Texas
Blake Lively sued by crisis specialist in latest ‘It Ends With Us’ lawsuit
A Texas crisis communications specialist has sued Blake Lively for defamation after the actor pulled him into her legal fight with co-star and director Justin Baldoni over their film, “It Ends With Us.”
Jed Wallace and his company, Street Relations, filed the $7 million lawsuit in federal court in Texas on Tuesday. It says he had nothing to do with any campaign to harm Lively’s reputation as she alleged in a court filing.
Wallace is not among the defendants in Lively’s federal lawsuit against Baldoni, his production company and publicists, in which she alleges sexual and other harassment during the production and a campaign to smear her after it. The crisis specialist is named in the court papers and the New York Times story published on the day the series of legal battles began in December when Lively filed a complaint.
Lively’s lawyers said in a statement that Wallace’s lawsuit “is not just a publicity stunt.”
“It is transparent retaliation in response to allegations contained within a sexual harassment and retaliation complaint that Ms. Lively filed with the California Civil Rights Department,” the statement said. “While this lawsuit will be dismissed, we are pleased that Mr. Wallace has finally emerged from the shadows, and that he too will be held accountable in federal court.”
In a filing last week in Hays County, Texas, that seeks a deposition from Wallace, Lively alleges he was used by publicists working with Baldoni to weaponize “a digital army around the country, including in New York and Los Angeles, to create, seed, manipulate, and advance disparaging content that appeared to be authentic on social media platforms and internet chat forums.”
Wallace’s lawsuit says neither he nor his company “had anything to do with the alleged sexual harassment, retaliation, failure to investigate or aiding and abetting the alleged harassment or alleged retaliation.”
It says the actor’s Texas filing “conceded that Lively has no facts supporting the allegations she made against Wallace and Street,” which is why she now seeks to investigate the extent of his conduct.
After Lively sued Baldoni, he filed his own federal lawsuit against her and her husband, “Deadpool” star Ryan Reynolds, accusing them of defamation and extortion and seeking at least $400 million in damages.
Baldoni had already sued The New York Times for libel, and his former publicist filed a lawsuit taking Lively’s side.
“It Ends With Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel that begins as a romance but takes a dark turn into domestic violence, was released in August, exceeding box office expectations with a domestic total of nearly $150 million.
The success was followed by near constant turmoil over its production and promotion.
New York
Democrats sue GOP county exec over armed volunteer unit
NEW YORK (AP) — Democrats in suburban New York are suing a Republican county executive over his creation of an armed unit of volunteer residents, saying it amounts to an “illegal, taxpayer-funded civilian militia.”
Nassau County Democratic lawmakers argue in their complaint filed Wednesday that Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman lacked the legal authority to form a cadre of special sheriff’s deputies with “authority to use deadly force and make arrests under color of law.”
They say state law authorizes local sheriffs to deputize only trained law enforcement officers from other agencies in emergencies — not private citizens.
“New York State law is clear: only professional, sworn officers can wield police powers,” said Josh Kelner, whose law firm Kelner & Kelner joined the Free and Fair Litigation Group to file the suit on behalf of Democratic lawmakers. “Blakeman’s militia is illegal and a clear threat to public safety.”
Democrats, who are the minority in the county legislature, also complain Blakeman’s office has ignored their public records requests seeking basic details of the program, including who is being recruited, the scope of their training, the specific weapons they will carry and the total taxpayer cost of the program.
Blakeman didn’t immediately respond to the secrecy claims, but in a statement dismissed the suit as “frivolous” and suggested Democrats were defaming the 26 volunteers sworn in to date, many of whom are retired military and law enforcement officers.
He has said the armed deputies are required to be licensed gun owners, must complete 12 hours of classroom instruction and practice on the firing range.
He’s also stressed the deputies would only be called on when the county, located just east of the New York City borough of Queens, faces a natural disaster or other major emergency.
The deputies would be assigned to protect government buildings, hospitals and critical infrastructure, and not be used to quell protests or patrol streets, as Democrats and other critics have suggested, according to Blakeman.
Democrats, in their suit, note the county already has one of the largest local police forces in the nation, with some 2,600 sworn officers. State troopers also serve Nassau County and dozens of local villages have their own police forces.
The county can also call up hundreds of unarmed civilian volunteers through the Nassau County Auxiliary Police and the Nassau County Office of Emergency Management Community Emergency Response Team, according to the litigation.
“Defendants have not publicly explained how a group of less than one hundred armed civilians would materially aid the thousands of trained, registered, sworn, and armed police and peace officers available to meet the needs of Nassau County residents in the event of an emergency,” the lawsuit states. “Authorizing minimally trained private citizens to wield force on behalf of the government – and during an emergency no less – poses clear and obvious safety risks, both to trained law enforcement and the public at large.”
