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Tag: complaint

  • Republicans reject complaint about Tulsi Gabbard as Democrats question time it took to see it

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    The Republican leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees have rejected a top-secret complaint from an anonymous government insider alleging that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard withheld classified information for political reasons.The responses this week from Sen. Tom Cotton and Rep. Rick Crawford mean the complaint is unlikely to proceed further, though Democratic lawmakers who also have seen the document said they continue to question why it took Gabbard’s office eight months to refer the complaint to Congress as required by law.Gabbard’s office has rejected any allegations of wrongdoing as well as criticism of the timeframe for the referral, saying the complaint included so many classified details that it necessitated an extensive legal and security review. Select lawmakers were able to view the complaint this week.Cotton wrote Thursday on X that he agreed with an earlier inspector general’s conclusion that the complaint did not appear to be credible. He said he believes the complaint was prompted by political opposition to Gabbard and the Trump administration.“To be frank, it seems like just another effort by the president’s critics in and out of government to undermine policies that they don’t like,” wrote the Arkansas Republican, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee.When asked about the complaint, Cotton’s office referred to his social media post.Crawford, the House Intelligence Committee chairman, also of Arkansas, said he believes the complaint was an attempt to smear Gabbard’s reputation.Democrats are pushing for explanations about why it took Gabbard’s office months to refer the complaint to the required members of Congress. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the law requires such a report to be sent within 21 days.“The law is clear,” Warner said Thursday at the Capitol. “I think it was an effort to try to bury this whistleblower complaint.”Warner said he also still has questions about the details of the complaint, noting that it was heavily redacted.The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, said in a written statement that he will keep looking into the matter.In a memo sent to lawmakers this week, the intelligence community’s inspector general said the complaint also accused Gabbard’s office of general counsel of failing to report a potential crime to the Department of Justice. The memo, which contains redactions, does not offer further details of either allegation.Last June, then-inspector general Tamara Johnson found that the claim Gabbard distributed classified information along political lines did not appear to be credible, according to the current watchdog, Christopher Fox. Johnson was “unable to assess the apparent credibility” of the accusation about the general counsel’s office, Fox wrote in the memo.Fox said he would have deemed the complaint non-urgent, unlike the previous inspector general, but respected the decision of his predecessor and therefore sent it to lawmakers.Copies of the top-secret complaint were hand-delivered this week to the “Gang of Eight” — a group comprised of the House and Senate leaders from both parties as well as the four top lawmakers on the House and Senate intelligence committees.Andrew Bakaj, the attorney for the person who made the complaint, has said that while he cannot discuss the details of the report or the identity of its author, there is no justification for keeping it from Congress since last spring.A former CIA officer and now the chief legal counsel at Whistleblower Aid, Bakaj said he has heard significant redactions were made to the complaint before it was given to members of Congress.“Given the extensive redactions we understand exist, even in the version provided to the Gang of Eight, it seems unlikely anyone could reasonably and in a non-partisan manner reach the conclusions issued by Sen. Cotton,” Bakaj wrote in a statement to The Associated Press.Gabbard coordinates the work of the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies. She has recently drawn attention for another matter — appearing on site last week when the FBI served a search warrant on election offices in Georgia that are central to Trump’s disproven claims about fraud in the 2020 election.

    WASHINGTON —

    The Republican leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees have rejected a top-secret complaint from an anonymous government insider alleging that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard withheld classified information for political reasons.

    The responses this week from Sen. Tom Cotton and Rep. Rick Crawford mean the complaint is unlikely to proceed further, though Democratic lawmakers who also have seen the document said they continue to question why it took Gabbard’s office eight months to refer the complaint to Congress as required by law.

    Gabbard’s office has rejected any allegations of wrongdoing as well as criticism of the timeframe for the referral, saying the complaint included so many classified details that it necessitated an extensive legal and security review. Select lawmakers were able to view the complaint this week.

    Cotton wrote Thursday on X that he agreed with an earlier inspector general’s conclusion that the complaint did not appear to be credible. He said he believes the complaint was prompted by political opposition to Gabbard and the Trump administration.

    “To be frank, it seems like just another effort by the president’s critics in and out of government to undermine policies that they don’t like,” wrote the Arkansas Republican, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee.

    When asked about the complaint, Cotton’s office referred to his social media post.

    Crawford, the House Intelligence Committee chairman, also of Arkansas, said he believes the complaint was an attempt to smear Gabbard’s reputation.

    Democrats are pushing for explanations about why it took Gabbard’s office months to refer the complaint to the required members of Congress. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the law requires such a report to be sent within 21 days.

    “The law is clear,” Warner said Thursday at the Capitol. “I think it was an effort to try to bury this whistleblower complaint.”

    Warner said he also still has questions about the details of the complaint, noting that it was heavily redacted.

    The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, said in a written statement that he will keep looking into the matter.

    In a memo sent to lawmakers this week, the intelligence community’s inspector general said the complaint also accused Gabbard’s office of general counsel of failing to report a potential crime to the Department of Justice. The memo, which contains redactions, does not offer further details of either allegation.

    Last June, then-inspector general Tamara Johnson found that the claim Gabbard distributed classified information along political lines did not appear to be credible, according to the current watchdog, Christopher Fox. Johnson was “unable to assess the apparent credibility” of the accusation about the general counsel’s office, Fox wrote in the memo.

    Fox said he would have deemed the complaint non-urgent, unlike the previous inspector general, but respected the decision of his predecessor and therefore sent it to lawmakers.

    Copies of the top-secret complaint were hand-delivered this week to the “Gang of Eight” — a group comprised of the House and Senate leaders from both parties as well as the four top lawmakers on the House and Senate intelligence committees.

    Andrew Bakaj, the attorney for the person who made the complaint, has said that while he cannot discuss the details of the report or the identity of its author, there is no justification for keeping it from Congress since last spring.

    A former CIA officer and now the chief legal counsel at Whistleblower Aid, Bakaj said he has heard significant redactions were made to the complaint before it was given to members of Congress.

    “Given the extensive redactions we understand exist, even in the version provided to the Gang of Eight, it seems unlikely anyone could reasonably and in a non-partisan manner reach the conclusions issued by Sen. Cotton,” Bakaj wrote in a statement to The Associated Press.

    Gabbard coordinates the work of the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies. She has recently drawn attention for another matter — appearing on site last week when the FBI served a search warrant on election offices in Georgia that are central to Trump’s disproven claims about fraud in the 2020 election.

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  • ‘We are heartbroken’: Florida couple sues IVF clinic after DNA test reveals baby isn’t theirs

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    A Florida couple has filed an emergency lawsuit against a fertility clinic, alleging their newborn child is not genetically related to either of them after an in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure.The couple, identified in court documents as John and Jane Doe to protect their privacy, is suing IVF Life, Inc. D/B/A Fertility Center of Orlando and Dr. Milton McNichol, M.D.According to the complaint filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, the couple used their own egg and sperm to create three viable embryos at the clinic.In March 2025, one of the embryos was implanted in Jane Doe, resulting in a successful full-term pregnancy. The couple’s healthy female child, Baby Doe, was born on Dec. 11, 2025.The parents became suspicious when Baby Doe displayed physical characteristics of a child who was not racially Caucasian, despite both John and Jane Doe being Caucasian.Genetic testing subsequently confirmed that Baby Doe has “no genetic relationship to either of the Plaintiffs,” indicating the implanted embryo was not one of the couple’s.While the Does expressed a deep emotional bond with the child they carried and delivered, the lawsuit states their belief that Baby Doe “should legally and morally be united with her genetic parents.”The couple also fears that another person may be pregnant with or raising one or more of their own embryos or children.The couple claims they notified the defendants on Jan. 5, 2026, requesting cooperation to unite Baby Doe with her genetic parents and to determine the disposition of their remaining embryos. They have received no “substantive response.”The Plaintiffs are seeking emergency injunctive relief, asking the court to compel the defendants to take several actions, including:Immediately notifying all patients who had embryos in storage before Jane Doe’s implantation about the allegations in the complaint and providing them with a copy.Paying for free genetic testing for all patients and their children whose births resulted from embryo implantation through the defendants’ services over the past five years.Disclosing any parentage discrepancies discovered through this testing.Official statement from Fertility Center of OrlandoWe are actively cooperating with an investigation to support one of our patients in determining the source of an error that resulted in the birth of a child who is not genetically related to them. Multiple entities are involved in this process, and all parties are working diligently to help identify when and where the error may have occurred. Our priority remains transparency and the well-being of the patient and child involved. We will continue to assist in any way that we can regardless of the outcome of the investigation.Official Statement from the couple”Our baby was born just over a month ago via emergency C-section. Her birth was the result of the miracle of in vitro fertilization—a journey that took years of careful medical procedures, tremendous expense, and deep emotional and physical sacrifice. The result is a beautiful, healthy baby girl whom we love more than words can express.I have a million things I want to say and so many emotions I wish I could share, but for now, this is what we are able to tell you: due to a medical error- the wrong embryo implanted by the doctor – our baby is not genetically related to either of us. While we are beyond grateful to have her in our lives and love her immeasurably, we also recognize that we have a moral obligation to find her genetic parents. Our joy over her birth is further complicated by the devastating reality that her genetic parents—whom we do not yet know—or possibly another family entirely, may have received our genetic embryo. We are heartbroken, devastated, and confused. This situation has completely dictated and complicated our lives since the moment of her birth. Aside from necessary outings where we have been forced to pretend everything is okay, we have been living like prisoners in our own home. We hope that by sharing this it will allow us to begin living more freely and to finally celebrate the one beautiful thing that has come from all of this: our daughter. Our baby girl is completely innocent and so undeserving of any of this. We’re also sharing this to prevent harmful rumors or misinformation, as we’ve already seen inaccurate information circulating in a few stories and articles.Please bear with us as we navigate this deeply confusing and painful time, living with the heartbreak of not knowing what happened to our genetic embryos or whether we may have a biological child (or children) somewhere out there in the hands of strangers. The added fear that our daughter could be taken from us at any time is almost unbearable. There are so many details and potential outcomes to this story, but for now, we will leave it here until further progress has been made by our legal counsel. Until then, please keep our family in your hearts and prayers, and if you have any information on the family who might be at the other side of this, please contact us.”

    LONGWOOD, Fla. —

    A Florida couple has filed an emergency lawsuit against a fertility clinic, alleging their newborn child is not genetically related to either of them after an in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure.

    The couple, identified in court documents as John and Jane Doe to protect their privacy, is suing IVF Life, Inc. D/B/A Fertility Center of Orlando and Dr. Milton McNichol, M.D.

    According to the complaint filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, the couple used their own egg and sperm to create three viable embryos at the clinic.

    In March 2025, one of the embryos was implanted in Jane Doe, resulting in a successful full-term pregnancy. The couple’s healthy female child, Baby Doe, was born on Dec. 11, 2025.

    The parents became suspicious when Baby Doe displayed physical characteristics of a child who was not racially Caucasian, despite both John and Jane Doe being Caucasian.

    Genetic testing subsequently confirmed that Baby Doe has “no genetic relationship to either of the Plaintiffs,” indicating the implanted embryo was not one of the couple’s.

    While the Does expressed a deep emotional bond with the child they carried and delivered, the lawsuit states their belief that Baby Doe “should legally and morally be united with her genetic parents.”

    The couple also fears that another person may be pregnant with or raising one or more of their own embryos or children.

    The couple claims they notified the defendants on Jan. 5, 2026, requesting cooperation to unite Baby Doe with her genetic parents and to determine the disposition of their remaining embryos. They have received no “substantive response.”

    The Plaintiffs are seeking emergency injunctive relief, asking the court to compel the defendants to take several actions, including:

    • Immediately notifying all patients who had embryos in storage before Jane Doe’s implantation about the allegations in the complaint and providing them with a copy.
    • Paying for free genetic testing for all patients and their children whose births resulted from embryo implantation through the defendants’ services over the past five years.
    • Disclosing any parentage discrepancies discovered through this testing.

    Official statement from Fertility Center of Orlando

    We are actively cooperating with an investigation to support one of our patients in determining the source of an error that resulted in the birth of a child who is not genetically related to them. Multiple entities are involved in this process, and all parties are working diligently to help identify when and where the error may have occurred. Our priority remains transparency and the well-being of the patient and child involved. We will continue to assist in any way that we can regardless of the outcome of the investigation.

    Official Statement from the couple

    “Our baby was born just over a month ago via emergency C-section. Her birth was the result of the miracle of in vitro fertilization—a journey that took years of careful medical procedures, tremendous expense, and deep emotional and physical sacrifice. The result is a beautiful, healthy baby girl whom we love more than words can express.

    I have a million things I want to say and so many emotions I wish I could share, but for now, this is what we are able to tell you: due to a medical error- the wrong embryo implanted by the doctor – our baby is not genetically related to either of us.

    While we are beyond grateful to have her in our lives and love her immeasurably, we also recognize that we have a moral obligation to find her genetic parents. Our joy over her birth is further complicated by the devastating reality that her genetic parents—whom we do not yet know—or possibly another family entirely, may have received our genetic embryo.

    We are heartbroken, devastated, and confused.

    This situation has completely dictated and complicated our lives since the moment of her birth.

    Aside from necessary outings where we have been forced to pretend everything is okay, we have been living like prisoners in our own home. We hope that by sharing this it will allow us to begin living more freely and to finally celebrate the one beautiful thing that has come from all of this: our daughter.

    Our baby girl is completely innocent and so undeserving of any of this. We’re also sharing this to prevent harmful rumors or misinformation, as we’ve already seen inaccurate information circulating in a few stories and articles.

