Florida
Ex-Jaguars worker who stole $22M from team sues FanDuel
A former financial manager for the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars who stole $22 million from the team is suing FanDuel for $250 million, saying the betting company preyed on his gambling addiction.
Amit Patel, who is serving a 6 1/2-year prison sentence in South Carolina, filed a lawsuit Tuesday in federal court in New York claiming that FanDuel ignored its own responsible gambling and anti-money laundering protocols, knew Patel was an employee of the NFL team and therefore not eligible to gamble legally, and knew that the $20 million he wagered on years of daily fantasy sports contests was either stolen or not from a legitimate source.
FanDuel declined comment, citing the pending litigation.
The lawsuit claimed FanDuel gave Patel over $1.1 million in gambling credits, and besieged him with enticements to gamble more, including having his personal host contact him up to 100 times a day.
“The complaint certainly does not claim the addicted gambler is blameless, but the suit does try to apportion responsibility in a way that accounts for FanDuel’s very active involvement in his gambling addiction,” said Patel’s lawyer, Matthew Litt.
The lawsuit says that on several occasions when Patel had not yet placed a bet that day, his host called him to ask why not. These communications started early in the morning and went late into the night, the lawsuit asserts.
It says New York-based FanDuel lavished gifts on Patel, including trips to the Super Bowl, the Masters golf tournament, auto racing and college basketball tournaments.
Patel pleaded guilty in December to wire fraud and other charges, and he agreed to repay the money he stole from the team.
His lawsuit closely resembles other legal actions brought in recent years by compulsive gamblers who blamed casinos or online gambling companies of preying on their addictions.
In September 2008, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by a former New York attorney who claimed seven casinos had a legal duty to stop her from gambling when they knew she was addicted to it.
And in February, a lawsuit brought by the same attorney who is representing Patel in the current one against FanDuel was dismissed after claiming Atlantic City casinos had a legal duty to cut off compulsive gamblers.
Similar lawsuits have been dismissed in other states.
New Hampshire
Parents sue district following wristband protest over transgender girl at soccer game
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Three parents and a grandparent have sued a New Hampshire school district, saying their rights were violated when they were barred from school grounds for wearing pink wristbands with “XX,” representing the female chromosome pair, in protest of a transgender girl playing in a girls soccer game.
The lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Concord followed a Sept. 17 match at Bow High School against Plymouth Regional High School. A 15-year-old transgender girl is playing on the Plymouth team as she and another teen challenge a New Hampshire ban in court.
Two of the parents whose daughters play for Bow wore the wristbands during the second half of the game to “silently express their opinion about the importance of reserving women’s sports for biological females,” according to their lawsuit filed by attorneys from the Institute for Free Speech.
The lawsuit said school officials and a local police officer confronted the parents during the game, telling them to remove the wristbands or leave. The plaintiffs refused, citing their First Amendment rights, then said they were threatened with arrest for trespassing.
At one point, the referee stopped the game and said that Bow High School would forfeit if the plaintiffs did not remove their wristbands, the lawsuit said. The wristbands were removed and the game resumed.
Following the game, the two parents received “No Trespass Orders” banning them from school grounds and events, the lawsuit said. One was banned for a week, the other for the fall term.
“Parents don’t shed their First Amendment rights at the entrance to a school’s soccer field. We wore pink wristbands to silently support our daughters and their right to fair competition,” Kyle Fellers, one of the plaintiffs who said he received a no-trespass order, said in a statement. “Instead of fostering open dialogue, school officials responded with threats and bans that have a direct impact on our lives and our children’s lives.”
The lawsuit says it seeks to prevent what it describes as the unconstitutional application of several school policies, including those requiring “mutual respect, civility, and orderly conduct” and prohibiting actions that “injure, threaten, harass, or intimidate” or “impede, delay, disrupt, or otherwise interfere with any school activity or function.”
