A judge last week ruled that a Newark, N.J., hospital could be liable for the escape of inmate David Goodell, who received treatment there after allegedly faking a seizure and who police said went on to kill 21-year-old Viviana Tulli in Garfield.

Tulli’s sister and estate administrator Estella Tulli-Makowski in September of 2012 filed a suit in Essex County Superior Court against the state of New Jersey, the state Department of Corrections and parole board, the Department of Public Safety, Newark halfway house Logan Hall and its for-profit operator Community Education Centers.

The suit also names the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and the UMDNJ-Hospital, where Goodell was treated in 2010 after allegedly faking a seizure at Logan Hall, part of a CEC-operated halfway house system the complaint claims is “horribly mismanaged and has experienced an ‘inordinate’ number of prisoner escapes.”

A federal judge last Monday dismissed the claims against the state defendants, ruling they sufficiently proved they are public entities and therefore can’t be held liable for injuries sustained as a result of inmate escapes.

But the UMDNJ-Hospital could still face penalties for the escape of Goodell, who was on Aug. 29, 2010, escorted to the hospital by an unarmed CEC employee after “faking” a seizure at Logan Hall, where he was transferred in February after pleading guilty two years prior to assaulting his girlfriend and receiving a four-year prison term.

Goodell escaped from the hospital the night of Aug. 29. Tulli was dead within 24 hours.

Police said witnesses in a high school parking lot reported seeing Goodell, disoriented and covered in blood.

When officers arrived, he allegedly jumped into a car – later determined to belong to Tulli – and led police on a chase that only ended when he rammed their cars.

Investigators allegedly found Goodell inside the vehicle bleeding from the wrists due to an apparent suicide attempt.

Tulli’s lifeless body was in the passenger seat.

Prosecutors claim Goodell suffocated Tulli because she rejected his romantic advances, according to court filings.

A Bergen County grand jury in 2011 indicted Goodell for Tulli’s murder.

The post NJ hospital could be liable for inmate’s escape, alleged murder appeared first on Metro.us.

Brooklyn district attorney candidate Abe George is expected to sue CBS to block the network from airing a new show featuring longtime Brooklyn D.A. Charles Hynes.

George, 34, wants the station to delay airing the show until after the election, the Daily News reports. It is currently scheduled to premier May 21.

“I am surprised CBS News would conspire to violate campaign finance laws,” said George, who called the new series an “infomercial.”

The six-part documentary series, called “Brooklyn D.A.,” follows those who work in the borough’s D.A. office, one of the largest in the country.

George and another challenger in the upcoming election, Kenneth Thompson, were both angered by the news of the show.

George also plans to lead a protest Tuesday at CBS headquarters in Midtown.

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Occupy Wall Street is getting $350,000 in a settlement from the city in a federal lawsuit over property damage during the police raid of Zucotti Park in November 2011, DNAinfo reports.

In a statement, a city law department official reportedly said, “It was absolutely necessary for the city to address the rapidly growing safety and health threats posed by the Occupy Wall Street encampment.”

“There are many reasons to settle a case, and sometimes that includes avoiding the potential for drawn-out litigation that bolsters plaintiff attorney fees,” she added.

Of the $350,000 settlement, $186,349 will go to Occupy’s civil rights attorney, Norman Siegel.

Protesters were awarded the entirety of the $47,000 they asked for to compensate damage to 2,600 books in their People’s Library.

They were also awarded $8,500 for damaged bicycles.

Global Revolution Television, a media group based in the park, will receive $75,000 for damaged electronic equipment. Their attorney, Wylie Stecklow, will get $49,850 in legal fees.

Per the agreement, the park’s owner, Brookfield Properties, will reportedly contribute $16,000 to the settlement.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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UPDATE: Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne issued a statement in support of McCormack, declaring that McCormack “did what a good commander is supposed to do — direct officers under his command to protect the public.” 

Browne insisted that the Deputy Inspector was not racially profiling, and that his taped comments needed to be looked at in context.

“He was describing suspects in patterns of burglaries and robberies who were victimizing people in a specific part of the precinct,” Browne said.  ”The inspector’s concern was that the officer was not focusing on serious crimes — instead the officer was more concerned with people blocking an entrance to a building elsewhere in the precinct.”

