Tag Archive for 'lawsuit'

Parents sue in daughter’s beating at Louisa school

Published
by
H-L Justice Team
on October 21, 2008
in U.S. District Court
. 7 Comments

By Cassondra Kirby-Mullins
ckirby@herald-leader.com

Parents of a Lawrence County High school student have filed a lawsuit alleging that school officials did not protect their 17-year-old daughter, who was severely beaten at the school in August.

Jerry and Melissa Moore say they repeatedly warned school officials that their daughter, Jerica, had been threatened by another student, according to he lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Ashland.

Specifically, Jerry Moore, the girl’s father, went to the school on Aug. 11 and spoke with James Boggs, the school’s principal, after Jerica received a message that “an attack was coming,” the lawsuit says. That same day, the principal was also given a copy of a handwritten letter which indicated that the juvenile was going to attack Jerica.

Boggs and Debra Delong, the assistant principal, had assured the Moores “that appropriate protection measures were in place,” according to the lawsuit.

However, on August 12, the juvenile brutally attacked Jerica on school property, punching her and hitting her in the back of the head with a glass candle stick holder.

The juvenile attacker was not named in the lawsuit.

Jerica’s wounds were so deep that doctors placed staples in the back of her head. The family incurred $10,000 in medical expenses, the lawsuit says.

Jerica “has experienced and will likely continue to experience pain and suffering,” according to the lawsuit which names Boggs, Delong and the Lawrence County Board of Education.

The Moores are seeking a jury trial and asking for compensation for their child’s past and future pain and suffering and for attorneys’ fees.

Neither Boggs nor Delong could be immediately reached for comment.

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Ex-WKYT reporter sues station for age discrimination

Published
by
H-L Justice Team
on October 8, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 88 Comments


By Scott Sloan
ssloan@herald-leader.com

Former WKYT-27 reporter Jerry Sander filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday against the CBS affiliate, alleging he was improperly fired because of his age.

Jerry Sander

Jerry Sander

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District court in Lexington, the 62-year-old’s attorneys claimed the station’s news director “singled Mr. Sander out in front of the news team by frequently berating him and criticizing his story ideas.”

It was part of a pattern, the suit alleges, that also included management withholding pay raises and stripping him of his senior news reporter duties such as critiquing younger reporters’ work.

Sander claimed in the suit that the station “is systematically eliminating older employees on account of their ages.” No similar lawsuits have been filed against the station.

WKYT General Manager Wayne Martin said in a statement released Wednesday that Sander resigned his position with WKYT in February. Martin said Sander “subsequently filed for unemployment benefits, which the Kentucky Unemployment Insurance Commission denied.”

“We are aware a lawsuit has been filed by Mr. Sander but we have not been served with the complaint. Therefore, we have no further comment,” he said.

Sander’s last day working at the station was Feb. 21 when he was assigned, the suit alleges, to produce Web site versions of all of WKYT’s stories, as well as the Sno-Go school and business closings.

The suit says Sander, a 26-year veteran of the station, told News Director Robert Thomas that he was not trained in the Sno-Go assignment. In response, “Thomas publicly berated Mr. Sander.”

Sander said he was feeling ill and the suit claims Thomas “ordered him to go home for the day and not return until told to do so.”

Sander met with Thomas and Martin four days later and was given the option to resign with no benefits, resign with a severance, be fired but receive unemployment benefits, or return to work, the suit said.

Sander told the Herald-Leader on Wednesday that he asked to return to work but had a phone conversation the next day with Martin who said that was no longer an option and “his last words to me were ‘This is strictly a business decision.’”

The two sides have since battled over unemployment benefits. Sander said Wednesday that the benefits were blocked initially by the station but he won a hearing. The station, though, appealed, he said and won that “based on the argument that I quit.”

Sander said he told one person at the station, Martin’s secretary, that he quit but later called to say he was emotional and didn’t mean it.

