After the remains found in Queens were confirmed to be that of Avonte, the lawyer representing the family said that he will file a lawsuit against the city of New York on the family’s behalf.
Attorney David Perecman said he will file the legal claim on behalf of the family.
He said Avonte’s mother, Vanessa Fontaine, is inconsolable.
The family first said in October that it would sue the city over claims he was not supervised properly.
Avonte vanished on October 4 after leaving the Center Boulevard School in Long Island City, Queens.
The autistic teen, who was unable to communicate through speaking, was the subject of massive search effort.
Avonte’s remains were not intact when they were discovered on the banks of the East River over the span of a few days.
A teenage girl shooting photos in a Queens park noticed a left arm, leading to the discovery of legs and lower torso.
A part of a skull was also later recovered.
Authorities said at the time that clothing consistent with what Avonte was wearing when he went missing was also found.
The medical examiner said on Tuesday that the cause and manner of death are pending further study.
A class action complaint has been filed in federal court against top government officials connected to the George Washington Bridge scandal, the Fort Lee, N.J., attorney behind the move said Thursday.
The complaint — filed in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey by attorney Rosemarie Arnold — takes aim at key players in the controversy, naming Republican Gov. Christie, former Christie aide Bridget Kelly, former Port Authority officials Bill Baroni and David Wildstein, the State of New Jersey, and the Port Authority as defendants.
As a class action suit, the exact number of members has not yet been determined, but according to the filing “includes any and all individuals and business owners” who were inconvenienced or hurt by the lane closures between Sept. 9 and Sept. 13. According to Arnold, the plaintiffs work or live in or near Fort Lee or New York City and are citing economic damages by the lane closures.
The complaint follows a whirlwind week for Christie, who said in a press conference Thursday that he was blindsided by a report in The Record that said that senior members of his staff were connected with the lane closures on the George Washington Bridge.
A 28-year-old Canadian television producer lost her battle with cancer this week. But her fight isn’t over yet.
Houda Rafle was starting legal procedures against a Trillium Health radiologist whom she claimed misread a CT scan that showed the early stages of her cancer. But as the case was progressing, her health deteriorated.
She died on Wednesday, but her lawyer and her family plan to continue with the lawsuit.
“Houda’s fight is never [going to] end. Our entire family is [going to] keep it alive with every fiber of our being,” sister Deeqa Rafle told CBC.
Rafle initially checked in at Trillium on March 5, complaining of shortness of breath, nausea and vomiting. Hospital staff took a CT scan of her heart.The radiologist who read it, Dr. Ivo Slezic, has been working at Trillium hospitals for 33 years. But somehow, he missed a 1.6 cm mass.
Rafle was discharged, but she she still felt symptoms of fatigue.
Meanwhile, Trillium hospital implemented a new radiology quality assurance program. The radiology chief found some problems with Slezic’s work. The doctor’s privileges were restricted in April. The hospital started studying the CT scans and mammograms of the 3,500 patients that Slezic saw between April 2012 and March 2013.
In July, unable to cope with her mysterious symptoms, Rafle decided to visit a walk-in clinic for a chest x-ray. When that came back with some abnormalities, Rafle had it sent to a family doctor and eventually to a cardiologist at Trillium.
It wasn’t until August that a Trillium cardiologist called Rafle on the phone and asked her to get to an emergency room as soon as possible.
A new CT scan revealed that the mass had grown to 2.5 cm. Rafle was then diagnosed with stage IV angiosarcoma. The cancer spread to her lungs and to her brain.
“I was very upset and disappointed because the radiologist had missed that and that was (five) months of my life when I could have done something about the cancer. But I wasn’t notified until it spread, and now it is stage four,” Houda told The Star in September.
On Nov. 12, she filed a claim in court alleging that the hospital was negligent in not informing her that Slezic’s privileges had been restricted in April. The suit also claims that Slezic shouldn’t have been allowed to practice medicine because his abilities were impaired by fatigue, medical conditions or other factors.”
As it turns out, Slezic was going through some trials of his own. The doctor had just come back to work after going through chemotherapy for his own cancer.
The hospital has suspended Slezic. He has agreed to stop practicing while health officials investigate the incident.
