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Legal Action News, New York, NY (2025)

03/17/2019

New York Attorney General Letitia James, in a court filing Thursday, claimed there's evidence that President Trump turned the Trump Foundation into a branch of his 2016 campaign -- and that he should pay $2.8 million in restitution.

She detailed her case in a 37-page court filing, part of a lawsuit that also seeks to ban Trump and his three eldest children from running any New York charities for 10 years. Bloomberg News reported that the recommendation also includes a $5.6 million penalty.

The foundation's lawyers have argued that the lawsuit is politically motivated.

NY AG PROMISES TO 'USE EVERY AREA OF THE LAW' TO PROBE TRUMP, FAMILY

"In this vacuum of oversight and diligence, Mr. Trump caused the foundation to enter repeatedly into self-dealing transactions and to coordinate unlawfully with his presidential campaign," James said, according to Bloomberg.

The foundation agreed to dissolve “under judicial supervision” in December, and to distribute remaining charitable assets "to reputable organizations approved” by the AG’s office.

But this does not resolve the matter.

The AG office claims that Trump used the foundation’s charitable assets to pay off his legal obligations, promote Trump-branded hotels and business interests and purchase personal items.

The suit also claims that the foundation “illegally provided extensive support to his 2016 presidential campaign by using the Trump Foundation’s name and funds it raised from the public to promote his campaign" for the White House.

TRUMP FOUNDATION AGREES TO DISSOLVE AFTER LAWSUIT ALLEGED 'ILLEGAL CONDUCT'

In particular, it is pointing to a rally Trump held during the run-up to the Iowa caucuses -- during which he called for people to donate to veterans' charities, with the foundation acting as a pass-through. That, James has contended, broke rules barring charities from being part of political campaigns.

The lawsuit also alleges Trump directed that $100,000 of foundation money be used to settle a lawsuit over an 80-foot flagpole he built at his Palm Beach resort.

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03/16/2019

“Cartersville 70” — have filed a lawsuit against the city, several dozen members of the Cartersville Police Department, and members of the Drug Task Force, arguing that they were unconstitutionally arrested and were subjected to mistreatment after police detained them.

According to the lawsuit, which was filed by seven of the 65 people arrested that night, party attendees were unlawfully arrested and many of them underwent invasive strip searches after being transported to a local jail. Some say they were denied medical services while being detained for days. The group also argues that booking photos were illegally shared on county websites, creating a “domino effect” that cost several of the party attendees their jobs.

Of the dozens detained, 50 were black, and the majority of those arrested were in their late teens and early 20s. Charges against 64 of the 65 people arrested were dropped early in 2018after local district attorney determined that there was insufficient evidence to support the charges. The remaining drug possession charges against one person were dropped after a judge ruled that police illegally entered the party that night. The case quickly spread on social media last year, with one legal analyst calling the mass arrest “an incredible waste of resources.”

More than a year later, the plaintiffs argue that the events of that night have continued to affect them. “Each of our clients has had their life turned into a nightmare in a lot of ways,” Gerry Weber, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, told the Appeal, a criminal justice news outlet. “They’ve got this scar on their records that will never disappear.”

The seven plaintiffs have filed a class action suit on behalf of all of those arrested; they argue that their ordeal calls attention to the ways that arrests can disrupt the lives of young people of color. The suit calls for financial restitution and demands that Cartersville police change several of its policies.

Members of the Cartersville 70 say they were “subjected to humiliating treatment”

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03/16/2019

A California woman filed a $500 billion lawsuit against Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman over the college bribery scandal.

The woman, Jennifer Kay Toy, also filed a lawsuit against the dozens of other defendants named in “Operation Varsity Blues.” Toy is a former Oakland school teacher who said her son, Joshua, wasn’t admitted to several colleges where the scandal allegedly took place despite him having a 4.2 GPA.

According to the Los Angeles Times, “Joshua and I beleived [sic] that he’d had a fair chance just like all other applicants but did not make the cut for some undisclosed reason,” she wrote in the class-action lawsuit.

“I’m now outraged and hurt because I feel that my son, my only child, was denied access to a college not because he failed to work and study hard enough but because wealthy individuals felt that it was ok to lie, cheat, steal and bribe their children’s way into a good college,” she wrote.

The court filing doesn’t specify what colleges to which her son applied or when he submitted his applications.

Toy’s lawsuit estimates that “due to the length and breadth of the cheating scam,” one million people were affected, the LA Times reported.

Kay Toy added in the lawsuit: “I’m not a wealthy person, but even if I were wealthy I would not have engaged in the heinous and despicable actions of defendants,” ABC7 reported.

Other than Loughlin, the “Full House” and “Fuller House” star, and Huffman, who appeared in “Desperate Housewives,” dozens of other people were named, including CEOs, business owners, a high-level lawyer, and a bestselling author.

Another Lawsuit

The LA Times reported that two Stanford students filed a class-action lawsuit against eight colleges ensnared in the admissions scandal.