    Please bear with us as we navigate this deeply confusing and painful time, living with the heartbreak of not knowing what happened to our genetic embryos or whether we may have a biological child (or children) somewhere out there in the hands of strangers. The added fear that our daughter could be taken from us at any time is almost unbearable.

    There are so many details and potential outcomes to this story, but for now, we will leave it here until further progress has been made by our legal counsel. Until then, please keep our family in your hearts and prayers, and if you have any information on the family who might be at the other side of this, please contact us.”

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  • Families of two men believed to have been killed in military strike on boat sue US government over ‘unlawful’ attacks

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    As the U.S. military began launching strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean last year, a young Trinidadian man who was in Venezuela for work was searching for a way home, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday.Chad Joseph, 26, had been in Venezuela for months fishing and doing farm work when he began looking for a boat to hitch a ride back to Las Cuevas in Trinidad and Tobago, where his wife and three children lived. But as the U.S. began targeting vessels officials said were carrying drugs destined for American streets, Joseph “became increasingly fearful” of making the journey, court documents say. The concerns became so real that in early September, his wife recalled, he called to assure her that he had not been aboard a vessel just hit by the U.S., pledging to be home soon.The last call home was on Oct. 12, when Joseph told his wife he’d found a boat to bring him back to Trinidad, and he would be seeing her in a matter of days, according to court documents. Two days later, however, on Oct. 14, the U.S. struck another target — a boat Joseph’s family believes he was in.“Mr. Joseph’s wife repeatedly called Mr. Joseph’s cellphone, but the line was dead,” a lawsuit filed Tuesday against the U.S. government says. “The line remains dead to this day.”Joseph’s family, and the family of another Trinidadian man, 41-year-old Rishi Samaroo, who had been working with Joseph in Venezuela and who is also believed to have been on the boat, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government on Tuesday for wrongful death and extrajudicial killing of the two men. The complaint calls the strikes “unprecedented and manifestly unlawful,” and says they have carried out “premeditated and intentional killings” with no legal justification.CNN asked the Justice Department for comment but did not immediately receive a response before publication. The Defense Department declined to comment on ongoing litigation.The complaint says that, despite claims by President Donald Trump and other administration officials that all the men killed on board were “narcoterrorists,” neither Joseph nor Samaroo had any affiliation to drug cartels.The lawsuit marks the first opportunity for a judge to rule on the legality of the strikes which are part of the Trump administration’s ongoing campaign in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific — dubbed Operation Southern Spear — that has killed at least 117 people. The most recent strike was carried out last week in the eastern Pacific, killing two and leaving one survivor who was being searched for by the Coast Guard.The lawsuit points specifically to the Death on the High Seas Act, which allows family members to sue over wrongful deaths on the high seas, and the Alien Tort Statute, which lets foreign nationals sue in federal courts over violations of international law.The families are suing for compensatory and punitive damages and they are being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Jonathan Hafetz with the Seton Hall Law School.The administration has publicly presented little evidence that those killed in the ongoing campaign are affiliates of drug cartels, or that each of the vessels had drugs on them. When pressed by lawmakers during congressional briefings, military officials have acknowledged they do not know the identities of everyone on board the boats they have destroyed.The legality of the strikes has come under intense scrutiny in Congress since the operations began in September, including particular interest in the very first strike, when the military carried out a second strike that killed two survivors of an initial attack. Multiple current and former military lawyers previously told CNN the strikes do not appear lawful.But the administration has maintained that the operation is a necessary step against drugs heading for US shores that will ultimately harm Americans.Trump announced the Oct. 14 strike in a social media post, saying “six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed” and that intelligence had confirmed the vessel was “trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a known DTO route.”‘They must be held accountable’Similar to Joseph, Samaroo had communicated with his family just days before the Oct. 14 strike. Having served 15 years in prison for “participation in a homicide” in Trinidad, and released early on parole, Samaroo moved to Las Cuevas, Trinidad, and in August 2025 he went to Venezuela to work on a farm, the lawsuit says.He frequently shared photos and videos with his family of his time on the farm, “where he cared for cows and goats and made cheese.” During one video call, he introduced Joseph, a friend from home who he said he was working with in Venezuela.On Oct. 12, Samaroo sent his sister, Sallycar Korasingh, a photo in a lifejacket, telling her he had found a boat to bring him back to Trinidad and he would see her in a few days.“That call was the last time Ms. Korasingh, or anyone else in his family, heard from Mr. Samaroo,” the complaint says.In a statement issued by the ACLU, Korasingh said her brother was a “hardworking man who paid his debt to society and was just trying to get back on his feet again.”“If the US government believed Rishi had done anything wrong, it should have arrested, charged, and detained him,” she said. “Not murdered him. They must be held accountable.”Members of the administration have repeatedly insisted that those killed in the strikes are “narcoterrorists” — in November, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on social media that “every trafficker killed is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.”The lawsuit, however, says neither Joseph nor Samaroo were “members of, or affiliated with, drug cartels.”“The Trinidadian government has publicly stated that ‘the government has no information linking Joseph or Samaroo to illegal activities,’ and that it had ‘no information of the victims of US strikes being in possession of illegal drugs, guns, or small arms,’” the complaint says.The complaint calls into question one of the primary claims made by Trump administration officials throughout the course of the campaign, that the boats — and the drugs allegedly aboard them — were headed for the U.S. and required urgent military action. The lawsuit says, however, that Joseph and Samaroo were headed home to Trinidad on the vessel targeted by the US.In the wake of the first strike in September, Secretary of State Marco Rubio initially said that boat was headed toward Trinidad or elsewhere in the Caribbean.Last year, the Trump administration justified the operation with a classified legal opinion produced by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. The opinion argues that the president is allowed to authorize deadly force against a broad range of cartels because they pose an imminent threat to Americans.The opinion appears to justify an open-ended war against a secret list of groups, legal experts have said, giving the president power to designate drug traffickers as enemy combatants and have them killed without legal review. Historically, those involved in drug trafficking were considered criminals with due process rights, with the Coast Guard interdicting drug-trafficking vessels and arresting smugglers.The lawsuit, however, offers the first opportunity for those who believe the strikes amount to extrajudicial killings to present their case before a judge.“Whatever that secret memorandum states, it cannot render the patently illegal killings lawful,” the court filing says.

    As the U.S. military began launching strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean last year, a young Trinidadian man who was in Venezuela for work was searching for a way home, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday.

    Chad Joseph, 26, had been in Venezuela for months fishing and doing farm work when he began looking for a boat to hitch a ride back to Las Cuevas in Trinidad and Tobago, where his wife and three children lived. But as the U.S. began targeting vessels officials said were carrying drugs destined for American streets, Joseph “became increasingly fearful” of making the journey, court documents say. The concerns became so real that in early September, his wife recalled, he called to assure her that he had not been aboard a vessel just hit by the U.S., pledging to be home soon.

    The last call home was on Oct. 12, when Joseph told his wife he’d found a boat to bring him back to Trinidad, and he would be seeing her in a matter of days, according to court documents. Two days later, however, on Oct. 14, the U.S. struck another target — a boat Joseph’s family believes he was in.

    “Mr. Joseph’s wife repeatedly called Mr. Joseph’s cellphone, but the line was dead,” a lawsuit filed Tuesday against the U.S. government says. “The line remains dead to this day.”

    Andrea de Silva/Reuters/File via CNN Newsource

    Messiah Burnley, nephew of Chad Joseph, who was killed in a U.S. military strike on a boat in the Caribbean, carries a girl in front of an altar for Joseph in the family home in Las Cuevas, Trinidad and Tobago, October 22, 2025.

    Joseph’s family, and the family of another Trinidadian man, 41-year-old Rishi Samaroo, who had been working with Joseph in Venezuela and who is also believed to have been on the boat, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government on Tuesday for wrongful death and extrajudicial killing of the two men. The complaint calls the strikes “unprecedented and manifestly unlawful,” and says they have carried out “premeditated and intentional killings” with no legal justification.

    CNN asked the Justice Department for comment but did not immediately receive a response before publication. The Defense Department declined to comment on ongoing litigation.

    The complaint says that, despite claims by President Donald Trump and other administration officials that all the men killed on board were “narcoterrorists,” neither Joseph nor Samaroo had any affiliation to drug cartels.

    The lawsuit marks the first opportunity for a judge to rule on the legality of the strikes which are part of the Trump administration’s ongoing campaign in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific — dubbed Operation Southern Spear — that has killed at least 117 people. The most recent strike was carried out last week in the eastern Pacific, killing two and leaving one survivor who was being searched for by the Coast Guard.

    The lawsuit points specifically to the Death on the High Seas Act, which allows family members to sue over wrongful deaths on the high seas, and the Alien Tort Statute, which lets foreign nationals sue in federal courts over violations of international law.

    The families are suing for compensatory and punitive damages and they are being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Jonathan Hafetz with the Seton Hall Law School.

    The administration has publicly presented little evidence that those killed in the ongoing campaign are affiliates of drug cartels, or that each of the vessels had drugs on them. When pressed by lawmakers during congressional briefings, military officials have acknowledged they do not know the identities of everyone on board the boats they have destroyed.

    The legality of the strikes has come under intense scrutiny in Congress since the operations began in September, including particular interest in the very first strike, when the military carried out a second strike that killed two survivors of an initial attack. Multiple current and former military lawyers previously told CNN the strikes do not appear lawful.

    But the administration has maintained that the operation is a necessary step against drugs heading for US shores that will ultimately harm Americans.

    Trump announced the Oct. 14 strike in a social media post, saying “six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed” and that intelligence had confirmed the vessel was “trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a known DTO route.”

    ‘They must be held accountable’

    Similar to Joseph, Samaroo had communicated with his family just days before the Oct. 14 strike. Having served 15 years in prison for “participation in a homicide” in Trinidad, and released early on parole, Samaroo moved to Las Cuevas, Trinidad, and in August 2025 he went to Venezuela to work on a farm, the lawsuit says.

    He frequently shared photos and videos with his family of his time on the farm, “where he cared for cows and goats and made cheese.” During one video call, he introduced Joseph, a friend from home who he said he was working with in Venezuela.

    On Oct. 12, Samaroo sent his sister, Sallycar Korasingh, a photo in a lifejacket, telling her he had found a boat to bring him back to Trinidad and he would see her in a few days.

    “That call was the last time Ms. Korasingh, or anyone else in his family, heard from Mr. Samaroo,” the complaint says.

    In a statement issued by the ACLU, Korasingh said her brother was a “hardworking man who paid his debt to society and was just trying to get back on his feet again.”

    “If the US government believed Rishi had done anything wrong, it should have arrested, charged, and detained him,” she said. “Not murdered him. They must be held accountable.”

    Members of the administration have repeatedly insisted that those killed in the strikes are “narcoterrorists” — in November, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on social media that “every trafficker killed is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.”

    The lawsuit, however, says neither Joseph nor Samaroo were “members of, or affiliated with, drug cartels.”

    “The Trinidadian government has publicly stated that ‘the government has no information linking Joseph or Samaroo to illegal activities,’ and that it had ‘no information of the victims of US strikes being in possession of illegal drugs, guns, or small arms,’” the complaint says.

    The complaint calls into question one of the primary claims made by Trump administration officials throughout the course of the campaign, that the boats — and the drugs allegedly aboard them — were headed for the U.S. and required urgent military action. The lawsuit says, however, that Joseph and Samaroo were headed home to Trinidad on the vessel targeted by the US.

    In the wake of the first strike in September, Secretary of State Marco Rubio initially said that boat was headed toward Trinidad or elsewhere in the Caribbean.

    Last year, the Trump administration justified the operation with a classified legal opinion produced by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. The opinion argues that the president is allowed to authorize deadly force against a broad range of cartels because they pose an imminent threat to Americans.

    The opinion appears to justify an open-ended war against a secret list of groups, legal experts have said, giving the president power to designate drug traffickers as enemy combatants and have them killed without legal review. Historically, those involved in drug trafficking were considered criminals with due process rights, with the Coast Guard interdicting drug-trafficking vessels and arresting smugglers.

    The lawsuit, however, offers the first opportunity for those who believe the strikes amount to extrajudicial killings to present their case before a judge.

    “Whatever that secret memorandum states, it cannot render the patently illegal killings lawful,” the court filing says.

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  • Immigrant detainees say they were harassed, sexually assaulted by guard who got promoted

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    WASHINGTON — For more than a year, detainees at a California immigrant detention center said, they were summoned from their dorms to a lieutenant’s office late at night. Hours frequently passed, they said, before they were sent back to their dorms.

    What they allege happened in the office became the subject of federal complaints, which accuse Lt. Quin, then an administrative manager, of harassing, threatening and coercing immigrants into sexual acts at the Golden State Annex in McFarland. A person with that name worked in a higher-ranking post, as chief of security, at the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana until August — the same month The Times sent questions to the company that operates the facilities.

    The Department of Homeland Security said it could not substantiate the allegations. According to an attorney for one of the detainees, the California attorney general’s office opened an investigation into the matter.

    Immigrant advocates point to the case as one of many allegations of abuse in U.S. immigration facilities, within a system which they say fails to properly investigate.

    In three complaints reviewed by The Times that were filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), to a watchdog agency and with DHS, detainees accused Quin of sexual assault, harassment and other misconduct. The complainants initially knew the lieutenant only as “Lt. Quinn,” and he is referred to as such in the federal complaints, though the correct spelling is “Quin.”

