Results tagged “lawsuit”

At first glance, Matthew Ortiz's lawsuit makes sense: He was shot in the leg at an Italian street festival in Ridgewood back in 2008, and wants the NYPD to pay up. But the thing is, the police didn't shoot Ortiz; he caught a bullet from random gunfire in the crowd. Nevertheless, his lawyer says the cops, not the perps, are to blame. "There were a number of mini-riots, and the police presence was practically nonexistent," attorney David Harrison tells the Post. "If stuff going on gets worse and worse... it's negligence. " If Ortiz cashes in, expect future lawsuits against the NYPD for failing to save New Yorkers from such dangers as flying pillows. more ›

29-year-old Antonio Musumeci isn't the only one who's been hassled by The Man for photographing near a federal building in New York, but he is behind the latest lawsuit being filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union. The organization says citizens should not be prohibited to photograph while standing in public spaces near such buildings. The Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Protective Service, an unnamed federal officer, and Inspector Clifford Barnes of the Federal Protective Service are all named in the suit, which was filed in Manhattan yesterday. more ›

A former Gucci salesman at the 5th Avenue flagship store has filed a $5MM lawsuit saying he was discriminated against because he's straight. Adolfo Mendez says his manager at the store, Michael Daly, crept up behind him and gave him a shoulder-to-ass massage, reports the Daily News. Mendez claims he froze the first time it happened, but upon the second he told Daly, "Look, I really don't appreciate this. You touched me. I don't think it's professional." Allegedly Daly was stunned and gave him a "how dare you" look. more ›

Former NY1 reporter Adele Sammarco's claims that NY1 was a hostile work environment rife with sexual innuendo, questions about her sexual preferences, breasts and butt as well as harassment were rejected by a federal jury today. The Daily News reports, "The panel of seven men and one woman deliberated just 40 minutes on Thursday before delivering a verdict in favor of the cable news station." Sammarco alleged she was blackballed in media for complaining about the "locker room" antics at the station, while NY1 and parent company Time Warner said she was fired because she wasn't doing a good job. more ›

Yetta Kurland, a civil rights lawyer who ran an unsuccessful challenge for Council Speaker Quinn's seat last year, has filed a lawsuit to keep St. Vincent's Hospital open. According to NY1, Kurland "says closing the hospital violates New York State health laws" and that "the state Health Department has not yet approved St. Vincent's closure plan." She also wants a look at St. Vincent's financials, "The issue should be framed as to why St Vincent's is so rapidly doing this without any kind of public comment, and without any kind of disclosure, or transparency." However, the state says it's given St. Vincent's approval on its wind-down plans. On Monday, St. Vincent's laid off 1,000 workers and the psychiatry service in the ER was "placed on permanent diversion" yesterday. more ›

According to testimony from ex-NY1 reporter Jeff Simmons, Adele Sammarco—who claims she was sexually harassed at the news station—frequently talked about her breasts to coworkers. Simmons was the one who photoshopped the gag photo of Sammarco to get her back for covering his desk in toilet paper, and thought she would be fine with it because "Adele would talk to me so openly and candidly about her breasts," he told jurors. Instead, she is using it as proof that she was sexually harassed at the office. more ›

It was just another day in the life of Staten Island's Joel Lederman on May 10, 2004—that is, until he bent over his kitchen stove to light a smoke and his T-shirt went up in flames. He sustained severe burns to his body and hands, and spent three and a half weeks in a hospital Burn Center, undergoing surgery twice. Then came Lederman's lawsuit against Macy's, where he bought the "light-blue, 100-percent cotton Club Room by Charter Club T-shirt." Now, some might say that's what ya' get for wearing Club Room, but Lederman's lawyers demanded monetary satisfaction, and they have prevailed. more ›

25-year-old Christopher Reinhold asked Colette DiPierro to marry him back in May 2009, and she said yes, accepting his $17,500 diamond engagement ring. But in September she broke off the engagement... and kept the ring. Now Reinhold is suing her for the return of the ring or its monetary value, plus $5,000 for fees and legal expenses. (This case is not to be confused with a lawsuit filed earlier this year by a man who allegedly cheated on his fiancée, who broke off the engagement and kept the $19K ring.) more ›

In January 2007, Fabrice Tourre, the French trader accused of defrauding Goldman Sachs' investors by selling them mortgage-backed bonds he believed would fail, wrote the following in an email to a friend: "The whole building is about to collapse anytime now... Only potential survivor, the fabulous Fab... standing in the middle of all these complex, highly leveraged, exotic trades he created without necessarily understanding all of the implications of those monstrosities!!!" Fab's investors lost a billion dollars during the housing market collapse, but Goldman Sachs and client John Paulson, a hedge fund manager who helped package the bad bonds, cashed in. Now, in an apparent attempt to trademark the word "hubris," the bank intends to pay $5 billion in bonuses, on par with what they paid back in 2007. more ›

