Tag: lawsuits

An Iowa Man Published Body Camera Footage From His Arrest. The Cops Are Suing Him for Defamation.

An Iowa man published body camera footage of his arrest at the hands of two Newton, Iowa, police officers last year. Now, he’s being sued for defamation. 

In August 2022, 19-year-old Tayvin Galanakis was driving in Newton just after midnight when he was pulled over by police officers Nathan Winters and Christopher Wing. 

“How much have you had to drink tonight?” Winters asks Galanakis in body camera footage from the incident.

“None,” Galanakis responds. Winters incredulously asks, “What do you mean none?” Galanakis said, “Great, let’s do a test then.”

The footage then shows Galanakis undergoing a series of field sobriety tests. After Winters claims Galanakis failed them, he administered a Breathalyzer test, which showed that Galanakis had a blood-alcohol level of 0.00. Almost immediately after proving his sobriety, body camera footage shows Winters asking Galanakis about how much marijuana he had consumed.

“Despite previously claiming he could smell alcohol on Tayvin, Officer Winters now claimed he believed Tayvin was intoxicated due to his use of marijuana,” reads a legal complaint later filed by Galanakis. “Tayvin continuously told the officers that he did not use marijuana and that his placement on the William Penn [University] football team renders him unable to use marijuana because of his weekly drug tests.”

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Americans who renounced citizenship sue US over ‘astronomical’ fees

Former Americans who have renounced their citizenship have launched a class-action lawsuit suing the US government for what they argue are exorbitant and unconstitutional costs of relinquishing their passports.

The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday by four renounced US citizens in a federal court in Washington DC, accuses the US of wrongfully profiting from the “astronomical” fee it charges those who voluntarily cease to be Americans. Since 2014, Americans abroad who no longer wish to remain citizens, or who can no longer afford to meet the notoriously onerous US tax demands, have been forced to pay a “renunciation fee” of $2,350.

The fee, the lawsuit claims, is “arbitrary, capricious and illegal because, among other things, it was used to fund governmental functions completely unrelated to renunciation services in violation of federal law”.

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West Virginia State Police Investigation: 10 more minors, 42 more women in total to sue West Virginia State Police over hidden cameras

Wheeling West Virginia Attorney Teresa Toriseva sent a notice of legal action to Interim WVSP Superintendent Colonel Jack Chambers and West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey on April 21 saying 42 women, including 10 minors, plan to file lawsuits against the West Virginia State Police.

The minors attended Junior Trooper Academy.

According to a letter sent by Cpl. Joseph Comer, a member of the WV State Police, to state lawmakers, Governor Jim Justice, and the office of the Attorney General on February 16, a hidden camera or cameras were placed and operated inside the female locker room at the State Police Academy. Toriseva says her clients and other female Junior Trooper program attendees accessed and used the female locker room at the Academy during the time the anonymous letter states the cameras were in use. Toriseva also says the taping of the females in the Academy did not end until 2020, the same time the Junior Trooper Program was discontinued in 2020.

“Our ongoing investigation shows rampant sexual misconduct, including hidden videotaping, toward female cadets and others, while they attended the Academy,” Toriseva told 7News. “Much of the conduct is through witness provided evidence.”

Toriseva says these women that were videotaped have experienced varying levels of physical and emotional abuse

“All of these women were victims of a civil conspiracy perpetrated by instructors, staff and leadership at the West Virginia State Police Academy,” the letter states. “Accordingly, these women will bring suit seeking all available damages under the law.”

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Grandma Sexually Abused by Police Over Window Tint, in Ominous Secret ‘Torture Warehouse’ — Lawsuit

In a recent revelation that sends chills down the spine of those familiar with the Homan Square revelations in Chicago, the Baton Rouge Police Department (BRPD) has come under intense scrutiny for allegations of a “torture warehouse” eerily echoing those harrowing tales. This disturbing discovery underscores a pervasive trend of covert police operations and the lengths some officers will go to abuse their power.

The BRPD is currently reeling from lawsuits and investigations relating to a facility dubbed the “Brave Cave.” Ternell Brown and Jeremy Lee, two victims of this ominous facility, have come forward with their experiences. Both their stories are a crude reminder of the unchecked power and brutal tactics that some police officers resort to.