    The complaints also allege other facility staff knew about and facilitated abuse, perpetuating a culture of impunity.

    The Golden State Annex, a U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement detention facility, in McFarland last year.

    (Larry Valenzuela / CalMatters / CatchLight Local)

    The California and Louisiana facilities are both operated by the Florida-based private prison giant, the GEO Group.

    A Dec. 10, 2024, post on Instagram Threads appears to allude to issues Quin faced in California. The post pictures him standing in front of a GEO Group flag and states: “Permit me to reintroduce myself … You will respect my authority. They tried to hinder me, but God intervened.”

    Asked about the accusations, Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant Homeland Security public affairs secretary, said in a statement that allegations of misconduct by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees or contractors are treated seriously and investigated thoroughly.

    “These complaints were filed in 2024 — well before current DHS leadership and the necessary reforms they implemented,” McLaughlin wrote. “The investigation into this matter has concluded, and ICE — through its own investigation reviewed by [the DHS office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties] — could not substantiate any complaint of sexual assault or rape.”

    The GEO Group did not respond to requests for comment.

    Advocates for the detainees say they are undeterred and will continue to seek justice for people they say have been wronged.

    Advocates also say the potential for abuse at detention facilities will grow as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown brings such facilities to record population levels. The population of detained immigrants surpassed a high of 61,000 in August, according to TRAC, a nonpartisan research organization.

    The allegations against Quin by a 28-year-old detainee are detailed in his FTCA complaint, a precursor to a lawsuit, filed in January with DHS. The complaint seeks $10 million for physical and emotional damages.

    The Times generally does not identify alleged victims of sexual abuse and is referring to him by his middle initial, E.

    McLaughlin’s response did not address the FTCA complaint that details E’s sexual assault allegations.

    Reached by phone, Quin told The Times, “I don’t speak with the media,” and referred a reporter to the Golden State Annex. After being read the allegations against him and asked to respond, he hung up.

    E alleged abuse in interviews with The Times, and in a recorded interview with an attorney, which formed the basis for the FTCA complaint.

    In the complaint, he said that beginning in May 2023, Quin would call him into a room, where no cameras or staff were present, to say he had been given a citation or that guards had complained about him.

    One day, the complaint alleges, Quin rubbed his own genitals over his pants and began making sexual comments. E told Quin he felt uncomfortable and wanted to go back to his dorm. But Quin smirked, dragged his chair closer and grabbed E in the crotch, the complaint says.

    After E pushed Quin away and threatened to defend himself physically, the complaint alleges, Quin made his own threat: to call a “code black” — an emergency — that would summon guards and leave E facing charges of assaulting a federal officer.

    Instead, E said, Quin called for an escort to take him back to his dorm.

    After that, the late-night summons — sometimes at midnight or 2 a.m. — increased, E said in his complaint. Each time, Quin continued to rub his genitals over his clothes, according to the complaint.

    The complaint alleges Quin repeatedly offered to help with E’s immigration case in exchange for sexual favors. Then Quin found out E is bisexual and E alleged Quin threatened to tell his family during a visit. Afraid of his family finding out about his sexuality, E said in the complaint, he finally acquiesced to letting Quin touch his genitals and perform oral sex on him.

    “I just, I ended up doing it,” E said in a recorded interview with his attorney.

    Afterward, the complaint says, Quin told E that he would make sure to help him, and that no one would find out.

    The complaint alleges that Quin brought E contraband gifts, including a phone, and, around Christmas, a water bottle full of alcohol.

    “I feel dirty,” E said in the recorded interview. “I feel ashamed of myself, you know? I feel like my dignity was just nowhere.”

    E said in his complaint that a staff member told him in December 2023 that a guard had reported Quin to the warden after noticing E had been out of his dorm for a long time; the guard had reviewed security cameras showing Quin giving E the bottle of alcohol.

    E said the staffer told him that Quin was temporarily suspended from interacting with detainees, and the late-night summons stopped for a while.

    Lee Ann Felder-Heim, staff attorney with the Asian Law Caucus, in San Francisco.

    Lee Ann Felder-Heim, staff attorney with the Asian Law Caucus, which filed a complaint with the federal government alleging mistreatment of detainees at the Golden State Annex in McFarland.

    (Maria del Rio / For The Times)

    A second, earlier complaint alleging mistreatment at the McFarland facility was filed on E’s behalf in August 2024 by the Asian Law Caucus with the DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL).

    That complaint alleges that other GEO Group staff targeted him with sexually harassing and degrading comments. It does not address E’s sexual assault allegations, because E said he was initially too afraid to talk about them.

    Once, when E was lying on his stomach in his cell, a guard commented loudly to other staff that he was waiting for a visit from Quin; the guard made a motion of putting her finger through a hole, insinuating that E sought to engage in sexual intercourse, the complaint states.

    The broader issue isn’t one person, “but rather a system of impunity and abuse,” said Lee Ann Felder-Heim, a staff attorney at the Asian Law Caucus. “The reports make it clear that other staff were aware of what was going on and actually were assisting in making it happen.”

    In addition to detailing E’s own experiences, the complaint also details abuse and harassment of five other detainees. One detainee is transgender, a fact that would play a role in how federal officials investigated the complaint.

    In February and March, CRCL sent Felder-Heim letters saying it had closed the investigations into all but one case of alleged sexual abuse and harassment — including those regarding Quin — citing, as justification, Trump’s First-Day executive order concerning “gender ideology extremism.” The order prohibits using federal funds to “promote gender ideology,” so Felder-Heim said it appears the investigations were shut down because one of the complainants is transgender. The other case was closed earlier on the merits.

    She called the investigation process flawed and “wholly inadequate.”

    E filed a third complaint with another oversight body, the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman. To his knowledge, no investigation was initiated.

    In March, the Trump administration shut down three internal oversight bodies: CRCL, OIDO and the Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) Ombudsman. Civil rights groups sued the following month, prompting the agency to resurrect the offices.

    But staffing at the offices was decimated, according to sworn court declarations by DHS officials. CRCL has gone from having 147 positions to 22; OIDO from about 118 to about 10; and the CIS Ombudsman from 46 to about 10.

    “All legally required functions of CRCL continue to be performed, but in an efficient and cost-effective manner and without hindering the Department’s mission of securing the homeland,” said McLaughlin, the DHS spokeswoman.

    Michelle Brané, who was the immigrant detention ombudsman under the Biden administration, said the civil rights office generally had first dibs on complaints about sexual assault. She recalled the complaint about Quin but said her office didn’t investigate it because the civil rights office already was.

    Brané said the decrease in oversight amid increased detention will inevitably exacerbate issues such as allegations of sexual assault. Worse conditions also make it harder to hire quality staff, she said.

    Around the same time that E was held at Golden State Annex, a gay couple from Colombia reported in April 2024 to the OIDO that Quin had sexually harassed them.

    D.T., 26, and C.B., 25, were separated upon arrival at Golden State Annex. D.T. began to experience severe anxiety attacks, they said in the Asian Law Caucus complaint and in an interview with The Times. The couple asked to be placed in the same dormitory.

    Before granting their request, Quin asked what they would give him in return, the couple recounted in the complaint. Afterward, the complaint alleges, he frequently invited them to his office, saying they owed him.

    “We never accepted going to his office, because we knew what it was for,” C.B. told the Times.

    In their complaint, they allege that Quin asked D.T. if he wanted to have sex and told C.B., “You belong to me.”

    The couple became aware that Quin had also harassed other detainees and gave preferential treatment to those who they believed accepted his requests for sexual favors, according to the complaint; one detainee told them that he had grabbed Quin’s hand and placed it on his penis to avoid being taken to solitary confinement for starting a fight.

    D.T. said in an interview with The Times that he believes “below him are many people who never said anything.”

    In a Dec. 2, 2024, internal facility grievance from Golden State Annex reviewed by The Times, another detainee alleges that Quin retaliated against him for speaking out against misconduct.

    In the grievance and in an interview with The Times, the detainee said he spoke up after, on several occasions, watching another man walk to Quin’s office late at night and come back to the dorm hours later. He also said in the grievance that Quin brought in marijuana, cellphones and other contraband.

    Another witness, Gustavo Flores, 33, said Quin recognized him as a former Golden State Annex detainee when he was briefly transferred to the Alexandria facility, just before his deportation to El Salvador in May.

    Quin pulled Flores aside and offered to uncuff him and get him lunch in exchange for cleaning the lobby; after he finished, Quin brought him into his office, where he peppered Flores with questions about Golden State Annex, Flores said.

    Flores said he asked about certain staffers and detainees. He told Flores people wanted to sue him, calling them “crybabies.”

    “He’s telling me everything, like, ‘Oh yeah, I know what goes on over there,’” Flores said.

    When E tried to end the sexual encounters, his complaint says, Quin threatened to have him sent to a detention facility in Texas or have his deportation expedited.

    In October 2024, E was transferred to the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield.

    Heliodoro Moreno, E’s attorney, said the California Attorney General’s Office confirmed to him in February that it was investigating. An investigator interviewed E in April and again in May, he said, and the investigation remains open.

    California Department of Justice spokesperson Nina Sheridan declined to comment on a potential investigation. But in a statement she said the office remains vigilant of “ongoing, troubling conditions” at detention facilities throughout California.

    “We are especially concerned that conditions at these facilities are only set to worsen as the Trump Administration continues to ramp up its inhumane campaign of mass deportation,” she wrote.

    E, who had a pending claim for a special status known as withholding of removal, dropped his case in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Moreno said his client wished to no longer be detained.

    “It’s very unfortunate that he’s in these circumstances,” Moreno said. His client was forced to forgo his appellate rights and leave “without really getting a conclusion to receiving justice for what happened to him.”

    He was deported late last month.

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    Andrea Castillo

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  • Maui vacations, luxury watches: Wine buyer at major California grocery chain accused of taking bribes

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    A wine buyer for a major California grocery chain allegedly accepted lavish vacations, luxury watches, prepaid gift cards and other bribes in exchange for carrying certain wines, according to charges filed by prosecutors.

    The charges of commercial bribery and conspiracy to defraud the United States were filed last week in a federal court in Oakland against Newport Beach resident Patrick Briones, who had worked as an assistant sales manager for wines at Albertsons until the spring of 2024.

    Court documents describe a kickback scheme operating for years that influenced the selection of wines available in the grocery chain’s stores. Briones allegedly demanded a series of payments and gifts from vendors, concealed by falsified invoices, “in exchange for his agreement to carry, increase purchases of, or prominently display certain wines,” according to court filings.

    The complaint does not name Albertsons as Briones’ employer, but instead identifies a large national grocery store chain with 300 stores in Southern California.

    Albertsons confirmed its former employee’s involvement, saying in a statement that the company is “committed to operating with the highest level of ethics and integrity” and that it conducts regular training to ensure employees “fully comply with all laws and regulations.”

    “We have been made aware of allegations against a former employee who abused his position for personal gain, and we are cooperating with the relevant authorities on the matter,” the company said. “The behavior in question was wholly inconsistent with our policies, and we do not, and will not, tolerate it.”

    Suppliers proffered various expensive goods, including a designer bag worth $2,290, three luxury watches each worth thousands, and numerous prepaid American Express gift cards totaling tens of thousands of dollars, the complaint said.

    One vendor arranged for annual trips to a resort in Maui, complete with massages, room charges, and thousands of dollars in gift cards redeemable at the resort, the complaint said.

    Briones accepted regular trips to Las Vegas with room accommodations, golf reservations, dinners and casino chips for gambling, the complaint said.

    And he allegedly vacationed with employees of a major distributor and suppliers at exclusive golf and other resorts in Florida, Oregon, and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, among other destinations, according to court documents.

    Briones worked at Safeway for a decade, according to his LinkedIn profile, before moving to Albertsons when the two companies merged in 2015. He could not be reached for comment.

    Executives at wine supplier Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits who allegedly provided kickbacks to Briones pleaded guilty earlier this year to commercial bribery in a scheme worth $360,000.

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    Suhauna Hussain

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  • Feds sue L.A. County sheriff for ‘unreasonable’ delays in issuing concealed gun permits

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    The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Sheriff Robert Luna, claiming the department violated county gunowners’ 2nd Amendment rights by delaying thousands of concealed carry permit application decisions for “unreasonable” periods of time.

    In a statement, the Justice Department claimed that the Sheriff’s Department “systematically denied thousands of law-abiding Californians their fundamental Second Amendment right to bear arms outside the home — not through outright refusal, but through a deliberate pattern of unconscionable delay.”

    The complaint, filed in the Central District of California, the federal court in Los Angeles, cites data provided by the Sheriff’s Department about the more than 8,000 concealed carry permit applications and renewal applications it received between Jan. 2, 2024, and March 31 this year.

    During that period, the Justice Department wrote, it took an average of nearly 300 days for the Sheriff’s Department to schedule interviews to approve the applications or “otherwise” advance them.

    As a result, of the nearly 4,000 applications for new concealed carry licenses it received during those 15 months, “LASD issued only two licenses.” Two others were denied, the Justice Department said, while the rest remained pending or were withdrawn.

    The Sheriff’s Department did not immediately provide comment Monday. In March, when the Trump administration announced its 2nd Amendment investigation, the department said it was “committed to processing all Concealed Carry Weapons [CCW] applications in compliance with state and local laws.”

    The department’s statement said it had approved 15,000 applications for concealed carry licenses but that because of “a significant staffing crisis in our CCW Unit” it was “diligenty working through approximately 4,000 active cases.”

    Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi said Monday that the Justice Department was working to safeguard the 2nd Amendment, which “protects the fundamental constitutional right of law-abiding citizens to bear arms.”