“The message was for the officer to go to where the robberies and burglaries occurred, keep his eyes open and take appropriate action in response to suspicious or criminal behavior,” Browne added.

Metro’s original story is below.

A secretly taped conversation by a cop revealed that his commanding officer ordered him to specifically target young black males for stop-and-frisks.

On the fourth day of the stop-and-frisk trial, Bronx officer Pedro Serrano said his boss, Deputy Inspector Christopher McCormack, told him he should stop black males ages 14 to 21 because they are the ones who commit crimes.

McCormack is heard on the taped conversation telling Serrano to stop “the right people.”

“And I told you at roll call, and I have no problem telling you this, male blacks 14 to 20, 21,” he said, The New York Times reported.

Serrano testified that he was also criticized by McCormack for not stopping enough people last year.

The tape is the latest evidence in a class action lawsuit against the NYPD’s controversial stop-and-frisk tactic brought by a group of individuals who say they were stopped because of their race.

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(Image via Google Maps)

Visitors to the iconic Metropolitan Museum of Art might not realize they could waltz in for free.

And a new lawsuit charges that is because the museum sneakily makes visitors think they should pay for tickets at $25 an entrance.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, accuses the museum of fraudulently collecting millions of dollars in what it calls an admission-fee scheme.

The museum posts recommended admission prices, but visitors can pay what they wish.

The Met must admit members of the public for free at least five days a week, but they charge fees every day, the suit alleges, and “defrauds people into believing that fees are required for admission.”

Met spokesman Harold Holzer called the lawsuit “frivolous” and referenced earlier lawsuits raising the same “unreasonable questions about a 30-year-old pay-what-you-wish policy fully authorized by the city.”

“We firmly believe the ‘recommended admission’ system encourages full access to the Museum for all, regardless of ability to pay,” Holzer said in a statement.

The word “recommended” isn’t enough, said Arnold Weiss, attorney for the plaintiffs. Two are Czechoslovakians who paid $25 because they thought they had no option, and the third is a New Yorker who bought a membership for the annual free pass, Weiss said.  

“Here’s how they fleece people,” Weiss said. “The signs are deceptive. The big bold print, it says ‘Adult $25′ … Down in small print, if you have eyeglasses, it says ‘recommended.’”

Cashiers push people to open their wallets, Weiss said. “If you come in and say, ‘I’m paying nothing,’ they won’t let you in,” he said.

Weiss said they randomly surveyed more than 300 people outside the museum and 85 percent thought they had to pay admission.

Many Met visitors yesterday paid less than the recommended $25 fee, with mixed results.

“I paid a quarter,” NYU art student Marina Zheng, 18, told Metro.

French tourist Claude Allenou, 65, had read about the lawsuit.

When she tried to go in for free, someone told her it had never been free, and she paid $1.

“The man gave me the ticket, and he didn’t look very happy,” she said.

Upper East Side resident Eric Hendricks, 33, said he paid $10 for two people, and the clerk was “very nice.”

“She was very clear that it was a recommended donation,” he said.

Evelyn Cheng contributed reporting.

Follow Alison Bowen on Twitter: @reporteralison

Follow Metro New York on Twitter: @MetroNewYork

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A passenger from the stricken Triumph cruise ship sued Carnival Corp on Friday over “horrifying” conditions, including being forced to wade through human feces from overflowing toilets after power was knocked out by a fire.

The lawsuit by Cassie Terry of Brazoria County, Texas, alleged Carnival failed to provide a seaworthy vessel and sanitary conditions, according to court documents.

Terry suffered physical and emotional harm, including anxiety, nervousness and the loss of the enjoyment of life, according to the complaint filed in federal court in Miami.

Thousands of passengers who spent five days stuck on a stinking cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico headed home on Friday by bus, plane or car, and relished the chance for a warm shower and working toilets after finally arriving back on land.

“I got some sleep. I got a shower. A working toilet was really nice,” said Nancy Petrone, 58, who was heading to southern California after spending the night in Mobile, Alabama, where tugboats had pulled the stricken Carnival Triumph into port.

It took several hours for more than 3,000 vacationers to make their way off the ship after it arrived late on Thursday. Some travelers kissed the ground when they walked off, and others disembarked wearing the ship’s white bath robes, part souvenir and part protection against the chilly night air.

