Verdicts & Settlements

Now-retired judge takes misdemeanor plea after dismissing DUI case for courtroom prosecutor’s nephew

A retired Pennsylvania district judge has taken a misdemeanor plea in a case over his dismissal of a drunken-driving charge against a nephew of his courtroom prosecutor. Dwight Shaner, 71, said nothing and appeared to be on the verge of tears Monday as he pleaded guilty and was sentenced in…

Apr 6, 2015 12:15 PM CDT

Fired over blond highlights, former Hooters waitress wins $250K arbitration award

A former Hooters waitress who says she was fired over her blonde highlights after a manager told her “black people don’t have blonde hair,” has won more than $250,000 in an arbitration award. The hair-color policy “was implemented in a discriminatory manner adversely affecting African-American women,” wrote arbitrator Edmund D.…

Apr 3, 2015 11:10 AM CDT

Federal judge says California has to pay for inmate’s sex-change surgery

California must pay for gender reassignment surgery for an inmate convicted of murder, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled Thursday. Surgery is “the only adequate medical treatment for her gender dysphoria,” said U.S. District Court Judge Jon Tigar in his written opinion. Hence, not providing it for Michelle-Lael Norsworthy,…

Apr 3, 2015 8:55 AM CDT

Jury awards $150M against Fiat Chrysler in fiery death of boy, 4, after Jeep is rear-ended

A jury in rural Georgia on Thursday awarded $150 million against Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV in the death of a four-year-old boy in a fiery rear-end crash. It found the automaker 99 percent responsible, due to the position of the gas tank in the 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee., for the…

Apr 3, 2015 8:00 AM CDT

Major US contractor settles first SEC case over confidentiality pacts that silence whistleblowers

In what is being hailed as a landmark federal enforcement action protecting the rights of whistleblowers, the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday announced a settlement with a major federal contractor over provisions in its confidentiality agreements for workers. Overly broad language in the Kellogg Brown & Root confidentiality pacts…

Apr 1, 2015 2:40 PM CDT

Woman faces new charges of animal neglect; cop wore gas mask to rescue kitten

Found not guilty of animal neglect during a 2011 trial, an Oregon woman is now facing new charges. After a Portland police officer donned a gas mask to enter the abandoned apartment of Edna Sue Blair, a warrant was issued for her arrest. A total of four charges of animal…

Apr 1, 2015 9:30 AM CDT

Appeals court: Driver who kicked drunken friend out of his car is liable for 3rd-party hit-and-run

Drunk and belligerent, Piero Larrea was kicked out of a friend’s car on the way home from a New Orleans bar on Oct. 29, 2011. Then he died in a hit-and-run accident after John Cefalu pulled away. Sued by Larrea’s dad, Cefalu was found liable for 28 percent of a…

Apr 1, 2015 9:00 AM CDT

April 11, 1961: Adolf Eichmann on trial

In May 1960, a team of Israeli Mossad agents deployed to Argentina approached a man known as Ricardo Klement near his home on Garibaldi Street in a suburb of Buenos Aires. Having admitted to the agents that he was Adolf Eichmann, he was whisked to Israel to stand trial under…

Apr 1, 2015 12:30 AM CDT

Ellen Pao loses discrimination case against Kleiner Perkins, then judge revives one claim

Developing: The jury has reached a verdict in a much-watched Silicon Valley employment discrimination case. Ellen Pao, a former BigLaw associate with star credentials who currently is at the helm of Reddit, had sought millions from storied venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. She got zip. “The jury…

Mar 27, 2015 4:25 PM CDT

Jury recommends life sentence for woman convicted in granddaughter’s running death

A jury has recommended a life sentence without parole for an Alabama woman convicted of capital murder in her granddaughter’s running death. The jury, by a vote of 7-5, rejected prosecutors’ request for a death sentence for Joyce Hardin Garrard in the February 2012 death of 9-year-old Savannah Hardin, the…

Mar 27, 2015 2:21 PM CDT

Receiver appointed for law firm $10M in debt; loans taken out by partner before suicide contested

Rejecting a law firm’s argument that having a third party deal with its $10 million in debt would be “overkill,” an Iowa judge has appointed a receiver to oversee the dissolution of Gallagher Langlas and Gallagher. Veridian Credit Union, whose loans to the Waterloo firm are being contested in litigation,…

Mar 26, 2015 11:00 AM CDT

Botched child-murder case gets tossed; mother jailed for 2 decades speaks out

Found guilty in 1990 of playing a role in the slaying of her 4-year-old son, Debra Milke spent 22 years in the Arizona prison system before she was released in 2013 after successfully challenging her conviction in a federal habeas petition. In a scathing written opinion (PDF), the 9th U.S.…

Mar 25, 2015 10:00 AM CDT

Appeals court says magistrate had power to hold former TV judge Joe Brown in contempt and jail him

It appears that a former TV-show judge may be headed back to the slammer over a Tennessee juvenile-court outburst last year, in which he talked himself into an escalated five-day jail sentence after initially getting 24 hours for contempt of court. Although Joe Brown characterized his post-ruling debate with the…

Mar 24, 2015 12:40 PM CDT

Judge calls $600K legal fee in fast-track $1.5M settlement for woman punched by cop ‘unconscionable’

Noting that it took only about three months for a California lawyer to get a $1.5 million settlement concerning police conduct videotaped by a passing motorist, a federal judge last week described the attorney’s fee of over $600,000 charged by lawyer Caree Harper as “unconscionable.” However, although U.S. District Judge…

Mar 24, 2015 10:40 AM CDT

Retired judge could lose pension after pleading guilty to stealing cocaine evidence in his cases

A retired Pennsylvania judge accused of stealing cocaine from evidence in cases over which he presided pleaded guilty Friday to three misdemeanor charges. Paul Pozonsky, 59, served for 14 years on the common pleas court bench in the same Washington County courthouse where today’s hearing was held, reports the Tribune-Review.…

Mar 20, 2015 12:15 PM CDT