    “Los Angeles County may not like that right, but the Constitution does not allow them to infringe upon it,” Bondi said. “This Department of Justice will continue to fight for the Second Amendment.”

    The federal agency’s complaint alleged that the practice of delaying the applications in effect forced gun permit applicants “to abandon their constitutional rights through administrative exhaustion.”

    In December 2023, the California Rifle and Pistol Assn. sued the Sheriff’s Department over what it alleged were improper delays and rejections of applications for concealed carry licenses. In January, U.S. District Court Judge Sherilyn P. Garnett ordered the department to reduce delays.

    In the new complaint, the Justice Department called on the court to issue a permanent injunction.

    Gun rights groups heralded the move by the Trump administration.

    “This is a landmark lawsuit in that it’s the first time the Department of Justice has ever filed a case in support of gun owners,” Adam Kraut, executive director of the Second Amendment Foundation, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to see the federal government step up and defend the Second Amendment rights of citizens and hope this pattern continues around the country.”

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    Connor Sheets

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  • American Airlines failed to divert 8-hour flight after California man suffered 2 strokes, jury finds

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    A chef from California’s Central Coast who had two strokes while traveling internationally on American Airlines was awarded more than $9 million after a federal jury concluded employees failed to follow their own protocols to help him.

    In November 2021, Jesus Plasencia, a chef from Watsonville who was 67 at the time, was traveling with his wife, Ana Maria Marcela Tavantzis, on a flight to Madrid from Miami, according to a complaint they filed in federal civil court.

    While the plane was still at the gate, Plasencia suffered a “mini stroke” and temporarily lost the ability to speak or pick up his phone, according to the complaint. His wife alerted a flight attendant and the pilot but instead of alerting medical personnel and following company policy, the lawsuit said the pilot dismissed her concerns, “joked with Plasencia, and cleared him for take-off.”

    Plasencia then had a stroke while the plane was in the air; he was hospitalized after the plane landed in Spain and was in critical condition for more than three weeks before he went back to the U.S., according to court documents. He can’t speak or write and now “depends entirely on daily, significant, around-the-clock, in-home care and intensive rehabilitation,” according to the lawsuit.

    On Thursday, a federal jury in San Jose said American Airlines was on the hook for $9.6 million for its employees failing to follow company protocol in the incident.

    According to the complaint filed in 2023, the flight crew had asked other passengers to monitor Plasencia after he suffered a stroke during the flight, but didn’t tell the pilot about the medical emergency, so the flight wasn’t diverted.

    The couple argued that because American Airlines crew hadn’t followed protocols, Plasencia was delayed getting care for nearly eight hours and could’ve potentially had a better outcome, according to the lawsuit.

    “The safety and well-being of our passengers is our highest priority,” American Airlines said in a statement. “While we respect the jury’s decision, we disagree with the verdict and are currently evaluating next steps.”

    Darren Nicholson of Burns Charest, who represented the couple in the lawsuit, argued that the airline didn’t follow stroke protocol, which calls for immediate medical assistance and diverting the aircraft.

    “It is shocking that American Airlines responded so poorly to a medical emergency like this,” he said in a statement.

    American Airlines was found liable by the jurors under the Montreal Convention, an international treaty that governs international air travel.

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    Summer Lin

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  • Three teens murdered a girl in a ‘satanic ritual.’ Why is only one still in prison?

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    It was a July evening when Elyse Pahler, 15, sneaked out her bedroom in the Central Coast town of Arroyo Grande, planning to get into some mischief. A boy from school had gotten her number from a friend and invited her to smoke weed in the woods near her family’s home.

    The boy was Jacob Delashmutt, also 15, and he brought along two friends. Delashmutt and his schoolmates Royce Casey, 16, and Joseph Fiorella, 14, all shared a passion for death metal, and they formed their own band called Hatred.

    One of their favorite groups was Slayer, a popular metal act that featured a song with lyrics about worshiping Satan and sacrificing a blonde, blue-eyed virgin.

    Pahler fit that description as she walked to join the three metal heads that night in 1995. Three decades later, Delashmutt described what happened next to a state parole board.

    Delashmutt, now 45, said that once they had smoked marijuana, he and the two other boys attacked Pahler when she was distracted by the sound of a passing car. He wrapped his belt around her neck, strangling her while Fiorella stabbed her and Casey held down her arms. Then they each took turns stabbing her with a 12-inch knife, according to his testimony, first in the neck then in the back and shoulders.

    Casey told state parole officials this year that Pahler begged for her mother and Jesus before he stomped on the back of her neck. They had planned to violate her remains, Delashmutt testified to the parole board, but instead hid her body in the woods and fled the scene. She wasn’t found until eight months later, when Casey confessed to his pastor.

    Royce Casey, Jacob Delashmutt and Joseph Fiorella pictured as teens after their arrest in March 1996. They were convicted of murdering Elyse Pahler, a teenage peer, in a satanic ritual. Casey and Delashmutt were released on parole recently, 30 years after the murder in Arroyo Grande, Calif.

    (U.S. District Court for the Central District of California)

    Today, two of the killers — including the admitted ringleader — are walking free after receiving parole. But the youngest of the group, Fiorella, remains behind bars despite claims that he is intellectually disabled and that his case was mishandled.

    The releases of Casey and Delashmutt this year have come amid a surge of high-profile murder cases from the 1990s entering the parole process. Erik and Lyle Menendez, the Beverly Hills brothers convicted of killing their parents in 1989 as teens, were denied parole this month after a months-long resentencing effort.

    Pahler’s murder occurred while the Menendez brothers were on trial, and the grisly killing of a young, white girl provoked a similar level of media frenzy. Prosecutors alleged the death-metal-obsessed teens had plotted to commit the murder as part of a “Satanic ritual.”

    Pahler’s family has fought against letting out any of the men over the past decade, with her father, David, often bringing a picture of his daughter to show the parole board.

    David Pahler told the board at a 2023 hearing that he believed Casey still lacked remorse, reading from a transcript of Casey’s journal taken when he was arrested in which the teen wrote about believing Satan had “taken my soul and replaced it with a new one to carry out his work on earth.”

    “If you give up your soul to Satan, how do you get it back? How do you get it back? I — I don’t have an answer for that,” Pahler said, according to a transcript of the hearing.

    Casey and Delashmutt pleaded no contest to first-degree murder in 1997, each receiving 25 years to life in prison. Fiorella, also charged with being armed with a deadly weapon, got 26 years to life. Since they became eligible for parole, their paths through the system have led to vastly divergent outcomes.

    Casey was denied twice by the board, then approved in 2021 and 2023, only to have Gov. Gavin Newsom reverse the decision. Newsom argued Casey needed to do more work to ensure he would make healthy relationships outside prison and learn the “internal processes” that led him to kill Pahler.

    Delashmutt was also denied twice by the parole board in 2017 and 2022 and once by the governor’s reversal in 2023. The rejections often referenced his tendency to shirk responsibility onto his co-defendants for his role in the murder.

    Although Delashmutt was the one who called Pahler and invited her into the woods, at the time of his arrest he blamed the other two for orchestrating the murder and recruiting him to carry it out.

    This year, however, Delashmutt told the parole board he was the “ringleader” of the group.

    “I know that I am the most responsible for this crime. I had every opportunity to put a stop to it, and I didn’t. I was involved in the planning from the beginning and I made this crime happen. Elyse Pahler was safe in her home that night when she received a phone call from me,” Delashmutt said.

    The teens were influenced by death metal music — specifically by Slayer — to channel their anger at the world into physical violence, Casey told the parole board.

    “That music, especially Slayer, was all about suicide, murder, sacrifice. So, I started learning a specific way to express those things,” he said.

    Pahler’s family unsuccessfully sued Slayer and its record company for its lyrics in 2001, claiming they incited her murder, but lost on 1st Amendment grounds.

    Casey was released from Valley State Prison in early August to transitional housing in Los Angeles County, his lawyer told The Times. “Our legal system is not based on emotion,” his lawyer and prison advocate Charles Carbone said.

    Despite what was “one of the most notorious crimes committed in San Luis Obispo County,” Carbone said, there has been an “enormous consensus” over the last few years among prison psychologists, the full parole board and the governor that Casey should go home.

    Delashmutt, who was released in late July, didn’t believe he had a future when he was a teen, said parole hearing lawyer Patrick Sparks.

    “His background was about a lot of poor decisions,” he said. “He started to change his life, and it gave him hope for the future again.”

    Both apologized.

    “I want to acknowledge all of the pain and the trauma that I’ve caused,” Delashmutt said. “It is impossible for me to understand the magnitude of the crime, the impact that it’s had on the Pahler family.”

    Casey said he remembered how David Pahler often brought a picture of his daughter to the hearing.

    “Something that I remember hearing over time when Elyse’s dad has come, is that she has a face. And I try to remember every day, whatever decision I’m making or whatever I do, that the ongoing impact of what I did is present all the time.”

    Fiorella, unlike the other two men, has yet to participate openly in a parole hearing, according to hearing transcripts from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He waived attendance for a 2019 hearing, and, according to the transcripts, was advised by his lawyer, Dennis Cusick, not to speak or answer questions in his most recent hearing in 2023.

    Cusick declined to comment on whether his client would attend or participate in an upcoming parole hearing scheduled for next year.

    Court filings show Fiorella has long looked to overturn his conviction, arguing that a court-appointed defense attorney failed to give his due diligence prior to accepting the plea deal.

    A complaint filed in the Central District of California in November 2023 argues that Fiorella’s first trial lawyer, David Hurst, waived a fitness hearing after receiving a neuropsychologist’s report that Fiorella was developmentally disabled and had an IQ score of 68, indicating a mild intellectual disability.

    Hurst said in a 2020 deposition that he “felt that we would lose the fitness hearing and it would be a waste of time,” despite knowing about the report and other circumstances of Fiorella’s life, the complaint said.

    Hurst was terminally ill at the time of his deposition, the complaint notes, and died by the end of the year before an evidentiary hearing.

    Fiorella scored at just above an eighth-grade level on a basic education test, according to a transcript of his 2023 parole hearing. He earned a GED more than two decades prior, in 2002, but the parole board noted a report from a doctor who alleged he could not pass it and paid someone to take it for him.

    Cusick argued to the parole board that Fiorella is still developmentally disabled and “is not the kind of person to take on a leadership role in anything.” The habeas corpus complaint repeatedly characterized a teenage Fiorella as a shy, quiet child who was teased by peers for being “slow.” It also challenged the idea that he orchestrated the murder, instead placing blame on Delashmutt.

    Fiorella’s complaint has gone through several levels of state and federal courts, with most agreeing that the challenge to his conviction was years past the statute of limitations. Courts also said it was questionable whether the forgone fitness hearing, as his trial lawyer suggested, would have resulted in any action.

    The complaint was dismissed and then appealed in March to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. That case is awaiting an opening brief due in November.

    Fiorella’s federal public defender, Raj Shah, did not respond to requests for comment.

    In his 2023 hearing, a representative of the San Luis Obispo County district attorney’s office, Lisa Dunn, opposed Fiorella’s release, arguing he had not done the work necessary to prove he was ready for parole.

    “Mr. Fiorella, frankly, is a dangerous individual,” Dunn said. “He’s been dangerous since he was 15, and there’s no evidence to support a finding that he’s less dangerous now.”

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    Sandra McDonald

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  • Wildfire victims in limbo as fight with insurers hits another snag

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    After receiving more than 1,000 complaints from Jan. 7 fire victims about how insurers are handling their claims, state regulators are considering referring hundreds of the cases to mediation — a little used practice that some consumer advocates fear could hurt policyholders.

    The Department of Insurance has been bombarded with complaints from property owners since the Palisades and Eaton fires destroyed more than 16,000 structures and damaged more than 2,000 others, causing up to $45 billion in insured damages by one estimate.

    Fire victims say they have experienced slow responses from insurance company claims handlers, been rotated to multiple adjusters, denied hygienic testing for toxic chemicals and given lowball offers.

    The department has encouraged fire victims unhappy with how their claims are being managed to file complaints. They are then assigned a compliance officer who attempts to resolve the issues with their insurer.

    Joy Chen, chief executive and co-founder of the Eaton Fire Survivors Network, which, according to its website, has
    some 5,000 members, said that the compliance officers have not been successful in sorting out the disputes.

    “Across thousands of complaints I’ve seen discussed, I have barely heard of a single survivor who said DOI actually helped them resolve their claim,” she said. “At best, people say things like, ‘I finally got a return call from my adjuster — right before they left for vacation again.’”

    The department says the complaint process has helped policyholders whose homes were destroyed or damaged by the fires recover $67 million in insurance payments.

    Still, the department is considering referring some 400 unresolved complaints to its residential mediation program, two department sources with knowledge of the complaint process told the Los Angeles Times.

    That would far exceed the typical number of referrals in a year.

    Michael Soller, a spokesman for Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, said it was likely that some unresolved complaints would be referred to mediators but couldn’t say how many.

    In 2023, the latest year for which department statistics are available, just five residential insurance disputes were sent to mediation, resulting in settlements. The policyholders filed claims totaling $3.05 million and settled for $1.55 million.

    Over the last 10 years, there were years when no disputes went through mediation, despite a growing number of catastrophic fires statewide. Although 2019 was the busiest year for mediations in the last decade, only 72 cases were referred that year, according to the department’s annual reports.

    Tony Cignarale, the department’s deputy commissioner of consumer services and market conduct, said complaints are referred to mediation when policyholders and insurers reach an impasse despite the assistance of the department’s compliance officers, who number about 100 and handle complaints regarding multiple lines of insurance.