For those unfamiliar, Homan Square in Chicago was a secretive police detention facility where detainees were reportedly held without legal counsel, subjected to physical abuse, and went missing from official records. The story of the “Brave Cave” draws chilling parallels.

Ternell Brown, a 47-year-old grandmother, narrates an ordeal of being “sexually humiliated” following unnecessary strip and body cavity searches, all stemming from a traffic stop due to window tint. Even after clarifying that she possessed legal prescription drugs, Brown was forcibly taken to the “Brave Cave,” where she underwent what her legal team terms illegal strip searches.

Similarly, Jeremy Lee’s experience sounds straight out of a dystopian narrative. Arrested and taken to the warehouse, Lee was allegedly subjected to such intense physical abuse that the jail demanded he receive hospital treatment before being admitted. Upon his arrival at the warehouse, the surveillance footage suggests that officers deliberately turned off their body cameras — a telling act that speaks volumes — before claiming he “charged” officers, giving them a reason to beat him to a pulp.

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Washington State Prison System Sued for Using Unreliable Drug Tests To Put Inmates in Solitary

Another state prison system is facing a lawsuit over its use of inaccurate drug field tests to throw incarcerated people in solitary confinement.

The class-action lawsuit, filed last Friday by Columbia Legal Services in a Washington state circuit court, alleges that the Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC) uses unreliable field kits to test mail for drugs and then uses the unverified results to put inmates in solitary confinement, move them to higher security prisons, and strip them of visitation rights and other privileges. This violates inmates’ due process rights and protections against cruel punishment under the state constitution, the suit argues.

“DOC continues to use these tests even though, upon information and belief, items that have tested ‘presumptive positive’ include blank notebook paper and manila envelopes purchased directly from DOC’s commissary or from DOC-approved vendors,” the suit says.

According to the lawsuit, one of the plaintiffs spent four months in solitary confinement after greeting cards shipped directly to him from a card company tested positive for drugs. The results were later invalidated by a lab. Another plaintiff, Gregory Hyde, was kept in solitary confinement—meaning he was in a cell for 23 hours a day—for nearly five months because some books of crossword and sudoku puzzles that his father mailed him tested positive for synthetic marijuana, also known as “spice,” a popular drug in prisons.

“I think DOC is using its power to punish people who can’t fight back,” Hyde said in a press release. “My elderly father just wanted to send me some puzzle books. Now they’re saying he’s a drug dealer. Now my father is too far away to see because I got transferred to a different facility. My father is impoverished and on a fixed income. I think it’s an abuse of power.”

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In 1971, a mysterious hijacker parachuted out of a plane with $200,000 and vanished. This man is suing the FBI to get potential new clues

Eric Ulis was only 5 when a dapper man in a suit and sunglasses boarded a commercial flight in Portland, Oregon, ordered a bourbon and soda from his seat in 18E and then handed a flight attendant a handwritten note saying he had a bomb.

It was November 24, 1971, and the unidentified man, who later became known as D.B. Cooper, had a one-way ticket on the flight to Seattle.

Cooper opened his carry-on bag to reveal a jumble of wires and red sticks and demanded four parachutes and $200,000 in cash. After the plane landed in Seattle he swapped three dozen passengers for the cash and parachutes, then ordered the pilot to fly to a new destination: Mexico City.

But soon after takeoff, Cooper did something incredible: With the money strapped to his waist, he parachuted out of the rear of the plane and into the night, vanishing over the vast wilderness of the Pacific Northwest.

Cooper has not been seen or heard from since. His audacious stunt made him a folk hero, triggered an FBI investigation, led to tightened security at airports and inspired dozens of books and TV documentaries. It remains the only unsolved hijacking in US aviation history.

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Lawsuit Over Sex-Trafficked Teen Could Stop Schools From Hiding Kids’ Dysphoria

The mother of a Virginia teen sex-trafficked twice after her school concealed her newly asserted gender identity has filed a groundbreaking lawsuit against school staff and a Maryland public defender who alleged parental “misgendering” and abuse. The complaint was filed Aug. 22 in the Western District of Virginia court on behalf of Michele Blair by the Child and Parental Rights Campaign (CPRC) with support from the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR).