A man has filed a suit against his mother for allegedly attempting to break him and his wife up. Lia Joseph allegedly went too far in her quest to prove that her son's wife, Diana David, was a gold digger that she got David fired from her job and lied to her sick father. One source told the Post her quest "seems to be some sort of twisted Freudian thing." more ›

Rapper/entrepreneur/club owner/Yankees fan Jay-Z, along with his business partner, is suing Red Sox star David Ortiz. In a lawsuit filed yesterday in Manhattan Federal Court, the two claimed Ortiz named his Santo Domingo nightclub after Jigga's 40/40 chain of clubs (which are located in NYC, Atlantic City and Vegas). MyFox5 reports that Ortiz's club, called Forty-Forty, is allegedly named after hitting 40 homers and stealing 40 bases in one season. The lawsuit states, "David Ortiz is fully aware of Plaintiff's Manhattan 40/40 club, since he had been a patron there on several occasions before he opened his Infringing Forty/Forty club." more ›

Last year construction safety coordinator Bianca Wisniewski filed a $20 million lawsuit charging she was sexually harassed at a JPMorgan Chase construction site on Park Avenue. (Among the alleged abuses were elevator operator Steve Greco's comment to Wisniewski that "Everybody kisses engineer Steve. This is a man's world, not a place for women to work.") Sadly, Wisniewski died in a tragic fire in her flushing apartment several months later, just one day before she was to testify against her former employer. (The FDNY decided the fire was accidentally caused by a candle falling on a sofa.) more ›

A riled-up Jets fan is still smarting from revelations three years ago that Coach Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots were caught cheating during a game with the Jets, videotaping Jets coaches flashing play signals. And since he's a lawyer, he's decided to sue the Patriots for $185 million on behalf of all fans. more ›

The NY1 sexual harassment lawsuit trial continued to expose the behind-the-scenes world of NY1, with more revelations of raunchy lunches, lusty nicknames, and general newsroom shenanigans. It also gave the Post more opportunities to flash their impressive wordplay skillz. more ›

A retired NYPD officer and his wife are suing the city in federal court, alleging that their civil rights were violated after an ugly altercation in a Harlem police station landed them in jail. As you may recall, retired officer Merault Almonor is facing felony assault charges for allegedly punching a female cop so hard in the face that she's suffering partial paralysis. The fight broke out when Almonor and his wife, Wilma Dore-Almonor, went to the station house on March 20th to pick up their 13-year-old son, Devin, who had been arrested after a stop-and-frisk on West 141st Street. Naturally, the Almonors and the police have wildly differing accounts of what went down. more ›

In court yesterday to defend themselves against a sexual harassment lawsuit, executives and staffers at NY1 went on the offensive against a former employee who claims that the news station is run like "a high school boys' locker room." Reporter Adele Sammarco says she was fired three weeks after she complained about being groped by former reporter Gary Anthony Ramsay. But according to a lawyer for Time Warner, which owns NY1, Sammarco was fired because she was a "chronic complainer about everything at work." NY1's Senior Vice President Steve Paulus was more blunt. more ›

Is the Corcoran Group the new Conde Nast? A new lawsuit claims that the company's president Pam Liebman is obsessed with people's weight, dieting and gym routines. Jason Riggs, a former manager there, is now suing, saying he was fired for being an "overweight gay male." more ›

On January 15th, 2008, 10-year-old I'Mecca Pearson was handcuffed by cops on her school bus in Bed-Stuy because she didn't move fast enough to take a seat. According to a lawsuit filed by civil rights lawyer Norman Siegel, one cop "put his knee on the back of the child, grabbed her arms, and applied metal handcuffs." The lawsuit alleged that Pearson was "unreasonably seized, assaulted, and battered," and sought $500,000 in compensatory and another $500,000 in punitive damages. Today it's being reported that the city will settle for $50,000. more ›

With litigation pending, NYU has been keeping mum regarding the death of student John Hunt Lamensdorf, who died on set last May while helping with another student's film project. The university has also been urging others not to talk about the incident publicly, but now the Village Voice has a lengthy account of what happened on the Georgia set, directly from someone who was there: Jason Welin. more ›

Upon filing her lawsuit against E-Trade, Lindsay Lohan probably didn't think about how it would effect the little people involved... like the voice behind the milkaholic baby's face. Earlier this year the actress claimed in her suit that the company parodied her partying ways in this ad, and is angling to squeeze $100 million dollars from them. While the add is still running (E-Trade says the suit has no merit), the actress who did the voice of the baby says her big payday is being held up. more ›