Stanford, USC, UCLA, the University of San Diego, the University of Texas at Austin, Wake Forest University, Yale University, and Georgetown University are named in the lawsuit. Those are the colleges named by federal officials.

Erica Olsen and Kalea Woods, who both go to Stanford, claimed that they were among the students cast aside in the admissions process.

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03/09/2019

According to the lawsuit, defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) the inverse exchange traded notes ("ETNs") were not appropriate for managing daily trading risks; (2) Credit Suisse had designed the ZIV to fail under certain market conditions; (3) Credit Suisse had offered and sold more inverse ETNs than the market could bear, which would enable Credit Suisse to cause the collapse of the inverse ETNs when the opportunity presented itself; and (4) Credit Suisse could actively manipulate inverse ETNs by precipitating an acute liquidity event in volatility markets, including markets for VIX futures. The price of ZIV dropped from $85.41 to $68.50 on abnormally high trading volume between February 2, 2018 and February 6, 2018 when these previously undisclosed adverse facts became known.

A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than April 5, 2019. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.

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03/09/2019

The U.S. women's soccer team has filed a lawsuit against U.S. Soccer, accusing it of gender discrimination.

The complaint, filed Friday in California district court, argues that U.S. Soccer "has a policy and practice of discriminating" against members of the women's national team on the basis of gender, by paying them less than similarly situated members of the men's team.

Twenty-eight members of the women's team are named as plaintiffs, including many of the sport's biggest stars: Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd and Megan Rapinoe. The lawsuit seeks to be a class action, representing other women who've played for the U.S. national team and who may have been denied equal pay for substantially equal work.

The issue of unequal pay has been a highly contentious matter in recent years, and the U.S. women's team has kept the pressure on U.S. Soccer. The women's team reached a new collective bargaining agreement with the federation in 2017.
Four of the plaintiffs — Morgan, Lloyd, Rapinoe and Becky Sauerbrunn — filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2016, on behalf of themselves and similarly situated players. But no progress was made, and last month, the EEOC issued letters giving the four the right to sue.

"Each of us is extremely proud to wear the United States jersey, and we also take seriously the responsibility that comes with that," Morgan said in a statement reported by The Associated Press. "We believe that fighting for gender equality in sports is a part of that responsibility. As players, we deserved to be paid equally for our work, regardless of our gender."

The filing comes on International Women's Day – and less than three months before the Women's World Cup kicks off in France. The U.S. women's team, currently ranked No. 1 in the world, hopes to defend the World Cup it won four years ago.

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03/07/2019

Anneliese Harlander has sued a UC Santa Cruz professor, saying he s*xually assaulted her in 2013.

A UC Santa Cruz alumnae has sued a university professor, saying he s*xually assaulted her in 2013 and engaged in a pattern of predatory behavior that included plying students with alcohol and co***ne at parties.

Gopal Balakrishnan, a humanities professor at UC Santa Cruz, was first accused of s*xual misconduct in 2017. Graffiti in campus bathrooms called him a “s*xual predator.” A letter circulated among students and alumni offered seven nameless accounts accusing Balakrishnan of s*xual harassment, unwanted advances and disparaging behavior toward women.

Some of Balakrishnan’s colleagues defended him and condemned the accusations as “vigilante tactics,”BuzzFeed News reported.

Anneliese Harlander, who graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 2013, told the university and Title IX investigators that Balakrishnan s*xually assaulted her after a graduation party in 2013. A Title IX investigation supported her account, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported.

In a lawsuit filed this week in Santa Cruz Superior Court, Harlander, now 28, said Balakrishnan brought alcohol to a graduation party hosted in June 2013 by Harlander’s neighbor. Harlander had been drinking at the party, and at one point “lapsed into unconsciousness,” according to the complaint.

After the party, the professor walked with her to her apartment and let himself in without her permission, Harlander alleged. She said he took off her clothes without her consent, along with his own, before s*xually assaulting her. Harlander did not consent to s*x and, because of her “extreme intoxication,” would have been unable to consent regardless, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit says that Harlander has since suffered “extreme physical and emotional distress.” She is seeking damages to recoup what she said were expenses for medical and psychological care, along with wages she said she lost after struggling to maintain regular employment.

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03/03/2019

Trump announced he was going “totally off script” after taking the stage at the 2019 Conservative Political Action Conference, where he ridiculed the “Green New Deal” initiative and ex-Attorney General Jeff Sessions while again ripping special counsel Robert Mueller.

“The ‘new green deal’ or whatever the hell they call it. The new green deal, right?” Trump said sarcastically. “I encourage it, I think it’s really something they should promote.

“No planes, no energy. When the wind stops blowing, that’s the end of your electric: ‘Darling, is the wind blowing today? I’d like to watch television, darling!’”

He later described the Democratic initiative introduced last month by freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as “a high school term paper written by a poor student.”

The sweeping proposal, aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, is backed by many Democratic presidential hopefuls for 2020.