Wisconsin
Couple sues Walgreens and Optum Rx, saying son died after $500 price rise for asthma meds
LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin couple is suing Walgreens and a pharmacy benefits management company, alleging that their son died because he couldn’t afford a sudden $500 spike in his asthma medication.
Shanon and William Schmidtknecht, of Poynette, filed their lawsuit in federal court in Milwaukee on Jan. 21, a year to the day that their son Cole died at age 22.
According to the lawsuit, Cole Schmidtknecht suffered from asthma all his life. He managed it with daily inhaler doses of the medication Advair Diskus and its generic equivalents.
He stopped at a Walgreens pharmacy in Appleton on Jan. 10, 2024, to refill his prescription and was told the cost had jumped from $66 to $539 out-of-pocket. Unable to afford the new cost, he left the pharmacy without the medication. He tried to manage his condition with his rescue inhaler but suffered a fatal asthma attack days later, according to the lawsuit.
The Schmidtknechts allege that pharmacy benefits management company OptumRX violated Wisconsin law by raising the cost of the medication without a valid medical reason and failing to provide 30 days’ advance notice of drug price increases.
Pharmacy benefits managers act as intermediaries between health insurance companies, prescription drug companies and pharmacies. Optum Rx services prescription claims for more than 66 million people across the United States, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that the Walgreens pharmacy staffers failed to offer Cole any workarounds to obtain his usual medication. They told him there were no cheaper alternatives or generic medications available, they didn’t contact OptumRx to request an exception on Cole’s behalf, and they didn’t ask Cole’s doctor to request an exception for him, his parents contend.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.
“The conduct of both OptumRx and Walgreens was deplorable,” one of the family’s attorneys, Michael Trunk, said in a statement. “The evidence in this case will show that both OptumRx and Walgreens put profits first, and are directly responsible for Cole’s death.”
OptumRx spokespeople didn’t immediately reply to Wednesday messages seeking comment. In a statement last April extending sympathy to the family, the company said that a review of Cole’s claims showed that on the day he visited the pharmacy, he did buy a different asthma medication, generic Albuterol, for a $5 co-pay on Jan. 10 — a medication that it says he also obtained in October 2023. His case was handled “consistent with industry practice and the patient’s insurance plan design,” the company said.
Trunk, though, said Wednesday that the $5 generic prescription Cole filled was for his rescue inhaler, not the Advair Diskus inhaler that he took daily. He said Cole was not able to fill his Advair Diskus prescription because it had suddenly become too expensive.
Walgreens officials didn’t immediately respond to a Wednesday email seeking comment on the lawsuit.
Washington, D.C.
Black church in DC that was vandalized by the Proud Boys gains control over the group’s trademark
WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge has awarded a historic Black church in Washington control over the Proud Boys trademark after the far-right group defaulted on a $2.8 million judgment.
The Monday ruling in D.C. Superior Court grants rights to the trademark of the group’s name to the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church and bars the Proud Boys members from selling any merchandise with its name or symbols without the church’s consent. The ruling also allows the church to try to seize any money made from selling the group’s merchandise.
The church filed the lawsuit to try to recoup damages from vandalism made by group members after a December 2020 pro-Donald Trump rally. Black Lives Matter banners were torn down and burned at two churches, including Metropolitan African Methodist. There were also violent clashes between opposing protesters and arrests were made that night.
Enrique Tarrio, then the leader of the Proud Boys, confessed to participating in the burnings and was later sentenced to more than five months in jail on those and other charges. Tarrio was later sentenced to 22 years in federal prison for orchestrating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump granted pardons, commutations or vowed to dismiss cases against the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol— including Tarrio.
In a lengthy statement posted to X, Tarrio wrote, “The presiding judge has denied due process to myself and the other defendants, preventing us from presenting a proper defense.” Tarrio also suggested in separate posts that the Proud Boys rename themselves, “African Methodist Episcopal Boys” and asked for suggestions on a new name.
Case records show the lawsuit was served to Tarrio at the federal prison where he was housed when it was filed, as well as to at least one other address associated with him and another member. The church lawsuit called the actions on Dec. 12, 2020 “acts of terror” and said they were meant to intimidate the members of the church.
A default judgement was awarded to the church in June 2023. After no payments were been made and no responses were filed by the Proud Boys or their representatives, lawyers for the church filed a motion in December seeking rights to the trademark.
An attorney representing the church in the civil action did not respond to a request for comment. Nayib Hassan, Tarrio’s attorney, declined to comment.