    The officers seek to determine what might be delaying resolution of a claim and ensure that insurance companies are complying with the law and their policies. However, they are not empowered to adjudicate such differences as factual disputes.

    “We try to move the ball forward, but we can’t be the judge and jury and say in this particular smoke damage claim you needed to test for these various things — asbestos, lead, chromium, etc. — and you need to do this type of restoration,” Cignarale said.

    He said a large number of smoke-damage cases arising out of the Jan. 7 fires and a lack of an industry standard for testing and restoration of the homes have complicated claims.

    Attorneys representing scores of Jan. 7 fire victims have filed suits against insurers and the California FAIR Plan Assn., the state’s insurer of last resort, over their handling of smoke-damage claims. Insurers deny treating policyholders unfairly.

    “I think the difficulty with mass disasters is the system is stressed, and there are going to be elements of the system that break down. And after every disaster, we find something new that could be improved,” said Rex Frazier, president of the Personal Insurance Federation of California, which represents major property and casualty insurers.

    Mediation is free for policyholders and available for cases involving claims exceeding $7,500 and disputes valued at more than $2,000. Policyholders can bring an attorney and have the right to reject participation in the process, but insurers are required to participate. Neither side is obligated to accept any offer.

    The program has its origins in a pilot program initiated to close hundreds of unresolved complaints after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. It was made permanent in 2005 through a bill that established a $1,500 flat fee borne by insurers and paid to mediators for each case. The department maintains a panel of about 90 independent mediators, Cignarale said.

    Attorney Arnie Levinson, a veteran mediator who has handled disputes between homeowners and insurers, said he charges $12,000 a day, which includes reading the submitted documents and appearing at the hearing to try to resolve the dispute.

    He said smoke-damage and total-loss cases can be complicated, with disputes about materials and upgrades, the size of the rebuild and the need for foundations. The $1,500 flat fee is too low, he said.

    “To get a quality mediator for that kind of money, it’s going to be very tough,” said Levinson, a mediator with Signature Resolution.

    Amy Bach, executive director of United Policyholders, a San Francisco-based consumer advocacy group, said the process is helpful because it is inexpensive and can resolve disputes faster than litigation. However, there can be pitfalls.

    “It’s important that the compensation be at appropriate levels to attract skilled and impartial mediators, and that the overall process be monitored for quality control,” she said.

    Bach added that mediators need to ensure that policyholders are not “ganged up on” by experienced insurance company representatives during the mediation.

    Chen said she feared that policyholders would be at a disadvantage during the hearing.

    Soller said the department stands by the process.

    Marcia Belforte, 67, relied on a mediator to deal with her insurer after her Santa Rosa home burned down in the 2017 Tubbs fire, which destroyed more than 5,500 structures in Northern California.

    “I prepped for weeks and weeks on this, and I literally had my whole policy bookmarked,” Belforte said.

    She said she was intimidated when the hearing started as her insurer had three representatives, but she said her knowledge of her policy prompted the carrier to ask to put the mediation on hold, intimating a forthcoming settlement.

    Ultimately, she hired an attorney who extracted a payment 30% higher than what the carrier was offering, enabling her to rebuild her home.

    “They didn’t have a case with me, and that’s what we found out during mediation, and that’s why it was so critical to go,” she said.

    Carmen Balber, executive director of Consumer Watchdog, a Los Angeles advocacy group, said she feared that pushing hundreds of cases into mediation may allow insurers to escape discipline for any wrongdoing.

    “My concern is that prematurely sending folks to mediation is going to hamstring the department’s investigation into unfair claims handling practices,” she said.

    Cignarale said the department is gathering information on possible illegal practices by insurers through the complaint process, which led to the announcement last month of an investigation into State Farm General’s claims-handling practices.

    State Farm, the largest home insurer in the state, has been the focus of complaints from Eaton Fire Survivors Network members, who say the insurer has resisted hygienic testing of smoke-damaged homes and offered lowball settlements for remediation.

    The company also is facing multiple lawsuits related to the fires, including one filed last month by fire victims who accused the company of leaving them deliberately underinsured. State Farm denies any wrongdoing.

    “State Farm takes every complaint seriously and our goal is to work with customers to resolve any of their concerns. We seek to provide every customer all benefits to which they are entitled within the terms of the insurance policy,” said company spokesperson Bob Devereux.

    The department has announced the creation of a Smoke Claims and Remediation Task Force to set standards for insurers. This month, Lara appointed Cignarale to lead the panel.

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    Laurence Darmiento

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  • Price-gouging charges slowly mount after the fires, but some say it’s not enough

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    California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta accused real estate agent Iman Shaghyan this week of increasing the price of a Beverly Hills rental by more than 30% in the days after the Jan. 7 fires. It’s the fourth charge Bonta has filed since price-gouging rules went into effect that prohibit rent hikes of more than 10% after a natural disaster.

    “Profiting off Californians’ pain through price gouging is illegal and I will not stand for it,” Bonta said in a news release.

    In the weeks after the fires, city officials vowed to crack down on violators as thousands of complaints poured in, with some organizers even compiling spreadsheets documenting the skyrocketing rents. Bonta enlisted teams of lawyers to evaluate complaints, and his office has primarily targeted real estate agents.

    But some critics claim that government officials aren’t doing enough to address the rampant price gouging that appeared across the region in the wake of the fires, saying that the charges filed represent only a small fraction of the complaints submitted to the city and state.

    “More needs to be done,” said Chelsea Kirk, co-founder of the activist organization the Rent Brigade. “It’s been de-prioritized, and all discourse from elected officials and the press around rent gouging has ended.”

    Kirk’s organization checks Zillow for examples of price gouging and said there are currently more than 10,000 active listings that qualify. Her team submits weekly reports to government officials but said transparency is a problem since no one knows exactly what is being investigated.

    As a result, her team worked with L.A. City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez to draft a motion that, if passed, would require L.A. City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto to produce monthly reports detailing the total number of price-gouging complaints received, response times and enforcement actions. The motion has been introduced but not yet placed on the agenda.

    “There’s an utter lack of urgency,” Kirk said.

    In addition to Shaghyan, Bonta filed charges in January against La Cañada Flintridge agent Mike Kobeissi and Glendale agent Lar Sevan Chouljian. In February, he charged Hermosa Beach agent Willie Baronet-Israel as well as Edward Kushins, the landlord of the property.

    All of the cases are active. If convicted, the maximum penalty for the misdemeanor is a year in prison and a fine of $10,000.

    In addition to the charges, state Department of Justice officials said they have sent out more than 750 warning letters to hotels and landlords accused of price gouging. The department also is investigating fraud, scams and low-ball offers on burned properties.

    Bonta is investigating on behalf of the state and Feldstein Soto is filing lawsuits on behalf of the city. So far, she’s been targeting more than just real estate agents.

    In February, Feldstein Soto’s office sued rental giant Blueground, citing more than 10 cases of price gouging. In one instance, Blueground allegedly jacked up the rent of a downtown L.A. apartment by 56% on Jan. 7, the day of the fires.

    In March, Feldstein Soto’s office sued a group of homeowners and companies for $62 million, citing not only price-gouging violations but also violations of the city’s short-term rental ordinance, which places restrictions on rentals such as Airbnbs. The group of defendants included four homeowners and five limited liability companies: Akiva Nourollah, Micah Hiller, Haim Amran Zrihen, Rachel Florence Saadat, Hiller Hospitality, Hiller Hospitality Group, 1070 Bedford, Red Rock and Coastal Charm.

    The Times reached out to all the individuals charged with price gouging or short-term rental violations — except for Zrihen and Saadat, whose contact information could not be located — and did not receive any on-the-record responses.

    In the first few weeks after the fire, Feldstein Soto’s office issued more than 250 cease-and-desist letters to owners, landlords and property management groups based on price-gouging tips.

    The price-gouging rules are set to expire July 1.

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    Jack Flemming

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  • A top detective alleges the LAPD is toxic toward women. Will her lawsuit bring change?

    A top detective alleges the LAPD is toxic toward women. Will her lawsuit bring change?

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    Even as a young street cop trying to work her way up the ranks of the Los Angeles Police Department in the mid-90s, Kristine Klotz says she was quick to call out sexism on the job. Right is right and wrong is wrong, she used to tell herself, knowing that she would ruffle some feathers in the process.

    So she didn’t hesitate to speak up last summer when she learned that a male supervisor in the vaunted Robbery-Homicide Division where she worked had allegedly compared female detectives to sex workers on Figueroa Street.

    To make it in the LAPD, department veterans say, you need a thick skin. But Klotz, 54, alleges the Figueroa comments were just the tip of an iceberg of verbal abuse women in the unit faced.

    Klotz said that after repeated complaints about her mistreatment at the hands of department officials went ignored, she and another female Robbery-Homicide detective reached out for help from the Board of Police Commissioners, the LAPD’s civilian oversight body. For weeks, they heard nothing.

    A response eventually came, just not the one Klotz expected.

    In a whistleblower lawsuit filed this year in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Klotz claims the LAPD retaliated against her. She alleges she was demoted, reassigned and put under internal investigation in the span of a few months.

    The lawsuit accuses several current senior LAPD officials, including Deputy Chief Marc Reina, and Capts. Scot Williams and Robin Petillo of inflicting emotional distress and creating a hostile work environment. The suit names two women, Petillo and Lt. Blanca Lopez; the rest of the defendants are men. A follow-up letter to the Police Commission names the supervising detective who allegedly made the Figueroa comments, Christopher Marsden.

    Emails from The Times to the work accounts of the officials singled out in the suit went unreturned.

    The LAPD said it doesn’t discuss pending litigation and referred questions to the city attorney’s office, which didn’t respond to an email seeking comment. A private law firm that is representing the defendants, including the city, has asked a judge for more time before responding to Klotz’s suit in court.

    A 29-year department veteran with a long list of high-profile criminal investigations to her name, Klotz said she had no choice but to turn to the court system while fighting to restore both her career and reputation. The months-long ordeal, she said, “opened my eyes to a completely different way of thinking when there was so much pride I had in this organization.”

    Tackling persistent sexual harassment complaints will be among the pressing issues facing incoming LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, who was appointed to the job this month, pending City Council approval. He will also be expected to overhaul a disciplinary system that some argue seems to penalize the accuser more than the accused.

    Since 2019, the city of Los Angeles has paid out at least $11 million in damages for cases of discrimination, retaliation and other workplace strife based on gender brought by LAPD officers, according to a Times review of data obtained through a public records request. That figure doesn’t include at least $12 million in damages awarded by juries to women at the LAPD that the city is appealing after having been defeated in court.

    In addition, a dozen or so cases involving complaints by female officers about harassment and discrimination are pending. Several claims have previously gone unreported, including a sergeant who says she was denied a transfer in “direct retaliation” for cooperating with an Internal Affairs investigation into a former assistant chief accused of planting a tracking device on the car of his former domestic partner, a fellow LAPD officer.

    In another case, an auto theft detective says she was tormented by a male colleague after their relationship fell apart. And in the Hollenbeck Division, which has seen investigations and leadership changes in recent months, several sworn and civilian female employees alleged they faced retaliation for reporting misconduct.

    While some longtime LAPD observers argue that decades of damning reports and court orders have forced the department to confront the problem, others, including civil rights attorney Connie Rice, say a crude, misogynistic culture still exists and women in uniform continue to face obstacles to advancement.

    Much of the abuse has moved online to pro-LAPD social media groups that feature a “frat-boy sort of MAGA misogyny thing going on,” she said.

    “I think that the DNA of the culture is still ‘Women shouldn’t be here,’” Rice said. “There’s not a welcome mat, it’s more like a no-trespassing mat.”

    Toward the end of her time at Robbery-Homicide, Klotz said, she felt as though she had a target on her back.

    Klotz contends that she was ordered to perform menial tasks and forced to check in whenever she left the office, much like a high-schooler requesting a hall pass. If she stepped away to rinse out her coffee mug or use the copier, she said, her supervisor would text her demanding to know where she was. Then one day last summer, she showed up to work to find that her keycard access had been revoked.

    Determined not to take the humiliation “sitting down,” Klotz and a colleague, Det. Jennifer Hammer, wrote a letter to the Police Commission in September 2023 asking it to intervene in “the recent harassment, discrimination, and retaliation she and other female officers had endured.”

    “The misconduct has not stopped and has increasingly worsened,” the letter said. Hammer has filed her own complaint against the department.

    Klotz has been the subject of at least two internal investigations. She says the complaints against her — one for allegedly making an inappropriate gesture to another officer and the other for accosting a civilian employee — were “fabricated” as a way of punishing her for speaking out.

    In January, she was demoted to a lower-ranking detective position, sent to an auto theft unit in the San Fernando Valley. She took an 18% pay cut and now reports to a younger detective previously under her command.

    Even after years on the job, Klotz has maintained her uncommonly cheerful manner. But her jaw clenches and voice thickens with emotion when she describes the humiliation she felt walking into the Van Nuys police station for the first time earlier this year, and feeling the stares from her colleagues.

    The last few months have taken a heavy mental toll, she said. She started smoking again, nearly a decade after quitting cold turkey. More than once, she said, she has broken down and cried in her car outside of work.

    “I didn’t think at the end of my career I would be subjected to the ongoing harassment, the retaliation that I have endured by upper management and command officers,” Klotz said.

    Growing up in Long Beach on a steady diet of “Charlie’s Angels” reruns, Klotz dreamed of going into law enforcement from an early age. A high school class on courts and the law further piqued her interest. She said she had job opportunities at other area departments in her early 20s, but she held out for an offer from the LAPD.