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03/03/2019

If you or a love one has been injuried in a vehicle accident, visit LegalActionNews.com to learn how you may be entitled to compensation for your pain and suffering

03/03/2019

A former dancer at a McKees Rocks strip club is seeking a class action lawsuit against the business and its owners, alleging that she and others are owed wages because they were improperly classified as independent contractors instead of employees.

Sonya Jackson on Thursday filed paperwork in U.S. District Court in the Western District of Pennsylvania seeking the class action suit against Club Erotica, owner Vincenzo Isoldi, general manager Franco Isoldi and president and treasurer James W. Shepard.

Ms. Jackson said she worked at the club on Island Avenue at various times from May 2016 until she was fired in August 2018.

Club Erotica classified Ms. Jackson and other dancers as independent contractors even though the club held “near total control over them,” the lawsuit said.

Because of their independent contractor designation, Club Erotica did not pay the dancers a mandated minimum wage, made them to share a percentage of their tips, and forced them to reimburse the club for business expenses, according to the lawsuit.

Club Erotica had policies and procedures that the dancers had to follow, including checking in with the DJ when they arrived and waiting until the club until management gave them permission to leave, the lawsuit said.

The dancers also had to pay Club Erotica in order to work there, as well as other fees, and were pressured into tipping the DJs so that they got better music during their performances, according to the lawsuit.

All of the fees meant that dancers sometimes took a loss on the night. Dancers who had outstanding fees or fines were not permitted to perform and faced termination, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit seeks reimbursement of unpaid wages for the class, which Ms. Jackson believes would include more than 100 members.

A man who answered the phone Thursday night at Club Erotica but declined to identify himself said he was unaware of the lawsuit and therefore could not comment.

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03/03/2019

Addressing the Jackson family's criticism that he didn't include their perspective, director Dan Reed said, "What is the journalistic value of interviewing someone saying, 'Michael was a really nice guy. He never did anything to a child.' And that person has a gigantic vested interest, a financial interest, in smearing these two young men."

Days ahead of the explosive Michael Jackson documentary Leaving Neverland airing on HBO, Oprah Winfrey sat down with the film's accusers, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, and director, Dan Reed, on Wednesday evening in New York for an emotional discussion about child s*x abuse, which Winfrey called "a scourge on humanity."

Some 100 s*x abuse survivors greeted Robson and Safechuck with multiple standing ovations after the four-hour documentary wrapped and led into Oprah Winfrey Presents: After Neverland, which will air on HBO on March 4, following the conclusion of the two-part film.

Winfrey, a longtime advocate for victims of child s*xual abuse who featured the topic on 217 episodes of her long-running titular talk show, said she reached out to Reed via email after seeing the film. "I said, 'Dan, you were able to illustrate in these four hours what I've tried to explain in 217," Winfrey recalled and added, "this moment transcends Michael Jackson."

Leaving Neverland, which will begin airing on March 3, details the accounts of Robson, an Australian child who says he was molested by the so-called King of Pop from the ages of 7-14, and child commercial actor Safechuck, who says his abuse at the hands of Jackson began at the age of 10. Both men previously testified on behalf of Jacksonduring a separate child molestation trial, which the Jackson estate and family frequently point to as proof that the men are now lying.

But having Winfrey conduct the conversation with the two accusers and Reed offered the kind of endorsement that makes the claims impossible to ignore. Winfrey talked at length about the "grooming" process, the subsequent conflicting feelings about the abuse and how adult predators train children to lie.

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03/02/2019

Johnny Depp is demanding damages from ex-wife Amber Heard after she wrote an op-ed characterizing herself as a domestic abuse victim.
Depp’s lawsuit calls Heard’s allegations of domestic violence against him a “hoax.”

Heard “purported to write from the perspective of ‘a public figure representing domestic abuse’ and claimed that she ‘felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out’ when she ‘spoke up against s*xual violence,’ ” Depp’s lawyers state in the lawsuit obtained by PEOPLE. “The op-ed depended on the central premise that Ms. Heard was a domestic abuse victim and that Mr. Depp perpetrated domestic violence against her.”

“Mr. Depp never abused Ms. Heard. Her allegations against him were false when they were made in 2016. They were part of an elaborate hoax to generate positive publicity for Ms. Heard and advance her career,” Depp’s lawyers say in the lawsuit.

Depp’s lawyers filed a $50 million defamation suit against Heard on Friday over her Dec. 18, 2018 op-ed in The Washington Post titled, “I spoke up against s*xual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.”
In response, Heard’s rep said in a statement: “This frivolous action is just the latest of Johnny Depp’s repeated efforts to silence Amber Heard. She will not be silenced. Mr. Depp’s actions prove he is unable to accept the truth of his ongoing abusive behavior. But while he appears hell-bent on achieving self destruction, we will prevail in defeating this groundless lawsuit and ending the continued vile harassment of my client by Mr. Depp and his legal team.”

Depp’s lawyers go on to say that op-ed’s “implication that Mr. Depp is a domestic abuser is categorically and demonstrably false,” and that the allegations were refuted by police officers, a “litany” of neutral witnesses and 87 surveillance camera videos.

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