Blake Lively sued by crisis specialist in latest ‘It Ends With Us’ lawsuit
A Texas crisis communications specialist has sued Blake Lively for defamation after the actor pulled him into her legal fight with co-star and director Justin Baldoni over their film, “It Ends With Us.”
Jed Wallace and his company, Street Relations, filed the $7 million lawsuit in federal court in Texas on Tuesday. It says he had nothing to do with any campaign to harm Lively’s reputation as she alleged in a court filing.
Wallace is not among the defendants in Lively’s federal lawsuit against Baldoni, his production company and publicists, in which she alleges sexual and other harassment during the production and a campaign to smear her after it. The crisis specialist is named in the court papers and the New York Times story published on the day the series of legal battles began in December when Lively filed a complaint.
Lively’s lawyers said in a statement that Wallace’s lawsuit “is not just a publicity stunt.”
“It is transparent retaliation in response to allegations contained within a sexual harassment and retaliation complaint that Ms. Lively filed with the California Civil Rights Department,” the statement said. “While this lawsuit will be dismissed, we are pleased that Mr. Wallace has finally emerged from the shadows, and that he too will be held accountable in federal court.”
In a filing last week in Hays County, Texas, that seeks a deposition from Wallace, Lively alleges he was used by publicists working with Baldoni to weaponize “a digital army around the country, including in New York and Los Angeles, to create, seed, manipulate, and advance disparaging content that appeared to be authentic on social media platforms and internet chat forums.”
Wallace’s lawsuit says neither he nor his company “had anything to do with the alleged sexual harassment, retaliation, failure to investigate or aiding and abetting the alleged harassment or alleged retaliation.”
It says the actor’s Texas filing “conceded that Lively has no facts supporting the allegations she made against Wallace and Street,” which is why she now seeks to investigate the extent of his conduct.
After Lively sued Baldoni, he filed his own federal lawsuit against her and her husband, “Deadpool” star Ryan Reynolds, accusing them of defamation and extortion and seeking at least $400 million in damages.
Baldoni had already sued The New York Times for libel, and his former publicist filed a lawsuit taking Lively’s side.
“It Ends With Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel that begins as a romance but takes a dark turn into domestic violence, was released in August, exceeding box office expectations with a domestic total of nearly $150 million.
The success was followed by near constant turmoil over its production and promotion.
New York
Democrats sue GOP county exec over armed volunteer unit
NEW YORK (AP) — Democrats in suburban New York are suing a Republican county executive over his creation of an armed unit of volunteer residents, saying it amounts to an “illegal, taxpayer-funded civilian militia.”
Nassau County Democratic lawmakers argue in their complaint filed Wednesday that Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman lacked the legal authority to form a cadre of special sheriff’s deputies with “authority to use deadly force and make arrests under color of law.”
They say state law authorizes local sheriffs to deputize only trained law enforcement officers from other agencies in emergencies — not private citizens.
“New York State law is clear: only professional, sworn officers can wield police powers,” said Josh Kelner, whose law firm Kelner & Kelner joined the Free and Fair Litigation Group to file the suit on behalf of Democratic lawmakers. “Blakeman’s militia is illegal and a clear threat to public safety.”
Democrats, who are the minority in the county legislature, also complain Blakeman’s office has ignored their public records requests seeking basic details of the program, including who is being recruited, the scope of their training, the specific weapons they will carry and the total taxpayer cost of the program.
Blakeman didn’t immediately respond to the secrecy claims, but in a statement dismissed the suit as “frivolous” and suggested Democrats were defaming the 26 volunteers sworn in to date, many of whom are retired military and law enforcement officers.
He has said the armed deputies are required to be licensed gun owners, must complete 12 hours of classroom instruction and practice on the firing range.
He’s also stressed the deputies would only be called on when the county, located just east of the New York City borough of Queens, faces a natural disaster or other major emergency.
The deputies would be assigned to protect government buildings, hospitals and critical infrastructure, and not be used to quell protests or patrol streets, as Democrats and other critics have suggested, according to Blakeman.
Democrats, in their suit, note the county already has one of the largest local police forces in the nation, with some 2,600 sworn officers. State troopers also serve Nassau County and dozens of local villages have their own police forces.
The county can also call up hundreds of unarmed civilian volunteers through the Nassau County Auxiliary Police and the Nassau County Office of Emergency Management Community Emergency Response Team, according to the litigation.
“Defendants have not publicly explained how a group of less than one hundred armed civilians would materially aid the thousands of trained, registered, sworn, and armed police and peace officers available to meet the needs of Nassau County residents in the event of an emergency,” the lawsuit states. “Authorizing minimally trained private citizens to wield force on behalf of the government – and during an emergency no less – poses clear and obvious safety risks, both to trained law enforcement and the public at large.”