Before she died, Rafle prepared a press release with her lawyer.
“There are no words to describe the horrible impact the events giving rise to this action have had on my life and the lives of my family,” she wrote in a statement released to the Toronto Star. “But I am not doing this because I am angry or because I want to lay blame. The truth is I am concerned for many others whose lives can be destroyed if nothing changes.”
“I am really praying that I was the only patient that was misdiagnosed,” Rafle said in a video before her death.
Rafle was surrounded by her six brothers and sisters when she drew her last breath on Wednesday.
“It’s absolutely unfair . . . misdiagnosis, 28, healthy before that, my role model, my best friend my big sister. It’s a lot,” Deeqa said.
A lawsuit was filed Thursday in California federal court by Ribin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and Clifford Harris against Marvin Gaye’s family and the owner of some of Gaye’s compositions, Bridgeport Music.
The purpose of the suit is to protect Thicke’s Summer hit Blurred Lines. At issue are complaints about similarities between “Blurred Lines” and at least two songs.
According to the suit, a copy of which was obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, “Plaintiffs, who have the utmost respect for and admiration of Marvin Gaye, Funkadelic and their musical legacies, reluctantly file this action in the face of multiple adverse claims from alleged successors in interest to those artists. Defendants continue to insist that plaintiffs’ massively successful composition, ‘Blurred Lines,’ copies ‘their’ compositions
The suit claims the Gaye family is alleging that “Blurred Lines” and Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up” “feel” or “sound” the same, and that the “Gaye defendants are claiming ownership of an entire genre, as opposed to a specific work.”
As for Funkadelic, there’s said to be claimed similarity between Thicke’s hit and Funakedlic’s “Sexy Ways.”
“But there are no similarities between plaintiffs’ composition and those the claimants allege they own, other than commonplace musical elements,” states the lawsuit. “Plaintiffs created a hit and did it without copying anyone else’s composition.”
A New York TImes critic has noted that “Blurred Lines” is “influenced heavily” by Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up,” but the lawsuit makes the point that “being reminiscent of a ‘sound’ is not copyright infringement. The intent in producing ‘Blurred Lines’ was to evoke an era.”
The Gayes and Bridgeport are said to be threatening litigation should the plaintiffs not pay a monetary settlement. Rather than wait for such a lawsuit to proceed, the plaintiffs are going to court to determine the parties’ respective rights and obligations.
Goldin Auctions is auctioning more than 100 items from the early basketball life of Kobe Bryant consigned by his mother Pamela Bryant. (goldinauctions.com)
Kobe Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard, is embroiled in a legal spat with his mother and an auction house in New Jersey that is selling over 100 items from his early basketball career.
Goldin Auctions LLC, which is holding an auction on an unspecified date in June of items from Bryant’s childhood in Italy, his high school years in Pennsylvania and his early years in the NBA, filed a lawsuit against him on Thursday.
“The Bryant Collection,” which was consigned by the sports star’s mother, Pamela Bryant, includes trophies, championship rings, medals, plaques, game worn uniforms and other items.
Pamela Bryant, 59, made a deal in January with the auction house, receiving $450,000, which she used for a new home in Nevada. Five years ago, she had asked her son what he wanted to do with the items, but he had no interest in them, the Associated Press reported.
“Pamela Bryant also indicated that her son gave these items to her stating ‘here mom, these are for you’,” the complaint states.
So she had placed the items in a storage unit in New Jersey for $1,500 a month, the AP reported.
The centerpiece of the collection is Bryant’s Lower Merion High School basketball uniform with the number 24, which he wore as a freshman before he switched to number 33 for the remainder of his high school career, according to a press release.
“It is believed to be the only authentic game worn #24 Kobe Bryant LMHS jersey in existence. The next time he wore a #24 jersey was when he switched his NBA number to it after the 2005-06 NBA season,” the Goldin Auctions press release states. “When he finally removes #24 from his back, it will hang in the rafters alongside, Wilt, Kareem, Magic and Shaq.”
Ken Goldin, founder of Goldin Auctions, which sold a rare Honus Wagner baseball card last month for a record $2.1 million, declined to comment.