In addition to the school district, the lawsuit names as defendants district Superintendent Marcy Kelley, Bow High School Principal Matt Fisk, school athletic director Michael Desilets, as well as the police officer and referee.
“At this time, we have no comment,” Kelley said in an email Tuesday when asked if she, other members of the school district, or an attorney representing them, wanted to respond to the lawsuit. Emails sent to the police officer and to the organization representing the referee were not immediately answered.
An email seeking comment from the attorney representing the transgender athlete also was not immediately returned.
Bow School Board chairperson Bryce Larrabee mentioned the lawsuit at a meeting Monday night and said the board would not be commenting on it. Kelley, who attended the meeting, also did not comment on the lawsuit.
Audience members spoke in favor and against the protesters during the public comment period.
“You just silenced someone who had a different opinion,” one man said.
Criticizing those who wore the pink wristbands during the game, the parent of a player on the Bow team said, “This is not the right way to go about doing things.”
Vermont
Facing more clergy abuse lawsuits, church files for bankruptcy
Vermont’s Catholic church has filed for bankruptcy protection as it faces more than 30 lawsuits alleging child sex abuse by clergy decades ago, according to a filing in federal bankruptcy court.
Since 2006, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, the state’s only diocese, has settled 67 lawsuits for a total of $34 million, Bishop John McDermott said in the court filing on Monday. Twenty of those were settled after the Legislature in 2019 removed the statue of limitations on when a claim could be made and the diocese faces 31 more, according to McDermott’s affidavit.
A 2019 report released by the diocese found there were “credible and substantiated” allegations of the sexual abuse of minors against 40 priests in the state since 1950. All but one of those allegations occurred prior to 2000, and none of the priests was still in ministry, the report said. Most of the priests who were named in the report were dead.
To pay the settlements going back to 2006, the diocese, which has 63 parishes and currently employs approximately 54 people, has sold church property, received some insurance funds and more recently used its investments and operating funds, the affidavit states.
“Due to the lack of insurance coverage and the Diocese’s depleted assets, the Diocese is concerned that too large of a settlement with a select group of pending cases or a judgment in favor of a single plaintiff could leave the Diocese with insufficient assets to fairly compensate other survivors and creditors, resulting in a disproportionate allocation of the limited funds available to the Diocese,” according to the affidavit.
The Vermont diocese says the goals of the bankruptcy case is “to fairly and equitably fulfill the Diocese’s obligations to all survivors of sexual abuse.” It says the civil court litigation and claims have been costly and will likely increase with the number of claims it faces.
John Evers, a lawyer representing some of the plaintiffs, said Tuesday that he and other attorneys in the cases, look forward to getting more information about the church’s assets.
“We expect there will be a fair amount of litigation through the bankruptcy proceeding where efforts are made to try and get the full picture of what the assets are and not just what the diocese has said or has listed in their financial statements or has said otherwise publicly,” he said.
In addition to Vermont, 32 U.S. dioceses and three religious orders have filed for bankruptcy protection, according to the group BishopAccountability.org.
Indiana
Appeals court reinstates lawsuit against TikTok alleging child safety concerns
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana Court of Appeals has reinstated a lawsuit filed by the state accusing TikTok of deceiving its users about the video-sharing platform’s level of inappropriate content for children and the security of its consumers’ personal information.
In a 3-0 ruling issued Monday, a three-judge panel of the state appeals court reversed two November 2023 decisions by an Allen County judge which dismissed a pair of lawsuits the state had filed in December 2022 against TikTok.
Those suits, which have been consolidated, allege the app contains “salacious and inappropriate content” despite the company claiming it is safe for children 13 years and under. The litigation also argues that the app deceives consumers into believing their sensitive and personal information is secure.
In November’s ruling, Allen Superior Court Judge Jennifer L. DeGroote found that her court lacked personal jurisdiction over the case and reaffirmed a previous court ruling which found that downloading a free app does not count as a consumer transaction under the Indiana Deceptive Consumer Sales Act.