    Her dream was always to work her way up to detective, preferably investigating murders. She eventually achieved her goal, joining a Valley-area homicide unit. That led to her first encounter with what she alleges is a toxic culture.

    Before blowing the whistle at Robbery-Homicide, Klotz was among a group of female detectives who sued over what they described as a frat-like atmosphere in the Valley, where some male colleagues were vulgar and abusive toward women in the office.

    Klotz and other women said they were routinely referred to as “tourists” who didn’t belong. One male detective allegedly boasted of sexual exploits with the wife of a now-deputy chief and was accused of sending an inappropriate email from his work account to a female Los Angeles County deputy district attorney.

    The city has denied the allegations raised in the suit, which remains under litigation.

    Klotz said the experience in that case taught her to document everything, including the numerous pleading emails she sent to department higher-ups asking them to intervene at Robbery-Homicide.

    Like other women who have reported misconduct, she said she has mostly learned to tune out the office gossip and rumors about her demotion. Some of the grapevine talk has gotten back to her — how she’s a loose cannon or stirring the pot to cover up for complaints accusing her of misconduct.

    None of it is true, she says. And she’s not looking for a payday either, she says, rebutting another common criticism of department whistleblowers.

    Corinne Bendersky, a UCLA professor of management and organizations who studied work culture across city of Los Angeles departments, said the poor handling of complaints by women and ethnic minorities is not isolated to the LAPD.

    “Race relations are worse in the Police Department, gender relations are worse in the Fire Department,” said Bendersky, who performed surveys, focus groups and interviews with thousands of city employees. She said the surveys revealed strong resentment across gender and racial lines toward the Police Department’s ongoing efforts to hire more women and officers of color.

    Klotz said the department conducted investigations into her complaints and deemed them unfounded, despite evidence she presented that she was the subject of retaliation for reporting misconduct committed by higher-ups.

    Last week — after The Times inquired about her case — Klotz was summoned to a meeting with Deputy Chief Emada Tingirides. Klotz says she was informed that she was being returned to her previous detective rank, which restores her pay. She remains stationed in the Valley, investigating car thefts.

    She is planning to retire at the end of the year, but Klotz said she will continue to fight in court to bring accountability after years of the LAPD failing to improve itself.

    “The damage is done, they have harmed me and they can never take it back. They will never be able to repair me,” she said before her old rank was restored. “They’ve ruined me at the end of my career.”

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    Libor Jany

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  • Nurse’s union blasts changes by new hospital owners

    Nurse’s union blasts changes by new hospital owners

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    Unionized nurses at Holy Family Hospital’s campuses in Haverhill and Methuen are accusing the new owners of violating the terms of their contracts by making “unilateral” changes to their health care coverage and other benefits.

    Lawrence General Hospital formally took over ownership of the hospitals last week as part of the sale of bankrupt Steward Health Care System’s Massachusetts hospitals in a $28 million deal signed off on by a federal judge in Texas.

    The sale was heralded by Gov. Maura Healey, health care leaders and local elected officials as a way to preserve jobs, improve working conditions and prevent the closure of the hospitals.

    But the Massachusetts Nurses Association alleges that Lawrence General is violating the terms of the court-approved sale and collective bargaining agreements for registered nurses who work at Holy Family’s two campuses.

    In an emergency motion, filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Wednesday, the union alleges that LGH unilaterally imposed changes to the nurses’ health plans that will increase premiums, out-of-pocket costs and deductibles, and removed credits for uninsured members.

    The hospital also required nurses at Holy Family to switch to a different, more costly type of retirement plan, and reduced coverage through its life insurance plans, according to the union, which estimates the changes will cost nurses thousands of dollars in lost wages.

    “Unless immediately addressed, Lawrence’s improper actions will cause significant economic injury to MNA and its members by reducing benefits while imposing significantly higher costs, including increased deductibles and copays,” lawyers for the union wrote in the 91-page complaint.

    The complaint asks the bankruptcy judge to declare the hospital in violation of the terms of the sale and require it to honor existing collective bargaining agreements with unionized nurses.

    “We remain an active and engaged participant in discussions with the Massachusetts Nurses Association, just as we have from the outset,” a spokesperson from Lawrence General Hospital said in a statement. “The court filings will not impact or interrupt our ability to deliver high-quality, compassionate, and culturally competent care. We continue to work together with the MNA and all of our staff to meet the health care needs of our patients, their families, and the communities we serve.”

    In the court filing, the union said shortly after the sale of Holy Family hospitals was announced in September nurses entered into negotiations with Lawrence General for new employment terms.

    But the union said hospital officials rejected several offers and then “threatened” to impose the changes on nurses if they didn’t agree to the new terms. After the sale of the hospitals closed on Oct. 1, Lawrence General imposed the new employment terms by “fiat,” according to the complaint.

    “Lawrence’s actions cannot be excused as inadvertent mistakes or transitional hiccups,” the union’s lawyers wrote. “Rather, they are its most recent attempt to impose significant economic changes on MNA-represented nurses.”

    The Dallas-based Steward operated about 30 hospitals nationwide before it filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year to pay down $9 billion in debt to its creditors.

    In September, a federal judge approved plans to transfer ownership of several of Steward’s Massachusetts hospitals, including Holy Family, Morton Hospital in Taunton and St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River. Morton and St. Anne’s were purchased by Lifespan, a Rhode Island-based company, a deal valued at more than $175 million.

    The state took over a fifth Steward hospital — St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Brighton — by eminent domain until Boston Medical Center takes it over as its new owner.

    Steward closed its hospitals in Dorchester and Ayer at the end of August after failing to reach adequate terms with prospective buyers.

    Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com.

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    By Christian M. Wade | Statehouse Reporter

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  • Faculty accuse UC campuses of labor violations over pro-Palestine protest crackdowns

    Faculty accuse UC campuses of labor violations over pro-Palestine protest crackdowns

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    Faculty across the state have accused the University of California system of carrying out a sweeping campaign to suppress pro-Palestinian speech and protests in violation of state labor law.

    The Council of University of California Faculty Associations said UC administrators have threatened faculty for teaching about the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and launched disciplinary proceedings against faculty for supporting on-campus student encampments as well as backing a strike by student academic workers this spring.

    The faculty group made the allegations in a 581-page complaint filed Thursday with California’s Public Employment Relations Board, which oversees labor-management interaction for public employees in the state. The unfair labor practice charge was co-signed by faculty associations at seven UC campuses, including Los Angeles, Irvine, San Diego, Santa Cruz, Berkeley, Davis and San Francisco.

    Faculty members gathered at UCLA midday Thursday to announce the charge. At the news conference, Constance Penley, president of the Council of UC Faculty Associations, described the university’s actions as a “relentless campaign to chill faculty’s exercise of their academic freedom and to deter them from teaching about the war in a way that does not align with the university’s position.”

    Faculty have also been investigated for pro-Palestine social media posts, arrested for exercising their free speech rights and were surveilled and intimidated by university representatives, the filing alleged.

    The push from faculty highlights how, months after police cleared pro-Palestinian encampments at universities, the fallout has continued on various campuses, with university officials implementing new protest rules and students grappling with ongoing suspensions and holds on their records.

    The faculty claims build on an earlier charge filed by the UCLA Faculty Assn. in the aftermath of attacks and mass arrests faced by students and faculty participating in an on-campus encampment in April and May. And they parallel similar allegations made by unions representing UC employees, including United Auto Workers Local 481, which represents student academic workers and the University Council-American Federation of Teachers, which represents 6,500 librarians and teaching faculty across the university system.

    The various charges, filed earlier this year with the state labor board allege essentially that the university had failed to maintain safe working conditions, disregarded the free speech rights of its employees, and unlawfully made changes to working conditions in response to campus protests.

    The university defends its course of action. In response to a request for comment, UC spokesperson Heather Hansen pointed to a university statement previously filed with the state labor board in response to the UCLA Faculty Assn.’s charge.

    The university stated that while it “supports free speech and lawful protests,” it must also “ensure that all of its community members can safely continue to study, work, and exercise their rights, which is why it has in place policies that regulate the time, place, and manner for protest activities on its campuses.”

    “The University has allowed — and continues to allow — lawful protesting activities surrounding the conflict in the Middle East. But when protests violate University policy or threaten the safety and security of others, the University has taken lawful action to end impermissible and unlawful behavior,” the university said.

    The filing details instances of the university allegedly investigating and disciplining faculty.

    Soon after the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel, and the start of Israel’s bombing siege of Gaza, the university began sending emails to faculty threatening that they could be investigated and disciplined for teaching content outside the scope of their courses. In November, UC San Diego investigated two lecturers for teaching about the history of the Palestinian territories, the filing said. A UC Irvine faculty member was sent a “letter of warning” by the administration for holding a vote on whether to conduct class at the on-campus encampment, with optional attendance.

    In another example cited, a medical school lecturer at UC San Francisco who delivered a talk in April about trauma-informed care at a health equity conference was barred from participating in future educational activities after she devoted some six minutes of a 50-minute course to discussing the topic as it related to Palestinians’ health challenges. A campus administrator informed the lecturer they had received complaints that her talk was “biased and antisemitic,” and took down an online video of the talk. The ban was eventually lifted, but the video remains offline.

    The complaint says the university’s “harsh crackdown against professors for expressing pro-Palestinian viewpoints stands in stark contrast to its treatment of vocal pro-Israeli faculty.”

    The university refused to initiate a formal disciplinary investigation into a pro-Israel faculty member at UC Irvine accused of harassing and physically intimidating an undergraduate student, although video footage was provided of the faculty member “cornering, physically intimidating, and interrogating a visibly scared student,” the filing said.

    After an unfair labor practice charge is filed, the Public Employee Relations Board will review and evaluate the case, and decide whether to dismiss the charge or proceed with having parties negotiate a settlement. If no settlement is reached, the case would be scheduled for a formal hearing before an administrative law judge.

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    Suhauna Hussain

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  • Kevin Hart accused of fabricating evidence in $12-million lawsuit by former friend

    Kevin Hart accused of fabricating evidence in $12-million lawsuit by former friend

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    A former friend of Kevin Hart has accused Hart in a lawsuit of submitting fabricated evidence to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office stemming from his 2017 sex tape scandal, and alleging that investigators accepted the evidence and acted upon it without proper vetting.

    In an amended complaint filed Aug. 6 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Jonathan “J.T.” Jackson — who sued the “Get Hard” star in July for breach of written contract — further alleged that Hart and the D.A.’s office contributed to false extortion accusations against him that hurt his reputation.

    Representatives for Hart did not immediately respond to The Times’ requests for comment.

    Jonathan “J.T.” Jackson, left — a Navy veteran, professional bowler and actor — has updated his lawsuit against comedian Kevin Hart.

    (Arnold Turner/ Chris Pizzello / Associated Press)

    Jackson — a Navy veteran, professional bowler and actor — sued Hart for allegedly botching a settlement agreement meant to clear Jackson’s name relating to the fallout from Hart’s 2017 scandal. He accused Hart of not using the “meticulously negotiated” and agreed-upon wording from their 2021 settlement when Hart addressed the scandal in an Instagram post that same year, resulting in July’s $12-million breach of written contract lawsuit that Jackson updated last week.

    Jackson’s amended complaint includes a transcript of a 2017 interview of Hart by D.A.’s investigator Robin Letourneau said to confirm “multiple key points” that refute the claims made against Jackson and show that Hart allegedly instigated criminal extortion charges that led to Jackson’s arrest.

    The amended complaint said that Hart and his legal team “fabricated evidence and provided misleading statements that contributed and led to [Jackson’s] wrongful implication and arrest.” According to the original complaint, the alleged evidence was an April 2018 email addressed to Hart by someone identified as Juan Carlos Yépez, who demanded 20 bitcoins to prevent the tape’s release (after the tape had been released eight months earlier). The email, a copy of which is included in the complaint, also included accusations of molestation and attempted rape.

    Jackson, 47, was the target of a January 2018 raid at his home in which he and his wife were held at gunpoint by investigators with the district attorney’s office. Investigators were looking into allegations of extortion in the raid, which Jackson believes Hart’s allegations instigated. Jackson was arrested a few months later, and the complaint said a voice recording made during his arrest captured Letourneau “specifically stating that Plaintiff was responsible for the extortion email that Hart allegedly received on April 27, 2018.”

    Jackson claimed in his lawsuit that the extortion report hinged on the email, and he argued that it had not been properly authenticated, although Hart claimed to have forwarded it to his legal team, which then forwarded it to the D.A. But the email lacked forwarding headers and other digital markers, leading Jackson to believe that it was potentially fabricated, according to the lawsuit. However, Jackson alleged, investigators were expected to further scrutinize and verify the digital evidence but allegedly did not and the email was still used to prosecute him.

    “The District Attorney’s blanket reliance on Hart’s authentication, despite clear discrepancies, raises significant doubts about the validity of the evidence and the thoroughness of its verification,” the lawsuit said.

    A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office said Friday that the office did not comment on pending litigation.

    Jackson, who also goes by “Action Jackson,” was charged in May 2018 with attempting to extort money from Hart after claiming to have a secret video of the comedian engaging in extramarital sex in Las Vegas in August 2017. The charges were eventually dropped by prosecutors (whom Jackson also sued in December), but Jackson claimed that his “reputation was unjustly tarnished due to a series of malicious actions by the defendants,” including when Hart released the 2019 Netflix docuseries “Don’t F— This Up.” In the series, Hart mentioned extortion and alleged that Jackson had been involved in the creation and dissemination of the sex tape. Jackson was later cleared of all charges brought against him by the D.A. A $60-million lawsuit filed by Montia Sabbag, the model who appeared with Hart in the sex tape, was dismissed in 2020.