It alleges that the defendants’ actions—first in withholding vital information about the girl’s gender identification and related assault in the boys’ bathroom, then later by falsely alleging abuse to deprive her mother of custody—resulted in the child’s ordeal at the hands of sexual predators not once, but twice. Blair v. Appomattox et al. will set critical precedents in two areas of roiling national debate: parental notification of gender transition in schools and parental custody relating to gender identity.

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FBI Hit With Lawsuits After Allegedly Losing Hundreds of Thousands in Rare Coins During Raid

A pair of Americans, who had their property taken following a raid by the FBI, are now alleging that the organization lost or stole their property.

In March 2021, the FBI raided U.S. Private Vaults, a company based in Beverly Hills, seizing property from at least two people, Don Mellein and Jeni Pearsons.

After they prevailed in court the first time, the FBI agreed to return their property, but both clients discovered that some of their property was missing, and suspected that some of their valuables were either stolen by the FBI or lost in the chaos of the raid. 

This has prompted yet another pair of lawsuits, launched on Friday by the nonprofit law firm Institute for Justice. 

“All we know is that their property was in a box and safe before the FBI broke into the box,” Joe Gay, an attorney with Institute for Justice, told Fox News. “Once the FBI broke into the box, we honestly don’t know exactly what happened.”

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Houston Police Arrested an Animal Rights Protester and Detained Him for 16 Hours, Lawsuit Says

Animal rights activists Daraius Dubash and Faraz Harsini were peacefully demonstrating in a Houston, Texas, public park when park employees demanded they leave. When Dubash insisted that the pair had a First Amendment right to protest, officials called the police, who arrested Dubash and charged him with criminal trespass. 

While Dubash’s charge was eventually dismissed, the pair have now filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the city, arguing that city police clearly violated their Constitutional rights.

“No one should be handcuffed and detained for exercising his First Amendment rights,” said JT Morris, an attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a First Amendment nonprofit group. “We’re suing because public parks belong to all Americans and their expressive rights, not the personal views of a few.” 

From April to July 2022, Dubash and Harsini demonstrated several times in Discovery Green, a Houston public park. According to their lawsuit, the pair—keeping in practice with Anonymous for the Voiceless, the animal-rights activist group the two pertained to—wore Guy Fawkes masks while playing clips from Dominion, a documentary showing the gruesome mistreatment of animals in factory farms. 

On three separate occasions, park employees asked the pair to leave the park, claiming that the park was private property. (Discovery Green is public property, though it is managed by a private company.) According to the complaint, the pair complied, fearing retaliation.

On July 23, 2022, Dubash and Harsini were approached again. This time, they refused to leave, and Dubash calmly told park employees that he had a right to demonstrate peacefully. However, a park security guard told Dubash that protests were allowed on a “case by case” basis, adding that his “manager is going to come and come look at it.”

According to the lawsuit, when the manager, Floyd Willis, arrived, Dubash informed him that, while the park was managed by a private conservancy, the park was still public property, meaning that the First Amendment applied.

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West Point is SUED by group that ended affirmative action after Biden allowed academy to discriminate against white applications – even though Army has MORE black soldiers than general population

A campaign group which successfully ended affirmative action is now suing New York’s prestigious West Point military academy, claiming it discriminates against white applicants. 

Students for Fair Admissions, founded by Edward Blum, is seeking to erase an exemption in the SCOTUS ruling which is allowing US Army schools to keep using race as a factor in admissions. 

It cited the example of two white high schoolers it believes were perfect candidates for the prestigious upstate New York school, who Students for Fair Admissions believes are banned under current rules ‘from competing for admission on an equal footing’. 

This comes after President Joe Biden pushed for the military to be allowed to continue filtering applications by race – despite the racial makeup of the Army already being more diverse than the general population. 

The Biden administration’s push for so-called positive discrimination to achieve ‘equity’ comes despite the Army having a greater proportion of black soldiers than the general population – and only slightly fewer Hispanic recruits. 

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