App doesn’t help woman win lawsuit
DETROIT (AP) — Don’t want to hear a ringing phone? There’s an app for that. But it may not help you win a lawsuit.
A Detroit federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a woman who says she was called 85 times in a six-week period and illegally harassed by a debt collector.
Yolanda Riggs accused I.C. System of violating a law called the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
Riggs used an app that notified her of certain calls without having the phone actually ring. She says she suffered emotional distress.
Judge Bernard Friedman wasn’t swayed last Thursday, saying Riggs turned off the calls at a time when her husband owed money.
The judge says it’s one of those cases that make people wonder why it’s in federal court.
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Court says officer can be sued in death
BENTON HARBOR (AP) — A Benton Harbor police officer has no immunity in the death of a crime suspect who ran into a dumpster and lacerated his liver while being chased on foot.
In a 2-1 decision last Thursday, a federal appeals court says jurors can determine whether the officer disregarded risks faced by Doyle Jackson, who was kept in a squad car for 40 minutes after an intense struggle with police and then transported to the Berrien County jail.
A nurse at the jail found Jackson unresponsive. He died at a hospital.
Jackson was drunk and had been struck with a stun gun at least a dozen times. In a dissent, Judge Alice Batchelder says there’s no evidence the officer knew Jackson had potentially life-threatening injuries after colliding with the dumpster.
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DHS ordered to release radiation reports
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that the Department of Homeland Security must release two safety reports it conducted in the 2000s evaluating the radiation safety of body-scanning machines.
The chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington, Royce Lamberth, ruled recently that the agency improperly withheld 2006 and 2008 reports in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The request was filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a public interest research center in Washington that focuses on privacy issues and civil liberties.
The reports were done on two different versions of an airport screening machine made by American Science & Engineering.
Lamberth ruled that the agency properly withheld other materials sought in the request.
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Photographer sued, accused in beating
NEW YORK (AP) — Celebrity photographer David LaChapelle has been sued for $1 million by a Montana gallery director who claims he beat and choked him.
According to the lawsuit, the Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone photographer attacked James Parmenter at a Manhattan apartment in March 2012.
It says Parmenter was chocked “to the point of unconsciousness.”
The New York Post reports that LaChapelle’s representative denied the allegations.
LaChapelle has taken portraits of Elizabeth Taylor, Madonna and other celebrities.
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