Yesterday, a judge ordered the Bloomberg administration to compensate the families of two workers killed in 2008's Upper East Side crane collapse $5,000. The families of workers Donald C. Leo and Ramadan Kurtaj filed a lawsuit against the crane company and the Buildings Department, accusing them of negligence and corruption in the building project, but the city repeatedly ignored requests and court orders for documents and information regarding the safety of the equipment used on the collapse site. Mr Kurtaj's family lawyer, Susan Karten, told the Times, "It behooves the mayor to ask the city’s lawyers to stop this kind of obfuscation and to turn over crucial documents in this case." more ›

A Nassau County judge has overturned an unwritten law of bad breakups: If a bride-to-be finds out her fiancé cheated on her and the marriage is called off, she is definitely keeping (and selling) that ring, ideally blowing the windfall on a rebound getaway weekend in Cancun with all her friends. Danielle Cavalieri, a former flack for fancy PR firm Dan Klores, was supposed to marry her Long Island high-school sweetheart, IT systems engineer John Gunther, last October. But after the whole thing went sideways, Cavalieri held on to the $19,000, 2.2-carat white gold engagement ring. So Gunther took her to court, to the abiding delight of the NY Post. more ›

A former stripper at the upscale Penthouse Executive Club is suing over a billboard that depicts her as a dancer for Scores, citing "emotional distress." Well yeah, a girl's gotta protect her reputation! Nicole Hughes filed a suit with the Manhattan Supreme Court saying she was forced to take part in a photo shoot for Penthouse in 2008. She was paid only $4 but assured her photos would only be associated with the Penthouse brand. According to the Post, that's not what happened. more ›

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is embroiled in a sex-discrimination suit filed by a former staffer, Regina Weiss. In the suit, the ex-communications director takes issue with being called "Tinkerbell" by the BBP. more ›

Pop artist Robert Indiana—best know for his LOVE statue, which was created in 1964 for a Christmas card for the Museum of Modern Art—is deep in a not-so-lovely court battle. According to the NY Post, his former business partner John Gilbert claims the artist signed an agreement three years ago which allowed him to license sculptures and other pieces bearing the word "prem" (Sanskrit for "love") in his iconic style. more ›

The pre-teen who was cuffed and detained after doodling on her desk this year wants the city to pay $1 million in damages for its overreaction. Queens junior high student Alex Gonzalez was hauled off in front of her classmates after writing "Lex was here 2/1/10'' and "I love my friends Abby and Faith'' on her desk in erasable maker. The family may have a case, since after the 12-year-old’s arrest a DOE spokesman admitted that “Based on what we've seen so far, this shouldn't have happened," and the NYPD’s Paul Browne said that “common sense” should have prevailed. more ›

Ah, it's a classic scenario: Citizen videotapes cop, cop gets mad and arrests citizen. But in this case, videographer Robert Carnevale's 22 hour tour through the Tombs earned him $20,001 in taxpayer money after a settlement with NYC. It all happened one night in May 2007, when officers from the 9th precinct confiscated a number of bikes locked to parking meters and signposts on 6th Street near First Avenue. As you may recall, the NYPD maintained that the bikes were abandoned, and they allowed some people to take the loose bikes without showing any proof of ownership. more ›

It's no licking your employees hand, but a car dealership secretary from Queens is suing her former employers for sexual harassment while on the job for only a few weeks. In the lawsuit, Katherine Salas, 23, alleges that her bosses harassment included hounding her with come-ons and whacking her "backside with a backscratcher," according to the Daily News. more ›

The David Zwirner art gallery in Chelsea was just hit with an $8MM lawsuit filed by a collector who claims its owners told a painter he sold one of her works, a move that landed him on her blacklist. Craig Robins says the gallery breached a confidentiality agreement when they told artist Marlene Dumas that they helped him sell her 1994 painting, "Reinhardt's Daughter" (pictured). Robins is now barred from directly buying from her representatives. He seeks $3MM in compensatory damages, plus $5 million for the gallery's "reprehensible motives" and "wanton dishonesty." The gallery told the NY Post that the case has "no merit." Artheads: is it really that bad for a collector to sell a painting? more ›

One year before the infamous bike body-slam video of 2008 cost NYPD officer Patrick Pogan his job, another cop was caught on video knocking a cyclist off his bike during a Critical Mass ride. Like Pogan, Sergeant Timothy Horohoe's account of the arrest differs dramatically from the video evidence, but unlike Pogan, Horohoe was never brought up on criminal charges or NYPD administrative charges. However, the city has agreed to pay $97,751 to settle a lawsuit filed against the NYPD for wrongfully detaining and arresting five cyclists during the March 2007 Critical Mass ride. This video, provided by the Glass Bead Collective, dubs audio from Sgt. Horohoe's sworn testimony over footage of the arrest. (For the uninitiated, what you're smelling is the unmistakable scent of NYPD uniform pants on fire): more ›