    Hart told Letourneau that no one else was in his private bedroom within his suite on the night of the sex tape recording except Sabbag and another female friend, identified as Morgan in the lawsuit.

    “Hart emphasizes that no one else had access to his room,” the amended complaint said. “Hart states he was discombobulated and not in control of his actions but implies that Sabbag was aware of the camera’s placement. Hart suggests Sabbag knew where to position herself and Hart to be recorded.”

    In the Sept. 18, 2017, interview transcript, the “Jumanji” and “Die Hart” star also admitted to taking the hallucinogenic drug Molly, claiming that a friend, whose identity he did not reveal, pressured him to do the drug.

    “F— it, I said, and I put it in my drink,” Hart said in the D.A. interview, which is included in the complaint. “I had some water there. It was watered down. Because it’s in my drink, I’m fine. I’m fine with drinking. The night is good. As the night goes, I’m now with the girl Montia at the end of the night.”

    Hart said that he did not have sex with Sabbag that night, but had sex with her the next morning when he “woke up to sexual activity.” That’s when he realized she was trying to get closer to the hidden camera that recorded the sex tape, although he noted that he never felt Sabbag leave the bed.

    Hart also mentioned that his friends, including Jackson, were downstairs in his suite for about only 10 minutes and that his private bedroom was upstairs. That claim contradicts “any implication that [Jackson] had an opportunity to place or manipulate the camera.” Hart also noted that Sabbag and Morgan were the only people who could have taken pictures or been involved in the recording or have access to Hart’s private bedroom upstairs in the suite, “strengthening the claim that Plaintiff was not involved,” the complaint said.

    “I am a calculated guy. And I know how to maneuver. There’s no way, there’s no way that I can [be] videotaped sleeping in bed with somebody else in the room with me not having knowledge of a person in the room,” Hart said in interview, adding that he “100%” believes that it was all “calculated” by Sabbag during the time he was sleeping in bed by himself.

    Hart also explained how he later learned about the sex tape being “shopped” around to celebrity media outlets, indicating a focus on selling the tape rather than extortion, the complaint said.

    Hart stated that he was “informed” about the video by a person from Media Take Out, not directly by the purported seller, “highlighting that he was not directly contacted or threatened or extorted,” according to the lawsuit. He was told that the tape would not “come cheap” and that it could ruin his career, “framing it as a sales pitch and business deal rather than a direct threat … supporting that it was a negotiation to sell the video, not extortion.”

    The complaint said that Hart’s representatives engaged in this alleged negotiation and that the seller of the sex tape had no idea that he or she was negotiating with Hart’s representatives. The actor-comedian, a seller identified in the documents as a “Hollywood Sex Tape Broker” named Kevin Blatt and Fred Mwangaguhunga from Media Take Out negotiated a price for the recording, “reinforcing the transactional nature of the interaction,” the complaint alleged.

    In a Friday statement to The Times, Mwangaguhunga,, said that neither he nor Media Take Out “has ever engaged in any negotiation for a sex tape.”

    “That is illegal. We were approached by a person looking to sell a purported video of Kevin Hart, and we immediately notified his representatives. Weeks later, law enforcement asked us for a copy of the email solicitation and we provided it,” Mwangaguhungasaid. “To be clear, it is not true that I, or any representative of Media Take Out, solicited or entered into any business agreement over an illegal video. It is also not true that either I, or anyone at Media Take Out, have ever acted as a representative for Kevin Hart in any negotiation.”

    Blatt told The Times on Friday that he was contacted to buy the tape but was never told who the seller was.

    Letourneau confirmed under oath at a Sept. 23, 2019, preliminary hearing that the interaction between all parties “was seen as a business deal and not extortion,” Jackson’s amended complaint said. “This detailed evidence collectively shows that Hart was involved in a negotiation over the sale of the video, not extorted, which is extremely crucial for understanding the legal and public perception of the incident.”

    After that fated Las Vegas trip, Hart met with Sabbag in Los Angeles, which further contradicts Hart’s “claims and narrative of being a victim of any crime committed,” the complaint said.

    “Additionally, officials named in [the complaint], including members of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, contributed to the false accusations against [Jackson] by accepting and acting upon the fabricated evidence without proper investigation and verification. The media then sensationalized these false accusations against [Jackson], further damaging his reputation,” the amended complaint said.

    “[Jackson] was wrongfully accused of extorting Hart using the sex tape, leading to significant social and professional fallout. This forced [Jackson] to navigate the legal system and endure hostile public opinion.”

    Jackson’s lawsuit initially accused Hart and his co-defendants — Hartbeat LLC and several individuals identified as John or Jane Doe — only of breach of written contract, fraud and intentional infliction of emotional distress, but the amended complaint updated the allegations to include fraud in the inducement, malicious prosecution and defamation. Jackson claimed that the fabricated evidence and fraudulent actions induced him to enter into the contract with Hart, one he argued “was seemingly designed to mitigate the fallout from the fabricated accusations” against him.

    In addition to $12 million, Jackson is seeking punitive damages to be determined at trial, legal costs and fees and injunctions requiring the defendants to exonerate him, as well as the removal of “all the false statements” about him in Hart’s 2019 Netflix docuseries.

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    Nardine Saad

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  • NC school district removed books featuring gay parents. It now faces federal complaint.

    NC school district removed books featuring gay parents. It now faces federal complaint.

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    Moore County school board members David Hensley and Robert Levy at a April 2023 meeting where they adopted a local “Parents’ Bill of Rights” policy. That policy is now being challenged in a federal Title IX complaint.

    Moore County school board members David Hensley and Robert Levy at a April 2023 meeting where they adopted a local “Parents’ Bill of Rights” policy. That policy is now being challenged in a federal Title IX complaint.

    ABC!1

    A North Carolina school district is facing a federal civil rights complaint after it ordered books featuring homosexual parents to be removed from elementary schools.

    In April 2023, the Moore County school board adopted a local version of what would become North Carolina’s “Parents’ Bill of Rights” law that limits discussion on gender identity and sexuality in elementary schools. On Tuesday, the Southern Pines chapter of PFLAG and Public School Advocates filed a Title IX complaint accusing Moore County of discriminating against LGBTQ families by removing materials featuring same-sex parents.

    “We raise this issue in an effort to protect the LGBTQ+ community, including faculty, students, and their families, from Moore County Schools’ harmful and outright discriminatory policies and guidelines,” said the complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights

    A spokesperson from the Moore County school system did not return The News & Observer’s request for comment on Tuesday. Moore County is about 70 miles southwest of Raleigh.

    Moore County should be free to decide what books to use without worrying about federal interference, said Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of the N.C. Values Coalition, which backed the statewide Parents’ Bill of Rights law.

    “I believe that county school systems have the legal right under state law to decide what kind of topics and programs they want their children to learn,” Fitzgerald said in an interview Tuesday. “That’s a concept we’ve had in our state for hundreds of years: local control.”

    The state’s Parents’ Bill of Rights law is facing a similar federal Title IX complaint filed by the Asheville-based Campaign for Southern Equality. They’re among the groups who filed a Title IX complaint against the Buncombe County school system for following the Parents’ Bill of Rights.

    Removing books with homosexual parents

    The Moore County school board adopted Parents’ Bill of Rights policies ahead of the Republican-led General Assembly making it a state law. Like the state law, Moore County requires parents to be notified if their child wants to use a different pronoun or name.

    The new state law also bans instruction in the curriculum on sexuality, sexual activity or gender identity in kindergarten through fourth-grade classrooms. The district policy uses slightly different wording.

    Moore County’s policy says instruction on sexual activity or sexuality will not be included in the K-4 curriculum. The policy also says “the subject of gender identify and gender fluidity shall not be taught in Moore County Schools.”

    Moore County school board members David Hensley and Robert Levy at a April 2023 meeting where they adopted a local “Parents’ Bill of Rights” policy. That policy is now being challenged in a federal Title IX complaint.
    Moore County school board members David Hensley and Robert Levy at a April 2023 meeting where they adopted a local “Parents’ Bill of Rights” policy. That policy is now being challenged in a federal Title IX complaint. ABC!1

    To help implement the local policies and state law, the district provided principals an implementation guide.

    “Principals will need teachers to record any additional materials, including books that are added to their classrooms (not to include district materials) and remove any books that discuss/share a person’s sexual activity, sexuality or gender identity,” according to the implementation guide. “For example, a book with homosexual parents or a student questioning their gender.”

    PFLAG says singling out books with homosexual parents violates Title IX and goes beyond what’s required in state law. The group wants a list of the books that have been removed.

    “Implementing policies and practices that favor heterosexuality and cisgender identities equates to preferential treatment based on gender identity and sexual orientation, which is prohibited under Title IX,” according to an April letter from PFLAG and Public School Advocates to the district.

    New federal Title IX regulations

    Both groups are relying on the Biden Administration’s interpretation of Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sexual discrimination in institutions receiving federal education funding.

    The Biden Administration included banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity to recently released final Title IX regulations. Supporters of the new guidelines say it will help protect the rights of LGBTQ students.

    Officials from nearly two dozen GOP-led states have voiced their opposition to the Title IX regulations, United Press International reported. Multiple states have filed lawsuits, while state leaders like Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, both Republicans, said their states will not comply.

    “Congress never interpreted sex to include sexual orientation or gender identity,” said Fitzgerald of the N.C. Values Coalition. “These new rules are counter to the purpose of Title IX as adopted by Congress.”

    Related stories from Charlotte Observer

    T. Keung Hui has covered K-12 education for the News & Observer since 1999, helping parents, students, school employees and the community understand the vital role education plays in North Carolina. His primary focus is Wake County, but he also covers statewide education issues.

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  • S.F. State employee who oversaw sexual misconduct and discrimination cases alleges retaliation

    S.F. State employee who oversaw sexual misconduct and discrimination cases alleges retaliation

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    A former San Francisco State University employee who oversaw the handling of sexual misconduct and discrimination cases alleged that the campus president and an official with the state university system tried to interfere with an investigation into harassment allegations against a professor and said that the school failed to properly investigate hundreds of claims of wrongdoing.

    In a 20-page complaint filed Wednesday against the campus and the California State University system, Heather Borlase said that she was terminated last summer after she launched an investigation into multiple Muslim students’ complaints that a professor showed a drawing of the prophet Muhammad in his Islamic studies class without warning or reason.

    Borlase alleged that San Francisco State President Lynn Mahoney and CSU Vice Chancellor of Human Resources Leora Freedman believed the professor’s actions were protected under academic freedom and asked Borlase to halt the investigation. But Borlase said that a probe was necessary to determine whether the professor’s actions constituted religious harassment. Visual depictions of Muhammad are considered offensive for many Muslims.

    Freedman wanted to offer time “for the parties to reach an informal resolution,” according to the complaint, and took the case from Borlase in April 2023. Roughly a week later, after the case faced public criticism by an outside advocacy group, Borlase said she was placed on administrative leave and learned months later that her job would not be reinstated. According to the complaint, she was told the decision was “in the best interest of the university.”

    The university said that “the change wasn’t made to influence the outcome of any investigation.”

    “Like all CSU campuses, S.F. State takes seriously its responsibility to provide students and employees a safe learning and working environment,” director of communications Bobby King said. “Different leadership was desired to lead work in the department, which was already happening to improve processes and outcomes.”

    Borlase claimed that she inherited more than 400 unresolved cases of harassment, misconduct and discrimination when she started in 2021 and had received pushback from university officials who “expressed concern about the exposure” when she tried to address the reports.

    According to the complaint, the university “encouraged her to only work on the most egregious cases involving current students or faculty. Ms. Borlase insisted on bringing all cases into compliance.”

    In one instance, an investigation into sexual harassment allegations against a professor found that people were dissuaded from bringing such claims forward. But Borlase said she was discouraged from taking corrective action that could put the university “in a negative light,” the complaint said.

    In another instance, an investigation found that a campus administrator had racially harassed an employee, calling them “a runaway slave.” According to the complaint, Borlase was asked to “downplay the university’s failure to act when concerns … were first raised.”

    “S.F. State’s failure to timely respond to student and staff complaints, its interference with the integrity of investigations, and scapegoating and terminating Ms. Borlase cannot be condoned,” said Katherine Smith, one of the attorneys representing Borlase.

    Borlase’s concerns coincided with CSU’s examination of its policies around Title IX — the federal ban on sex discrimination — following multiple accounts of inconsistencies over how university officials handled complaints of sexual misconduct and retaliation. On several of CSU’s 23 campuses from San Diego State University to California State University Maritime Academy, Times investigations found that students and employees lacked confidence in the Title IX process and often feared that their issues would be ignored. A Times analysis of complaints from the 2021-2022 school year found that about 3% of more than 2,600 reports of sexual harassment and sexual misconduct were formally investigated.

    “It is critical for students to know it is safe to come forward and when they do, their complaints will be fairly investigated,” said Wendy Musell, another attorney for Borlase.

    Shortly before Borlase’s dismissal last year, the Cozen O’Connor law firm shared a report with CSU’s Board of Trustees and the university community that found flaws in how CSU campuses collect data, widespread distrust by students and employees in how wrongdoing is addressed and a low number of investigations.

    A state audit found similar breakdowns. And in a push for broader accountability, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law that would require the CSU system to disclose the outcome of sexual harassment cases and investigations.