“That night on the phone with Wayne Martin I asked whether I had lost my job, and he replied ‘No, nothing like that,’” Sander said.

“To me, Robert Thomas and (executive producer) Michele Hill had wanted me out for quite some time,” Sander said, noting that Thomas had asked him if he planned to continue working until his contract expired at the end of 2012.

“He would also make snide remarks about the amount of money I made,” Sander said, adding that he was paid in the mid- to upper $80,000 range.

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‘Smoking gun’ alleged in Petrilli lawsuit

Published
by
H-L Justice Team
on September 16, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

By Brandon Ortiz
bortiz@herald-leader.com

A month before confronting the Fayette school district superintendent with complaints about Booker T. Washington Academy Principal Peggy Petrilli, a parent urged the principal’s critics to compile a list of everything that negatively affected black parents, “no matter how inconsequential it appears.”

On July 26, 2007, William “Buddy” Clark forwarded an e-mail to his wife, Alva, and site-based decision making council member Jessica Berry, according to records filed in Petrilli’s racial discrimination lawsuit against the Fayette County Board of Education and Superintendent Stu Silberman.

Peggie Petrilli

Peggie Petrilli

“We need a list of everything that has happened over the past year which negatively affected black parents, students, teachers, or the community,” Buddy Clark wrote. “Include everything no matter how inconsequential it appears. Failure to develop black talent will have a future negative effect.”

Petrilli’s lawyers claim the e-mail is “smoking gun” proof that Petrilli’s departure from the predominantly black elementary school was racially motivated. Petrilli, who is white, was principal at Booker T. Washington from March 2005 to August 2007.

Petrilli accuses Silberman of illegally forcing her to resign in August 2007 to placate her black critics.

“Stu Silberman was keenly aware of the fact that he was being subjected to a power play by Jessica Berry and the Clarks,” Petrilli’s attorney, Dale Golden, wrote in a response filed Friday to a school board motion. “Ms. Berry and the Clarks demonstrated that they could fill a room full of angry African-American parents that were willing to be very vocal about their dislike of Petrilli. Threats of picketing Booker T. Washington and going to the media were circulating.

“Fearful that his political future could be jeopardized by Jessica Berry and the Clarks’ ability to galvanize the black community, Stu Silberman folded to the pressure rather than doing the right thing,” Golden wrote.

Through a spokeswoman, Silberman referred questions to the board’s attorney, John McNeill.

McNeill said the board filed a motion to dismiss a defamation claim by Petrilli and to dismiss claims against Carmen Coleman, the director of elementary schools.

Golden’s claims are irrelevant to the board’s motion, McNeill said.

The truth will come out in the depositions of Buddy Clark, Alva Clark, Berry and Coleman, McNeill said. The depositions have not yet been transcribed.

“The best evidence to the truth of the matter is in those depositions,” said McNeill, who declined to comment further.

Berry and Alva Clark, who was also on the PTA and site-based decision-making council, did not return phone messages seeking comment.

The school board, in legal filings, has repeatedly said that Petrilli resigned on her own after being shown a list of complaints from parents. The school board has maintained that it did not pressure her.

The board has also filed Petrilli’s public statement to the media after she resigned. The statement contained no indication that Petrilli was being forced out.

In August 2007, angry parents at Booker T. Washington presented Silberman with 2½ pages of complaints that included allegations of financial mismanagement and unethical scoring and administering of standardized tests.

School board attorney Brenda D. Allen investigated the allegations. She wrote a sweeping report accusing some school staff of engaging in testing irregularities, improperly holding students back a year, misleading parents, circumventing the school’s site-based decision making council and retaliating against parents.

The report called into question the test score improvements achieved during Petrilli’s tenure.

Petrilli countered by suing Allen and the board for defamation.

The board has maintained in legal filings that it was obligated to investigate alleged testing improprieties. The board also has said that Petrilli wanted an investigation, thinking that it would clear her name.