About 100 buses waited to carry passengers on the seven-hour journey to Galveston, Texas, while other buses departed for shorter rides to New Orleans or to hotels in Mobile.

One bus broke down on its way to New Orleans, said passenger Jacob Combs, an Austin, Texas-based sales executive with a healthcare and hospice company.

Carnival officials said the Triumph, which entered service in 1999, would be towed on Friday to a Mobile shipyard for damage assessment.

The 893-foot (272-metre)vessel was returning to Galveston from Cozumel, Mexico, on the third day of a four-day cruise when an engine-room fire knocked out power and plumbing across most of the ship on Sunday.

Passengers described an overpowering stench on parts of the ship and complained to relatives and media via cellphone that toilets and drainpipes had overflowed, soaking many cabins and interior passages in raw sewage.

The saga, which received extensive coverage on U.S. cable news stations, was another public relations disaster for cruise giant Carnival Corp. Last year, its Costa Concordia luxury liner ran aground off the coast of Italy, killing 32 people.

The nature of the troubles aboard the Triumph inspired bathroom-humor banter among late-night comedy shows and the amateur comedians who took to Twitter with poop puns.

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The New York Civil Liberties Union filed papers yesterday as part of Handschu v. Special Services Division, the federal court case seeking to stop the NYPD from carrying out surveillance of Muslims.

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly has repeatedly defended the surveillance program. At a lecture to the Carnegie Council last September, Kelly said, “As a matter of Police Department policy, undercover officers and confidential informants do not enter a mosque unless they are following up on a lead vetted under Handschu.”

Kelly was referring to the Handschu guidelines, meant to insure that the police only monitor when there is a clear indication that the group or individual is committing or about to commit a crime.

Not so, said Shamiur Rahman, a Queens resident of Bangladeshi descent who was recruited as an informant by a plainclothes officer in January of last year.

In a declaration in the NYCLU papers filed yesterday, Rahman recounts being instructed by his NYPD handler “Steve” to “spy on members of the Muslim communities in New York” in “mosques and other locations.”

Rahman delivered photos to the NYPD of people worshipping at mosques, and “recorded cell phone numbers from the sign up sheet of people who attended Islamic instruction classes.”

He was also instructed to inform on the Muslim Students Association at John Jay College, where he “took pictures of people in the group and recorded the license plate numbers of their cars.”

NYPD handler “Steve” reportedly told Rahman the police did not suspect the MSA of any wrong-doing, “they just wanted to make sure.”

“According to my NYPD boss Steve,” Rahman said, “the NYPD considers being a religious Muslim a terrorism indicator.”

How the community copes

Muneer Awad at the Council on American-Islamic Relations said this on-going surveillance has created a culture of insecurity and anxiety among Muslim New Yorkers.
Awad said that students activists and people in Islamic centers “don’t feel as free speaking about issues.”

Linda Sarsour, Executive Director of the Arab-American Association of New York said in her declaration in the papers filed yesterday that a man once said to her, “I don’t know whether the guy praying next to me is an informer or not.”

She told him she “could not reassure him that people in the Mosque might not be informers.”

Awad pointed to this sentiment as indicative of the violation Muslim New Yorkers experience.

“You expect discussions with religious leaders to be confidential,” Awad insisted. “This isn’t happening in other communities, other communities wouldn’t tolerate it.”

Informants

Muneer Awad said he’s heard of recruiting attempts by the NYPD.

“A number of people… told us they felt like they were approached by members of law enforcement in an intimidating manner, suggesting they either work with law enforcement or deal with increased scrutiny from law enforcement,” Awad said.

He said such scrutiny could come in many forms, from being placed on no-fly lists, to trouble for family members in the process of obtaining citizenship.

Awad tries to tell these people they are under no legal obligation to comply, and that such pressure is “inconsistent with what our Constitution guarantees.”

Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne rejects these accusations, insisting that “the NYPD adheres to the Constitution in all it does, and specifically the Handschu guidelines in the deployment of undercover officers.”