    The CSU is the largest four-year public university system in the nation. It has previously said that it will make changes to its handling of complaints and is hiring additional staff to improve its investigative process.

    “Transforming culture is not easy or quick. It takes time and significant resources,” Board Chair Wenda Fong told The Times last year.

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    Colleen Shalby

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  • Passenger complaints against airlines set to double this year after catastrophic 2022

    Passenger complaints against airlines set to double this year after catastrophic 2022

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    The U.S. Department of Transportation on Monday announced a $140-million fine against Southwest Airlines following the company’s disastrous 2022 travel season that was highlighted by thousands of canceled flights and millions of frustrated fliers.

    The fine, assessed for “numerous violations of consumer protection laws,” was “30 times larger than any previous DOT penalty for consumer protection violations,” according to a DOT statement.

    Southwest canceled nearly 17,000 flights and stranded more than 2 million passengers during last year’s Christmas and New Year’s holidays, according to DOT.

    During the travel crisis, “Southwest confronted unprecedented operational, volume-related challenges yet acted with diligence and in good faith,” the airline said in a statement Monday.

    Southwest has put in place “significant investments and initiatives that accelerate operational resiliency, enhance cross-team collaboration and bolster overall preparedness for winter operations,” President and Chief Executive Officer Bob Jordan said.

    Though it’s hard to imagine a worse outcome for air travelers than last year’s debacle, newly released data show that passenger complaints filed with the DOT across all airlines more than doubled in the first five months of 2023 from the same period in 2022.

    The data, analyzed by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, showed a 109% year-over-year increase in complaints against airlines from January through May. The number of air travelers increased 14% in the span.

    More than a third of the complaints addressed flight scheduling, including cancellations, delays and issues with connections, the data showed. About a fifth of the complaints related to problems with refunds.

    The third most common complaint was lost or damaged items. These were similar in proportion to complaints from 2022, PIRG noted, but the volume of complaints increased dramatically.

    A separate document, the DOT’s Air Travel Consumer Report, notes that the number of mishandled bags jumped in September 2023 to 198,256, with a rate of .53 bags mishandled for every 100 passengers flying. This is up from 177,304 bags and a rate of .48 bags for every 100 passengers in September 2022, according to the most recent DOT data.

    The agency will have to adjust, as “consumer complaints are not returning to pre-pandemic levels,” the report states.

    Complaints in 2020 reached the highest levels ever recorded, but 2023’s total will be significantly higher if the trend from January through May continues.

    With the Christmas travel season ramping up, fines like those imposed on Southwest Airlines could give travelers some comfort.

    “If airlines fail their passengers, we will use the full extent of our authority to hold them accountable,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

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    Terry Castleman

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  • Lawsuit accuses UC Berkeley of fostering antisemitism. Dean calls accusations 'stunningly inaccurate'

    Lawsuit accuses UC Berkeley of fostering antisemitism. Dean calls accusations 'stunningly inaccurate'

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    UC Berkeley is being sued by Jewish groups claiming that the university has fostered a “longstanding, unchecked spread of anti-Semitism” on campus — an accusation that university officials say paints a distorted and inaccurate picture of the school.

    Filed Tuesday by the Brandeis Center and Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education, the complaint alleges Berkeley Law, the university law school, has “failed to confront, much less combat” antisemitism and that policies adopted by some student organizations discriminate against Jewish students. The lawsuit also alleges students have faced violence and harassment since Oct. 7, when Hamas launched an attack in Israel, killing about 1,200 people.

    “The University has enabled the normalization of anti-Jewish hatred on campus,” the complaint, filed in federal court in San Francisco, reads. “Jewish students feel compelled to hide their identities.”

    But university officials refuted many of the claims, and said the allegations made in the 37-page complaint don’t reflect “the facts of what is actually happening on campus.”

    Tensions have been high at the campus following the Oct. 7 attack, sparking ongoing and, at times, opposing protests occurring at the same time. But UC Berkeley officials say they’ve been reaching out to student groups, offering counseling support, and making other arrangements to protect free speech and support students on campus.

    A banner calling for a cease-fire hangs from UC Berkeley’s Sather Tower as hundreds of people, mostly students, read the names of Palestinians killed, during a protest at UC Berkeley on Nov. 16.

    (Brontë Wittpenn / San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

    “UC Berkeley believes the claims made in the lawsuit are not consistent with the First Amendment of the Constitution, or with the facts of what is actually happening on our campus,” Dan Mogulof, spokesperson for the university, said in a statement. “The university has long been committed to confronting antisemitism, and to supporting the needs and interests of its Jewish students, faculty and staff.”

    The lawsuit claims that, following the Oct. 7 attack and the ongoing protests on campus, Jewish students have been targets of harassment and physical violence, and that Jewish students have received hate emails calling for their gassing and murder.

    “Jewish students have reported being afraid to go to class, which would require them to pass through the pro-Hamas rallies taking place in Berkeley’s main thoroughfares,” the suit reads.

    The suit also alleges that several student groups, including those that represent women, Asian and LGBTQ+ law school students, have adopted policies that discriminate and exclude Jewish students, including those that call for divestment and sanctions against the state of Israel or require that speakers repudiate Zionism before being invited to speak. Representatives for some student groups could not be reached for comment.

    Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, refuted the claims.

    “The complaint filed by the Brandeis Center paints a picture of the Law School that is stunningly inaccurate and that ignores the First Amendment,” Chemerinsky said. “For example, student organizations have the First Amendment right to choose their speakers, including based on their viewpoint. Although there is much that the campus can and does do to create an inclusive environment, it cannot stop speech even if it is offensive.”

    Mogulof, spokesperson for the university, said some of the claims made in the complaint “have no basis in fact.” Despite the claims of possible discrimination in the lawsuit, he said the university was not aware of any incident where a student was excluded from a student organization based on their Jewish identity.

    He said university officials have found no incidents where students reported getting the kind of emails that were described in the complaint.

    “This is the first anyone has heard of an allegation of that sort,” he said. “I can assure you that if we have — or if we do — we will respond strongly and quickly.”

    School police have also received one incident of alleged violence that occurred on Oct. 25, he said, involving two people who tried to take an Israeli flag from a student during a rally for Palestine. When they were unable to take the flag, the suspects hit the student in the head with his own metal water bottle.

    Police are still pursuing leads in the incident, and school officials have reached out to the student.

    “The university is taking this very seriously, and the student has been offered support,” Mogulof said.

    For some, the university’s actions have not been enough.

    “I don’t want to see students physically assaulted and the university not be willing to investigate it as a hate crime,” said Hannah Schlacter, a student at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

    Schlacter, who said she’s been helping lead the campus’ Jewish student community, is also a member of Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education, one of the plaintiffs in the suit. Although not named, she said she provided testimony for the suit.

    She said she was concerned university officials did not refer to the Oct. 25 incident as a hate crime. She said another incident on Oct. 16, where two people wearing masks tried to yank away an Israeli flag from a Jewish student wearing the flag as a cape, was also not being investigated as a hate crime.

    “The university happens to not be following the policy in place to respond to these issues,” she said. “The fact of the matter is that the university is not investigating that as a hate crime and that to me is concerning.”

    She said Jewish students are also concerned about what she called “indoctrination” by professors, including an incident where a graduate student offered extra credit for students who attended a pro-Palestine demonstration.

    After school officials heard concerns, the options for extra credit for the class studying the Middle East were expanded to include any local event that involved the topic, including protests or documentaries.

    The lawsuit comes as protests have erupted in universities and city streets across the country following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and the ongoing military actions of Israel in Gaza.

    Some supporters of Israel have called on university leaders to better police pro-Palestinian rallies, while supporters of Palestine have also accused some campus leaders of issuing statements that condemn violent attacks by Hamas, but don’t criticize Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

    In a statement to UC Berkeley students and staff on Nov. 3, Chancellor Carol Christ said she was concerned about an alarming increase of “antisemitic expression” in the country and campus.

    “Our university condemns antisemitic expression in its very form, and we are committed to addressing it when it occurs and responding when it is reported,” she wrote.

    Palestinian students and supporters have also faced harassment, threats and doxxing, she said, and urged students to report any incident to the Office for Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination.

    About 300 UC Berkeley faculty have also signed on to a letter condemning the Oct. 7 attack. Some students on campus had referred to the attacks as “resistance” and part of a “freedom struggle,” which signatories of the letter call “repugnant and indefensible.”

    Among those who signed the letter were Christ and Chemerinsky.

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    Salvador Hernandez

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  • Danny Elfman is accused of sexual assault by a second woman, alleging abuse when she was a young composer

    Danny Elfman is accused of sexual assault by a second woman, alleging abuse when she was a young composer

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    A second woman has accused Danny Elfman of sexual assault, alleging in a lawsuit filed this week that the composer abused her while she was a young, aspiring film composer.

    The suit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Thursday and obtained by The Times, accuses Elfman of using “his clear power as a successful public figure in the film and music industry, as a form of control,” during the alleged instances of sexual abuse, such as exposing his genitals to her and masturbating in front of her while she slept. The events allegedly took place between 1997 and 2002. Elfman’s company, Musica de la Muerte, was also named as a defendant in the complaint, which demanded a jury trial.

    The woman, identified in the complaint only as Jane Doe XX, said she was inspired to come forward with her allegations after reading a Rolling Stone report from July. The report brought to light prior accusations from Nomi Abadi, a 35-year-old musician and composer, who alleged Elfman had assaulted her between 2015 and 2016.

    Elfman did not immediately respond to The Times’ requests for comment but has denied allegations from both women in statements provided to other outlets.

    “The allegations of misconduct made against Mr. Elfman are baseless and absurd,” a spokesman for Elfman told the Hollywood Reporter. “His legal team is assessing all options and he will vigorously defend these claims in court.”

    Jane Doe XX was a 21-year-old film student at the New York Film Academy when she first met Elfman, who at the time was 47, in 1997 at the home of a mutual friend. By then, Elfman had already led a storied career, having found prominence as the leader of the popular new wave band Oingo Boingo and composed film scores for Tim Burton classics “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” He also composed the iconic, enduring theme song for long-running animated sitcom “The Simpsons.”

    Elfman and Doe immediately connected over their shared interest in film and music, the complaint said. She was eager to get help to “make it” in the music and film industry. Over the next several years, their relationship grew and Elfman began to treat the woman as a “consultant and protégé,” and would often ask her for input when scoring films such as 1999’s “The Mummy,” according to court documents. He also would invite Doe out to Hollywood outings, such as cast-and-crew events for “Good Will Hunting.” She would later view these instances as “grooming” and emotional manipulation in order to “sexually abuse and exploit” her, the suit said.

    During one of her visits with Elfman, as the pair were spending time in the Oscar-nominated composer’s hotel room at the Mercer Hotel in New York, the complaint alleges that Elfman had suddenly taken off his clothes and exposed his genitals in front of Doe. He then walked over to a window where he stood naked and asked Doe to take off her clothes and join him, the suit said. She complied but felt uncomfortable being naked in front of Elfman and put her clothes back on, while he remained nude in front of the window for another five minutes, according to the suit.

    The next time the pair saw each other, Elfman stripped nude and started taking a bath, Doe alleges in the suit. He allegedly asked her to join him and watch him bathe. Each time the two worked with each other afterward, the lawsuit said that Elfman would strip naked in front of Doe, saying it was “the only way he could work, be creative, and successful.” In one other instance, Doe alleged in the lawsuit that Elfman had “coerced her” to also strip naked, to which she agreed.

    Doe said in the court document that she was uncomfortable but did not speak up for fear of losing her relationship with Elfman, referring to him as “a mentor and a friend,” adding that she felt “very lucky” to be in this position. The lawsuit described the “imbalance of power” between them as playing a factor in her silence and compliance to Elfman’s demands.

    When Doe would visit Elfman in his hotel rooms, or at his home in Topanga, where she stayed with him for several weeks as she prepared to move from New York to Los Angeles, the pair would sleep together in the same bed. Still, Doe would remain fully clothed and often would remain above the covers, the complaint said.

    However, sometime in 2002, Elfman revealed to her, “Every time you have ever slept next to me, I would masturbate next to you,” the lawsuit alleged. He further explained that a part of his fetish was that she had to be asleep; Doe said in the complaint that she did not consent to this act. She also wondered whether Elfman had physically touched her during those instances. Doe said in the court filing that she ended her friendship with Elfman after that revelation.

    For years, Doe never reported the alleged abuse after sharing the incidents with her colleagues, who told her there was no point in speaking up because of “who he is” in the industry. In July 2023, Doe read a Rolling Stone exposé that included accusations that Elfman allegedly exposed himself to Abadi and masturbated in front of her without her consent on several occasions. The report included descriptions that mirrored Doe’s own alleged experiences. She said she realized she wasn’t alone and filed the suit, she said in the complaint.

    The allegations surfaced after Abadi sued Elfman in July, accusing him of not paying out a full settlement as part of a nondisclosure agreement between them.

    The July lawsuit against Elfman said the composer had failed to pay Abadi $85,000 of a total of $830,000 to settle an “underlying dispute.” The suit, which was reviewed by The Times, did not specify what the dispute related to. The Rolling Stone report cited a 2017 police report in which Abadi alleged Elfman had sexually assaulted her several times between 2015 and 2016, and had allegedly leveraged his power and exploited Abadi’s desire to further her career in the music and film industry.

    Doe’s complaint said Elfman and his company had engaged in “coverups” of the alleged sexual assaults of both women.

    Times researcher Scott Wilson and staff writer Emily St. Martin contributed to this report.

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    Jonah Valdez

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