Wisconsin
Couple sues Walgreens and Optum Rx, saying son died after $500 price rise for asthma meds
LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin couple is suing Walgreens and a pharmacy benefits management company, alleging that their son died because he couldn’t afford a sudden $500 spike in his asthma medication.
Shanon and William Schmidtknecht, of Poynette, filed their lawsuit in federal court in Milwaukee on Jan. 21, a year to the day that their son Cole died at age 22.
According to the lawsuit, Cole Schmidtknecht suffered from asthma all his life. He managed it with daily inhaler doses of the medication Advair Diskus and its generic equivalents.
He stopped at a Walgreens pharmacy in Appleton on Jan. 10, 2024, to refill his prescription and was told the cost had jumped from $66 to $539 out-of-pocket. Unable to afford the new cost, he left the pharmacy without the medication. He tried to manage his condition with his rescue inhaler but suffered a fatal asthma attack days later, according to the lawsuit.
The Schmidtknechts allege that pharmacy benefits management company OptumRX violated Wisconsin law by raising the cost of the medication without a valid medical reason and failing to provide 30 days’ advance notice of drug price increases.
Pharmacy benefits managers act as intermediaries between health insurance companies, prescription drug companies and pharmacies. Optum Rx services prescription claims for more than 66 million people across the United States, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that the Walgreens pharmacy staffers failed to offer Cole any workarounds to obtain his usual medication. They told him there were no cheaper alternatives or generic medications available, they didn’t contact OptumRx to request an exception on Cole’s behalf, and they didn’t ask Cole’s doctor to request an exception for him, his parents contend.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.
“The conduct of both OptumRx and Walgreens was deplorable,” one of the family’s attorneys, Michael Trunk, said in a statement. “The evidence in this case will show that both OptumRx and Walgreens put profits first, and are directly responsible for Cole’s death.”
OptumRx spokespeople didn’t immediately reply to Wednesday messages seeking comment. In a statement last April extending sympathy to the family, the company said that a review of Cole’s claims showed that on the day he visited the pharmacy, he did buy a different asthma medication, generic Albuterol, for a $5 co-pay on Jan. 10 — a medication that it says he also obtained in October 2023. His case was handled “consistent with industry practice and the patient’s insurance plan design,” the company said.
Trunk, though, said Wednesday that the $5 generic prescription Cole filled was for his rescue inhaler, not the Advair Diskus inhaler that he took daily. He said Cole was not able to fill his Advair Diskus prescription because it had suddenly become too expensive.
Walgreens officials didn’t immediately respond to a Wednesday email seeking comment on the lawsuit.
Washington, D.C.
Black church in DC that was vandalized by the Proud Boys gains control over the group’s trademark
WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge has awarded a historic Black church in Washington control over the Proud Boys trademark after the far-right group defaulted on a $2.8 million judgment.
The Monday ruling in D.C. Superior Court grants rights to the trademark of the group’s name to the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church and bars the Proud Boys members from selling any merchandise with its name or symbols without the church’s consent. The ruling also allows the church to try to seize any money made from selling the group’s merchandise.
The church filed the lawsuit to try to recoup damages from vandalism made by group members after a December 2020 pro-Donald Trump rally. Black Lives Matter banners were torn down and burned at two churches, including Metropolitan African Methodist. There were also violent clashes between opposing protesters and arrests were made that night.
Enrique Tarrio, then the leader of the Proud Boys, confessed to participating in the burnings and was later sentenced to more than five months in jail on those and other charges. Tarrio was later sentenced to 22 years in federal prison for orchestrating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump granted pardons, commutations or vowed to dismiss cases against the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol— including Tarrio.
In a lengthy statement posted to X, Tarrio wrote, “The presiding judge has denied due process to myself and the other defendants, preventing us from presenting a proper defense.” Tarrio also suggested in separate posts that the Proud Boys rename themselves, “African Methodist Episcopal Boys” and asked for suggestions on a new name.
Case records show the lawsuit was served to Tarrio at the federal prison where he was housed when it was filed, as well as to at least one other address associated with him and another member. The church lawsuit called the actions on Dec. 12, 2020 “acts of terror” and said they were meant to intimidate the members of the church.
A default judgement was awarded to the church in June 2023. After no payments were been made and no responses were filed by the Proud Boys or their representatives, lawyers for the church filed a motion in December seeking rights to the trademark.
An attorney representing the church in the civil action did not respond to a request for comment. Nayib Hassan, Tarrio’s attorney, declined to comment.