Browne also noted that “terrorists have tried to attach New York City on 16 different occasions that we know of” since 9/11. According to Browne, the NYPD has foiled plots to attack the Brooklyn Bridge and the Federal Reserve Bank, and to kill American soldiers returning home to New York.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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Justin Timberlake is coming under fire for a joke video played at his $6.5 million wedding to Jessica Biel that featured Los Angeles homeless people offering the happy couple well wishes, according to Gawker. The eight-minute video, “Greetings from Your Hollywood Friends Who Just Couldn’t Make It,” was produced by Timberlake friend Justin Huchel, a realtor, and features glassy-eyes and toothless men offering, “Justin and Jessica, I haven’t seen you for a long time. I hope the wedding goes fine for you. My gift is in the mail.” Huchel’s attorney insists it’s all in good fun, telling the Web site, “Mr. Huchel made [the] video to be used and exhibited privately at Justin Timberlake’s wedding as a private joke without Mr. Timberlake’s knowledge.”

New light is being shed on Britney Spears‘ infamous 2007 head-shaving meltdown. Former manager Sam Lufti — who is suing Spears and her family for libel, defamation, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and breach of contract — claims that the singer had been using hard drugs at the time and was worried a judge might request a test of her hair, possibly leading to her losing custody of her young children, according to the Daily Beast. “She told me she wanted to get clean, but she was struggling with it,” Lufti said on the stand this week. “I told her she needed to do it. I explained to her that society is not going to tolerate a mother with two kids abusing drugs.”

Jessica Simpson‘s parents, Joe and Tina Simpson, are splitting up, with Tina filing for divorce from Joe in Texas last month, citing “discord or conflict of personalities,” according to People magazine. The news comes as the National Enquirer is also reporting that Joe has recently come out of the closet as gay to his family. “It is an amicable split and there is no third party involved,” a rep for the couple says. “Any other related allegations are completely false.” But amicable might not be the right word. In his response to the divorce filing, Joe reportedly requests that Tina get nothing in the split.

It looks like Bobby Brown’s rehab stint in August didn’t take, as the troubled singer was arrested for driving under the influence near Los Angeles this week, according to CNN. This is Brown’s second DUI arrest this year. Police on the scene reportedly detected “a strong scent of alcohol” on Brown and conducted a sobriety test. He was later released on bond. Brown’s stay in rehab over the summer was part of an agreement following his March arrest for driving while intoxicated.

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Tony Parker, San Antonio Spurs player (and former husband of actress Eva Longoria) has filed a $20 million lawsuit against the nightclub that was the scene of the rumble.

Parker alleges he was at the scene of the crime that night — and was injured during the altercation when shards of glass from broken bottles lacerated his cornea.

His suit claims negligence on the club’s part for letting the fight, rumored to have sparked over singer Rihanna, take place. Parker alleges the club’s management let the rival hip hop stars in, knowing full well that there was “bad blood between Drake and Brown.”

The hefty payout Parker is seeking doesn’t seem so hefty when you factor in his current $50 million contract with the Spurs — if his allegations about the injury are true, it could affect his NBA career, not to mention his planned participation on the French national basketball team for the Olympics.

The media frenzy surrounding the fight has painted a picture of a violent rumble involving two warring entourages, with bottles flying and bloody injuries. Industry insiders, though, insist this brawl was an isolated incident in the city’s nightlife scene.

“While an incident like this is extremely rare and unfortunate, the heightened attention to this specific altercation is shedding an out-of-context light on nightlife and the nightlife industry as a whole,” Anessa DeSarno, a former nightlife professional, said in an open letter posted on Vibe.

(via TMZ)

ZZZ0622 Tony Parker Complaint

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Fishel Litzman, a Hasidic Jew from Monsey, NY, said he consistently scored high on exams, but was cited for failure to maintain his appearance, when he refused to trim his beard.

The NYPD said it tried to accommodate Litzman, by asking him to keep his beard under 1 millimeter in length, but he refused. He was barred from the program for unspecified reasons one month before he was due to receive his shield.

Litzman and his lawyer are claiming he was a victim of religious discrimination. Litzman’s lawyer said he would not seek monetary damages if he is reinstated into the Police Academy.

“This fellow just wants to be a police officer,” attorney Nathan Lewin wrote in a letter to Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo, according to the Daily News.

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The five protesters who filed the suit, which also names Mayor Michael Bloomberg, seek $1,000 in punitive damages and $47,000 in damages for the books and materials that were removed and destroyed during the November 15 eviction of Zuccotti Park. Six computers and some metal shelves were also damaged, according to Norman Siegel, an attorney for OWS. Siegel said he and his clients came up with that figure by using the website Amazon to determine the average cost of a book and multiplying it by the number of OWS’s damaged or missing books.