Real-estate billionaire Donald Trump has withdrawn his $5 million lawsuit against Bill Maher, the liberal comedian host of HBO’s “Real Time” — for now anyway.
“The lawsuit was temporarily withdrawn to be amended and refiled at a later date,” Michael Cohen, a lawyer for Trump, told TMZ.
The suit centered on a $5 million bet between the two celebrities. In January, Maher said he’d pay that amount in cash to charities of Trump’s choice if the Donald released a birth certificate proving he’s not the “spawn of his mother having sex with an orangutan.” Maher was playing on Trump’s challenge of President Barack Obama’s birth certificate.
Trump indeed released his own certificate. But Maher refused to pay up, saying it was all a joke. Trump promised legal action and filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles in February.
Last month, Trump insisted he was ready for justice to run its course. “He made an offer, I accepted the offer,” Trump said then on ABC. “He didn’t say it was a joke [at the time]. We’re going to find out if it was a joke. The courts will tell.”
Is it ironic that Judge Judy is actually being sued??
Probably not, but it does make for a good twist.
It seems Judge Judy Sheidlin is actually caught up in quite the domestic issue here. Apparently, a Judge Judy Show producer, Randy Douthit, gave the judge a steal on some Christofle chinaware. This china must be quite the tableware as it is claimed to be worth over a whopping $500,000. You must be able to see right through yourself when looking at this china.
Randy Douthit’s ex-wife, Patric Jones, is alleging that Judge Judy received the china from Douthit for an exchange of only $50,000 without her knowledge or consent of the trade. And as you’ve probably figured out by now, the divorce was clearly a bitter one since Jones is looking to reclaim what she believes is rightfully hers and hers alone.
To add more to the twist, Patric Jones is also claiming that Douthit agreed to decrease his salary upkeep on the show in order to get a better deal in the divorce settlement. So, even though the divorce has been settled, the war is still brewing.
Judge Judy is of course denying these claims and she’s also denying that this lawsuit even exists,
I have not seen any complaint by the former Mrs. Douthit, however, I don’t owe this lady a cent. And if this 50-year-old woman would spend her time more productively at trying to find a job, instead of abusing the judicial system with frivolous lawsuits, we would all be a lot better off.
Ah, Judge Judy, even outside the courts you still have your sass.
I must say it would be quite interesting to see Judge Judy Sheindlin on the other side of the bench and maybe even get just a little taste of her own medicine.
NEW YORK (AP) — American International Group Inc. said Tuesday its board of directors will weigh whether to take part in a shareholder lawsuit against the U.S. over the government’s $182 billion bailout of the insurer.
If AIG decides to join the complaint, which seeks $25 billion in damages, it would pit the company against the government that rescued it in 2008 from collapsing under the weight huge losses on mortgage-backed securities and other toxic assets
AIG said that its directors will take up the matter on Wednesday and expects they will have a decision by the end of the month.
Starr International Co. Inc., the investment firm of former AIG CEO Maurice Greenberg, filed the lawsuit in November 2011 on behalf of the firm and AIG shareholders.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, asserts that the government didn’t provide shareholders fair compensation when it took a nearly 80 percent stake in the insurer as part of its bailout. As a result, the government violated the Constitution, Starr claims.
AIG said that, by law, its board must consider three options: take over the lawsuit and pursue the claims on its own; attempt to prevent the claims from being pursued by Starr; or, allow Starr to continue to pursue the complaint on AIG’s behalf.
Hey, if it worked in the 2004 presidential election, when George Bush got the courts to hand him the presidency on a platter despite what the electorate said, why not try it again?
That was what came to mind, as I read about what one of the Republican candidates are trying to do in Virginia. Rick Perry has filed a lawsuit, demanding that the courts put him on the ballot.
“Virginia ballot access rules are among the most onerous and are particularly problematic in a multi-candidate election. We believe that the Virginia provisions unconstitutionally restrict the rights of candidates and voters by severely restricting access to the ballot, and we hope to have those provisions overturned or modified to provide greater ballot access to Virginia voters and the candidates seeking to earn their support.”
Perry was unable to get the required amount of signatures necessary to be included in the Virginia Republican primaries, and apparently, he’s not happy.
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