Back in June of 2013, 16-year-old Ethan Couch killed four people after hitting them with his car when driving while intoxicated (presumably from the liquor he and his friends had stolen from a Walmart earlier that night.) At the time of the accident, he was speeding while driving illegally on a suspended license with a
It was a late night in January, 2015. There was alcohol involved. There was dancing involved. There may have even been flirting involved. What was NOT involved, however, was consent. Thankfully, two Stanford University graduate students were out for a bike ride when they came across a man thrusting himself on top of an unconscious,
On August 1, 2016, a press release was published by the Washington Attorney General’s office announcing that Attorney General Bob Ferguson had filed a lawsuit against corporate giant Comcast. The lawsuit alleges that Comcast bilked its subscribers out of millions of dollars related to its Service Protection Plan. Comcast’s Latest Lawsuit by Washington A.G. is Not
On January 2, 2016, an armed group attended a peaceful protest in Burns, Oregon, of the imprisonment of father Dwight and son Steve Hammond. That protest resulted in the Malheur Wildlife Refuge armed takeover. The Hammonds are area ranchers who were convicted of a 2001 arson of federal lands, specifically the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management
Barclays lawsuit settlement agreement with the attorney general’s of 44 states was entered on August 8, 2016, according to a press release by New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman. Barclays PLC is a global company with headquarters in London, England, that has offices in New York. The settlement agreement was reached after an investigation of
The blast at the West Fertilizer plant killed 15 people altogether, injured 170, damaged nearby buildings and over 150 homes in the city of West, obliterating the plant, and even caused the equivalent of a 2.1 magnitude earthquake. With jury selection set to begin on Monday, authorities for the county told hundreds of prospective jurors on Sunday evening that they would not be needed for the trial involving the plant’s ownership and suppliers and the families of the deceased; Kevin Sanders, William Uptmor and Kenneth Harris. Waco District Court Judge Jim Meyer had divided the litigation regarding the explosion into three separate lawsuits, with the aforementioned case serving as a potential bellwether for the other two cases, which will contain hundreds of plaintiffs.
Although the deal is finalized, various sources have differed in how the payout will be calculated. The New York Times is reporting that $5 billion of the $8.8 total allotment for environmental restoration will go to Louisiana, the state hardest hit by the disaster, payable over an 18-year period. $5.5 billion will go to Clean Water Act penalties, payable over a 15 year period, the largest environmental fine in history. $4.9 billion will also go towards economic damages to the states affected by the spill. The Wall Street Journal reports that a total of $8.1 billion will go towards environmental damages to the U.S. and the Gulf states. BP had already agreed to a separate criminal penalty of $4 billion in 2013.
Soble ruled that the ballots will not be counted, writing, “As a result of the employer’s unlawful support and assistance, I am setting aside the decertification election and dismissing the decertification petition.” Gerawan attorney Ron Barsamian admitted to the violation, however claiming that it was not the crux of the issue, saying “The payment to the decertification petitioners to go to Sacramento was from a source outside Gerawan and may be a technical violation, but it also fails to consider the fact that they were going anyway. The money didn’t make them decide.” The case became the lengthiest labor hearing ever in the state of California, involving over 100 witnesses and six months of testimony.
Tolan’s mother Marian said about the resolution, “Though I still have my son, I’ve had to watch his dreams and part of his spirit die. We’ve given up so much as a family for a chance at justice, a chance at peace, a chance at being whole again. This has been a horrific experience.” While the attorney for the Tolan family Daryl Washington told reporters outside the courthouse, “As Mrs. Tolan has said and as Robbie has said on many occasions this is not about black versus white this is about right versus wrong,”
It is likely that General Motors got off easy both in comparison to Toyota and to future corporate federal prosecutions. Last week, Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates announced major policy changes in the Justice Department for corporate investigations, focusing on prosecuting individuals who are responsible for wrongdoing instead of offering the deferred agreements and taking financial penalties in lieu of criminal charges. The change in policy discourages the probationary deferred prosecution agreements and requires companies to point out wrongdoing by specific employees to receive any kind of prosecutorial credit.GM as a company had been charged with felonies, according to the New York Times, sources familiar with the settlement say no individuals will be charged in the agreement.