“We’re cautiously optimistic,” Siegel told Metro when asked about the protesters’ chance of winning the suit. “We hope to hold the Bloomberg administration accountable for the violation of OWS rights that occurred during the eviction of Zuccotti Park.”

 After the books were
confiscated, they were taken to the Sanitation Department. Protesters
were invited to retrieve them, but many complained that hundreds of books were
missing and others were damaged.

The lawsuit also seeks to uncover the details surrounding the NYPD’s
plan to raid Zuccotti Park and evict protestors.

“The raid struck not only at Constitutional rights but at a fundamental tool of enlightenment – thousands of library books and materials were destroyed,” members of the OWS press team said in a statement.

“Although they had the power to conduct raid, this lawsuit raises the issue of whether they had the right to conduct it in the manner they did,” Siegel said about the NYPD and the Bloomberg administration.

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Upper East Side business executive Steven Silverstein filed a lawsuit against former flame Kendra Platt-Lee, claiming she owes him about $50,000 after she called off their wedding twice, the most recent time just months before she was set to walk down the aisle, according to the New York Post.

The couple met while Platt-Lee was working as a flight attendant in 2008 and were engaged a year later. She moved into Silverstein’s $2,595-a-month East 86th Street apartment, which he claimed was paid for by him. That engagement was called off 2010 and the couple went their separate ways.

When they rekindled the flame and reunited more than a later, they moved into a more expensive apartment at $3,945 a month, which Silverstein said he also paid entirely on his own. The two made plans to wed at the Allegria Hote in Long Beach, Long Island this coming September 22 and Silverstein said in his suit that he shelled out money for down payments on the venue, the band, the DJ, the photographer and a videographer.

Things took a turn for the worse when Pratt-Lee when to California for a “one-week visit” in April and called Silverstein after ten days to cancel the wedding and end the relationship. Silverstein claims that she withdrew $54,367.87 from their joint bank account that same day, even though $19,269 of that money belonged to him.

Pratt-Lee did give back the $32,000 engagement ring given to her by Silverstein, but he is asking for much more — Silverstein is suing his former fiance for the $19,269 from the bank account, $28,000 in rent, and half of the $27,000 in wedding down payments.

But it doesn’t end there — Pratt-Lee is filing a counter-suit against Silverstein claiming that he hasn’t returned some of her possessions, including her make up. Her lawyer said she “generally denies” Silverstein’s allegations.

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The review is not considered a formal investigation at this point, but entails briefings among the committee staff and regulators, Facebook and other stakeholders.

The announcement by the committee comes on the heels of reports by Reuters that an analyst for lead underwriter Morgan Stanley cut his revenue forecasts for Facebook in the days before the offering. That information was not disclosed to the market before the stock was listed.

The IPO also suffered setbacks following a technology glitch on the Nasdaq exchange, and staff at the Securities and Exchange Commission are reviewing the incident.

The Senate Banking aide did not provide details about what issues the committee planned to explore, but its plans to review the matter adds to mounting pressure on Facebook, Morgan Stanley and Nasdaq.

On Tuesday, two top U.S. financial market regulators both said they would explore the circumstances surrounding Facebook’s IPO.

Richard Ketchum, the head of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, said he was concerned about whether or not there was selective disclosure about the negative forecast to investors.

SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro also said her agency wanted to explore “issues” surrounding the Facebook IPO as well, but she did not provide any specifics.

Morgan Stanley has previously said it has complied with all of the applicable regulations.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts state securities regulators have already issued a subpoena to Morgan Stanley seeking information about its analyst’s discussions with investors about Facebook.

Facebook Inc, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, and several banks led by Morgan Stanley were sued by shareholders, who claimed the defendants hid the social networking leader’s weakened growth forecasts ahead of its $16 billion initial public offering.

The defendants were accused of concealing from investors during the IPO marketing process “a severe and pronounced reduction” in Facebook revenue growth forecasts, resulting from increased use of its app or website through mobile devices.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, according to a lawyer for the plaintiff.

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Floyd, et al. v. City of New York, et al. challenges stop-and-frisk as racial profiling and a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin will allow people who have been stopped and frisked to serve as plaintiffs in the suit.

