axon ruled Thursday refused to dismiss allegations of excessive force and failure to intervene. Axon dismissed other portions of the lawsuit. The ruling came a day before the third anniversary of Foster’s death.
Foster appeared in 17 games for the Saints in 2013 and 2014.
New York
Online library drops legal battle to provide free e-books without publishers’ permission
NEW YORK (AP) — A prolonged and closely watched copyright case involving an online library’s unauthorized offering of free e-books has ended after the defendant, Internet Archive, decided not to challenge an appeal’s court’s ruling against it.
In September, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a Manhattan federal court’s decision that found the Archive in violation of copyright law and granted a permanent injunction. The Archive had until this week to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but declined to do so.
In 2020, four major publishers — Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley & Sons and Penguin Random House — sued the Archive, alleging that it had illegally provided free copies of more than 100 books, including fiction by Toni Morrison and J.D. Salinger. The Archive had contended that its program of scanning and sharing books, “controlled digital lending,” was protected by fair use law.
“After five years of litigation, we are thrilled to see this important case rest with the decisive opinion of the Second Circuit, which leaves no room for arguments that ‘controlled digital lending’ is anything more than infringement,” Maria A. Pallante, president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers, said in a statement.
The Archive’s director of library services, Chris Freeland, posted a brief statement on the Archive’s web site saying that “While we are deeply disappointed with the Second Circuit’s opinion,” they would “continue to honor” an agreement to “remove books from lending at their member publishers’ requests.”
Florida
Parents of teen killed in fall from amusement park ride awarded $310 million
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The parents of a 14-year-old Missouri boy who fell to his death from an Orlando amusement park ride in 2022 have won a $310 million verdict against the attraction’s Austrian builder.
Late Thursday, the Orange County jury ordered that the manufacturer Funtime pay $155 million each to Tyre Sampson’s parents, Nekia Dodd and Yarnell Sampson. He died on March 24, 2022, after falling 70 feet (21 meters) from the Orlando Free Fall ride at Icon Park. The trial lasted only a day as Funtime never appeared in court to defend itself.
Icon Park, which rented the ride’s space to Orlando Slingshot, the ride’s owner and operator, had already settled with Sampson’s family for an undisclosed amount.
“The jury’s decision confirms what we have long argued: Tyre’s death was the result of blatant negligence and a failure to prioritize safety over profits,” the family’s lawyers, Ben Crump and Natalie Jackson, said in a statement. “The ride’s manufacturers neglected their duty to protect passengers, and (Thursday’s) outcome ensures they face the consequences.”
The family will now have to seek an order from an Austrian court to collect the damages.
Funtime did not respond to an email sent to its headquarters Friday seeking comment. The company’s website shows that it manufactures thrill rides that throw, drop and spin passengers at high speeds and from tall elevations, including attractions named Vomatron, Sling Shot and Chaos Pendle.
Sampson, a football standout who stood 6 foot, 2 inches tall (1.9 meters) and weighed 380 pounds (172 kilograms), was visiting Orlando on spring break from the St. Louis area when he went with friends to the downtown amusement park.
They rode the Orlando Free Fall, which placed 30 riders in seats attached to a tower, secured them with a shoulder harness and then dropped them 430 feet (131 meters). It didn’t have seat belts, something most drop rides have as an additional safety measure.
Because of Sampson’s size, the harness didn’t lock properly and he was ejected from his seat when the ride braked 70 feet from the ground.
His parents argued that Orlando Slingshot and Funtime should have warned their son about the risks of someone his size going on the ride and didn’t provide an appropriate restraint system. Adding seat belts would have cost $660.
The state ordered the ride closed after the accident and it never reopened. It is now being demolished.
Florida
Prosecutor seeks to clear records of people charged with buying police-made crack in 1980s
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida prosecutor says he will seek to vacate as many as 2,600 convictions of people who bought crack cocaine manufactured by the Broward County Sheriff's Office for sting operations between 1988 and 1990.
The Florida Supreme Court ruled in 1993 that people couldn't be charged in cases where the sheriff's office made the crack cocaine and undercover deputies then sold it to buyers who were arrested and charged.
Broward County State Attorney Harold F. Pryor said Friday that while his office was reviewing old records, prosecutors realized that many people may still have criminal charges or convictions on their records because of the sting operation.
"It is never too late to do the right thing," Pryor said in a statement.
It's just one example of how the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and early 1990s led to harsh police practices and heavy criminal penalties.
Some people may have been convicted of serious felonies because they bought drugs within 1,000 feet (300 meters) of a school. Conviction under that law required at the time that defendants be sentenced to at least three years in prison.
"They were arresting people not for selling, but for purchasing," Ed Hoeg, a defense lawyer, told the Sun Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale. At the time, Hoeg was a public defender who represented Leon Williams, whose appeal led to the state Supreme Court outlawing the practice.
"They had detention deputies posing as dealers," Hoeg said. "They would sell it, and these poor people who were addicts were buying it. And they were selling it within 1,000 feet of schools, so the penalties would be greater."
The sheriff's office said at the time that it began making crack because it didn't have enough of the seized drug to use in its sting operations and because it didn't have to later test the cocaine content of crack made by a sheriff's office chemist.
"We find that the law enforcement's conduct here was so outrageous as to violate Florida's due process clause," the state Supreme Court wrote in the decision.
Pryor said he notified Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony that Pryor would ask judges to vacate the convictions. Pryor said Tony supports the plan. Some defendants may also be able to seal or expunge the records, the prosecutor said.
The review will take "a considerable amount of time," Pryor said. He said his office will contact people who may be affected.