 

  • Read Petrilli’s response to request for summary judgment here

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Former assistant police chief at UK, university settle suit

Published
by
H-L Justice Team
on September 8, 2008
in Fayette Circuit Court
. 1 Comment

By Jim Warren
jwarren@herald-leader.com

A settlement has been reached in a two-year-old lawsuit between the University of Kentucky and the former assistant chief of UK’s campus police department.

A UK spokeswoman on Monday confirmed that the suit between UK and former assistant chief Stephanie Bastin has been settled, but she said details are being kept confidential.

Bastin sued UK in Fayette Circuit Court in July 2006, alleging that the university improperly forced her out of her job with the campus police.

Bastin claimed that UK Associate Vice President Ken Clevidence ordered her to ask another UK campus police officer to dismiss a citation against a senior university administrator. She said she refused because asking the officer to drop the citation would have violated state law.

Bastin was named interim chief of the Kentucky State University campus police department earlier this year.

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Fayette schools lawsuit becomes public

Published
by
H-L Justice Team
on August 27, 2008
in U.S. District Court and Uncategorized
. 6 Comments

By Brandon Ortiz
bortiz@herald-leader.com

A class action lawsuit accusing the Fayette County Board of Education of being indifferent to sex abuse allegations in the 1970s and 1980s has become public.

Plaintiff attorneys involved in the case said it relies heavily on testimony in Carol Lynne Maner’s high-profile sex abuse lawsuit, which led to a $3.7 million jury verdict last summer. (A judge later increased the verdict to $3.9 million.)

Some elements of the lawsuit are also intertwined with the Micro-City Government scandal, attorneys said.

Ron Berry, a longtime director of the jobs program for disadvantaged youths, was convicted of 12 counts of sodomy in 2002. Lawsuits have accused former city officials of ignoring the abuse for decades for political reasons.

Attorney Gayle Slaughter, who represents plaintiffs in the Berry and school board lawsuits, said some of the plaintiffs in the school board lawsuit were introduced to teachers by Berry.

The lawsuit was initially filed in Fayette Circuit Court. It was transferred to U.S. District Court in July.

The lawsuit names five plaintiffs who attended Winburn Middle School, Lexington Junior High School and Dunbar Junior High School in the early 1970s and mid-1980s.

It also seeks to represent all Fayette County students who were sexually abused from 1972 to 2007. That is at least 43 people, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit does not detail the plaintiffs’ abuse allegations. A federal judge has ordered the plaintiff attorneys to file a detailed listing of the allegations this week.

Attorney Chuck Arnold, who also represents the plaintiffs, said they came forward after Maner’s high-profile trial.

The lawsuit is based on deposition testimony by former Superintendent Guy S. Potts. He testified that he “probably” received one complaint of sexual abuse a month in the 1970s, but he added that he “could not attest to that,” according to court records.

Arnold, who also represents Maner, says the school board in that era had a policy of ignoring sexual abuse. He claims that the board destroyed records of sex abuse allegations several years ago.

He also alleges that Potts had a policy of not reporting suspected abuse to authorities, as required by law.

The statute of limitations for sex abuse lawsuits of this nature is one year. Arnold says that the plaintiffs can proceed with their lawsuits because the board effectively concealed the sex abuse allegations by not reporting them, an argument he made in Maner’s lawsuit.

A jury in her case found that the school board had ignored Maner’s allegations of sex abuse by six employees at Beaumont Junior High School and Lafayette High School in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

A school board spokeswoman referred questions to its attorney, Larry Deener.

Deener declined to comment Wednesday.

In Maner’s lawsuit, the school board argued that it vigorously investigated all allegations of sex abuse. It claimed that it was not aware of any alleged abuse of Maner.

Maner’s case is pending before the Kentucky Court of Appeals. The school board says the lawsuit is barred by the statute of limitations.

If the board succeeds in its appeal, the class action lawsuit will probably be dismissed on the same grounds, Arnold conceded.

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