“Suspicionless stops should never occur,” Scheindlin said in her decision. Defendants’ cavalier attitude towards the prospect of a ‘widespread practice of suspicionless stops’ displays a deeply troubling apathy towards New Yorkers’ most fundamental constitutional rights.”

The NYPD conducted 685,724 stops and searches in 2011. That is a 600 percent increase since 2002, according to information provided to the Center for Constitutional Rights by the NYPD.

Regarding that increase, Scheindlin said she believes the NYPD has a “policy of establishing performance standards and demanding increased levels of stops and frisks.”

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has defended the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policies,
crediting them with a decrease in violence in historically crime-ridden
neighborhoods, though he stayed mum on the issue of the lawsuit this morning. 

Kelly and New York Attorney General Schneiderman were both asked about the suit’s class action status at an unrelated press conference.

Both declined to comment, and Schneiderman added that his office is not involved in any stop-and-frisk legal issues.

Kelly said it was an ongoing issue, and would not comment.

“It is what it is,” he said.

Other New York officials were quick to respond to Judge Scheindlin’s decision.

“Today’s decision by Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin granting class action status to individuals affected by the New York Police Department’s current practice of Stop and Frisk is a wake up call – and it is time for the City to face the damage done by this divisive policy,” Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said about the suit.

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“Apple facilitated the publisher defendants’ collective effort to end retail price competition by coordinating their transition to an agency model across all retailers,” according to the complaint, filed in Manhattan federal court by the anti-trust division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

The publishers include Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, MacMillan, Penguin Group, Pearson Plc and Simon & Schuster, a unit of CBS Corp.

The post U.S. accuses Apple, publishers of e-book price fixing appeared first on Metro.us.

Now, 17 years after the infamous lawsuit that settled with McDonald’s paying $160,000 to a woman who was scalded with hot coffee, the burger giant is facing two more lawsuits for java burns.  The suits were filed on the same day last week in the Chicago area, according to Chicago Business.   

In one of the suits, a 4-year-old girl is the alleged victim. Lynn Abdelal was handed a cup of hot coffee to bring to her grandmother. The coffee spilled on her, causing second degree burns. The child was rushed to the hospital where her family was told she would have “permanent scarring.” The family is seeking $4 million from McDonald’s, claiming the child should never have been given the coffee in the first place.

The second suit was filed by 35-year-old Melissa Pettigrew who claims she suffered “horrific” burns on her thighs after spilling a cup of hot coffee from a drive-thru.

The style of McDonald’s coffee cups have come under fire by critics who claim it is prone to spills. The company has announced it is looking into different designs, but not for safety reasons. Instead, McDonald’s is seeking more Eco-friendly styles of cups.

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According to The Telegraph, the woman had already divorced the man, but then took him back to court demanding compensation for the absence of bedroom activity.

The 51-year-old Frenchman was fined under article 215 of France’s civil code. Identified only as Jean-Louis B, he blamed “tiredness and health problems” on his lack of libido.

Apparently, though, that’s no excuse (especially in France) because the judge ruled:

A sexual relationship between husband and wife is the expression of affection they have for each other, and in this case it was absent. By getting married, couples agree to sharing their life and this clearly implies they will have sex with each other.

Talk about getting kicked when you’re down.

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Adriana Ferreyr, 28, said Soros had twice during the five years they dated promised to buy her apartments, but never followed through, according to her complaint filed Wednesday in New York State Supreme Court.

Ferreyr, now studying economics at Columbia University, said she and Soros, who turns 81 Friday and who is worth $14.5 billion, had been dating for more than three years when he promised to buy her an apartment worth nearly $2 million near his home. The pair broke up two months later and soon reconciled, but Soros told her as they lay in bed that he had given the apartment to a new girlfriend, the lawsuit said.

William Zabel, a lawyer for Soros, called the lawsuit frivolous and without merit. reuters

The post George Soros sued by ex for UES apartment ‘snub’ appeared first on Metro.us.

Lynn, 32, a Web developer who lives in Sloatsburg, N.Y., filed a lawsuit May 12 in Brooklyn Supreme Court against the MTA, as well as the G-train operators.

He said that last August, just after midnight, he was waved onto a train by a conductor at the Classon Avenue stop. But the doors closed, he said, before he was all the way in, trapping his left arm and messenger bag — and leaving his body stuck outside the train.

What happened next is a “nightmare,” his lawyer, Duncan Peterson, said.   

Running alongside the train, Lynn said he banged on the door and screamed for help, but was forced to hurl his body away from the train, breaking his own arm just before he hit the wall at the end of the platform. “He was covered in blood,” according to the legal complaint.

Lynn said he broke his elbow in three places and hit his head that night.

Follow Alison Bowen on Twitter @AlisonatMetro.

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The suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, challenge the city’s ability to close the schools for poor performance, saying the Department of Education ignored an agreement to help the schools and did not obtain the necessary approval.

Other people joining the suit include parents and elected officials. Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott called the lawsuit “shameful” and said it focused on “protecting jobs for adults at the expense of what is best for our children.”

Mayor Michael Bloom­berg is already not on enviable terms with the city’s public educators.

He’s been fighting to change the state’s “last in, first out” policy, allowing him to keep newer teachers and fire those who have seniority.

Follow Alison Bowen on Twitter @AlisonatMetro.

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Portia Walton, 54, went to the ballpark to watch the Yankees take on the Minnesota Twins on April 4, according to her attorney Les Levine. Walton was sitting outside the Hard Rock Cafe at the stadium when she put her foot down on a metal hatch on the sidewalk, which had an extension cord sticking out of it that powered outdoor lights, Levine said.

Walton said she felt an electric surge and then heard crackling.

“I felt tingling on my ankles,” she told the New York Post. “I was saying, ‘Oh my God! Oh my God!’”

Walton was treated by stadium aids. But because she continued to feel intense headaches, she was taken to a nearby hospital.

Walton claims the headaches, memory loss and tingling persist, said Levine. She is suing the Yankees and Hard Rock Cafe for $2 million.

“A woman [on April 4] alleged that she got a shock,” Yankees spokeswoman Alice McGillion told the Post. “We insisted that she go to the hospital. And as far as we know, she was treated and released.”

Follow Carly Baldwin on Twitter at @CarlyatMetro.

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The unanimous ruling held that a California lawsuit against Mazda Motor Corp. over a fatal 2002 collision involving a 1993 Mazda minivan could proceed. A passenger sitting in a rear seat and wearing a lap-only seat belt was killed.

The lawsuit by the family of the passenger, Thanh Williamson, claimed that the minivan was defectively designed because it lacked a lap-and-shoulder seat belt for the rear seat.

Mazda said it complied with federal safety regulations in effect at the time and that an appellate court in California correctly ruled the product liability lawsuit could not go forward.

The Supreme Court overturned the appellate court ruling. 

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Fernando Bermudez, who will answer questions today at a downtown press conference, said the city robbed him of half his life.

In a lawsuit filed Feb. 3, he accused the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office of misconduct and negligence, saying their shoddy prosecution landed him in jail at age 22. He did not get out until he was 40.

In 1991, Bermudez was found guilty of murdering Raymond Blount, who was killed near Union Square. Bermudez was sentenced to 23 years to life in prison.

Nearly two decades later, in 2009, a judge overturned his conviction, ruling that five key witnesses for the prosecution were coerced into lying about identifying Bermudez as the killer.
All five recanted a year after his conviction, but Bermudez still fought 11 appeals to get out of jail.

His lawyer said he wants to be compensated for the 18 years he lost in prison.

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Nassau Democrats believe that the lawsuit that seeks to block the state watchdog committee’s takeover of the county’s budget will drive down confidence in Nassau County and will result in lengthy litigation.

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The U.K.’s biggest drugmaker resolved the suit by the family of James Burford, an Avandia user who died in 2006. The resolution eliminates the risk Glaxo would face a large jury award, said Navid Malik, a drug-industry analyst at Matrix Corporate Capital in London.

Investors worried it “could lead to substantial punitive damages,” Malik said in a Jan. 25 interview. The company has already agreed to pay almost half a billion dollars to resolve claims it hid the drug’s health risks. “GSK needs to successfully settle as many of these cases as possible.”

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The NIFA board voted unanimously Wednesday to take control of the county’s finances that
allegedly are facing a $176 million deficit.

During a press conference yesterday, Peter Schmidt, presiding officer of the county legislature, admitted that he had been ordered from the Mangano administration to remove Nassau County funds, estimated at $82 million seven months ago, from a Wells Fargo bank. 

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