But in Monday’s ruling, Judge Paul Mathias wrote on behalf of the appeals court that TikTok’s millions of Indiana users and the $46 million in Indiana-based income the company reported in 2021 create sufficient contact between the company and the state to establish the jurisdiction of Indiana’s courts over TikTok, The Times of Northwest Indiana reported.
Mathias also wrote that TikTok’s business model of providing access to its video content library in exchange for the personal data of its Indiana users counts as a “consumer transaction” under the law, even if no payment is involved.
“The plain and ordinary definition of the word ‘sale,’ which is not otherwise defined in the DCSA, includes any consideration to effectuate the transfer of property, not only an exchange for money,” Mathias wrote.
“It is undisputed that TikTok exchanges access to its app’s content library for end-user personal data. That is the bargain between TikTok and its end-users. And, under the plain and ordinary use of the word, that is a ‘sale’ of access to TikTok’s content library for the end-user’s personal data. TikTok’s business model is therefore a consumer transaction under the DCSA.”
A spokesperson for the Indiana Attorney General’s office said Tuesday in a statement that the appeals court “took a common sense approach and agreed with our office’s argument that there’s simply no serious question that Indiana has established specific personal jurisdiction over TikTok.”
“By earning more $46 million dollars from Hoosier consumers in 2021, TikTok is doing business in the state and is therefore subject to this lawsuit,” the statement adds.
The Associated Press left a message Tuesday afternoon for a lead attorney for TikTok seeking comment on the appeals court’s ruling.
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020. The app has been a target over the past year of state and federal lawmakers who say the Chinese government could access the app’s users’ data.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has repeatedly personally urged Hoosiers to “patriotically delete” the TikTok app due to its supposed ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
Ex-Jaguars worker who stole $22M from team sues FanDuel
A former financial manager for the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars who stole $22 million from the team is suing FanDuel for $250 million, saying the betting company preyed on his gambling addiction.
Amit Patel, who is serving a 6 1/2-year prison sentence in South Carolina, filed a lawsuit Tuesday in federal court in New York claiming that FanDuel ignored its own responsible gambling and anti-money laundering protocols, knew Patel was an employee of the NFL team and therefore not eligible to gamble legally, and knew that the $20 million he wagered on years of daily fantasy sports contests was either stolen or not from a legitimate source.
FanDuel declined comment, citing the pending litigation.
The lawsuit claimed FanDuel gave Patel over $1.1 million in gambling credits, and besieged him with enticements to gamble more, including having his personal host contact him up to 100 times a day.
“The complaint certainly does not claim the addicted gambler is blameless, but the suit does try to apportion responsibility in a way that accounts for FanDuel’s very active involvement in his gambling addiction,” said Patel’s lawyer, Matthew Litt.
The lawsuit says that on several occasions when Patel had not yet placed a bet that day, his host called him to ask why not. These communications started early in the morning and went late into the night, the lawsuit asserts.
It says New York-based FanDuel lavished gifts on Patel, including trips to the Super Bowl, the Masters golf tournament, auto racing and college basketball tournaments.
Patel pleaded guilty in December to wire fraud and other charges, and he agreed to repay the money he stole from the team.
His lawsuit closely resembles other legal actions brought in recent years by compulsive gamblers who blamed casinos or online gambling companies of preying on their addictions.
In September 2008, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by a former New York attorney who claimed seven casinos had a legal duty to stop her from gambling when they knew she was addicted to it.
And in February, a lawsuit brought by the same attorney who is representing Patel in the current one against FanDuel was dismissed after claiming Atlantic City casinos had a legal duty to cut off compulsive gamblers.
Similar lawsuits have been dismissed in other states.
New Hampshire
Parents sue district following wristband protest over transgender girl at soccer game
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Three parents and a grandparent have sued a New Hampshire school district, saying their rights were violated when they were barred from school grounds for wearing pink wristbands with “XX,” representing the female chromosome pair, in protest of a transgender girl playing in a girls soccer game.
The lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Concord followed a Sept. 17 match at Bow High School against Plymouth Regional High School. A 15-year-old transgender girl is playing on the Plymouth team as she and another teen challenge a New Hampshire ban in court.
Two of the parents whose daughters play for Bow wore the wristbands during the second half of the game to “silently express their opinion about the importance of reserving women’s sports for biological females,” according to their lawsuit filed by attorneys from the Institute for Free Speech.
The lawsuit said school officials and a local police officer confronted the parents during the game, telling them to remove the wristbands or leave. The plaintiffs refused, citing their First Amendment rights, then said they were threatened with arrest for trespassing.
At one point, the referee stopped the game and said that Bow High School would forfeit if the plaintiffs did not remove their wristbands, the lawsuit said. The wristbands were removed and the game resumed.
Following the game, the two parents received “No Trespass Orders” banning them from school grounds and events, the lawsuit said. One was banned for a week, the other for the fall term.
“Parents don’t shed their First Amendment rights at the entrance to a school’s soccer field. We wore pink wristbands to silently support our daughters and their right to fair competition,” Kyle Fellers, one of the plaintiffs who said he received a no-trespass order, said in a statement. “Instead of fostering open dialogue, school officials responded with threats and bans that have a direct impact on our lives and our children’s lives.”
The lawsuit says it seeks to prevent what it describes as the unconstitutional application of several school policies, including those requiring “mutual respect, civility, and orderly conduct” and prohibiting actions that “injure, threaten, harass, or intimidate” or “impede, delay, disrupt, or otherwise interfere with any school activity or function.”
In addition to the school district, the lawsuit names as defendants district Superintendent Marcy Kelley, Bow High School Principal Matt Fisk, school athletic director Michael Desilets, as well as the police officer and referee.
“At this time, we have no comment,” Kelley said in an email Tuesday when asked if she, other members of the school district, or an attorney representing them, wanted to respond to the lawsuit. Emails sent to the police officer and to the organization representing the referee were not immediately answered.
An email seeking comment from the attorney representing the transgender athlete also was not immediately returned.
Bow School Board chairperson Bryce Larrabee mentioned the lawsuit at a meeting Monday night and said the board would not be commenting on it. Kelley, who attended the meeting, also did not comment on the lawsuit.
Audience members spoke in favor and against the protesters during the public comment period.
“You just silenced someone who had a different opinion,” one man said.
Criticizing those who wore the pink wristbands during the game, the parent of a player on the Bow team said, “This is not the right way to go about doing things.”
Vermont
Facing more clergy abuse lawsuits, church files for bankruptcy
Vermont’s Catholic church has filed for bankruptcy protection as it faces more than 30 lawsuits alleging child sex abuse by clergy decades ago, according to a filing in federal bankruptcy court.
Since 2006, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, the state’s only diocese, has settled 67 lawsuits for a total of $34 million, Bishop John McDermott said in the court filing on Monday. Twenty of those were settled after the Legislature in 2019 removed the statue of limitations on when a claim could be made and the diocese faces 31 more, according to McDermott’s affidavit.
A 2019 report released by the diocese found there were “credible and substantiated” allegations of the sexual abuse of minors against 40 priests in the state since 1950. All but one of those allegations occurred prior to 2000, and none of the priests was still in ministry, the report said. Most of the priests who were named in the report were dead.
To pay the settlements going back to 2006, the diocese, which has 63 parishes and currently employs approximately 54 people, has sold church property, received some insurance funds and more recently used its investments and operating funds, the affidavit states.
“Due to the lack of insurance coverage and the Diocese’s depleted assets, the Diocese is concerned that too large of a settlement with a select group of pending cases or a judgment in favor of a single plaintiff could leave the Diocese with insufficient assets to fairly compensate other survivors and creditors, resulting in a disproportionate allocation of the limited funds available to the Diocese,” according to the affidavit.
The Vermont diocese says the goals of the bankruptcy case is “to fairly and equitably fulfill the Diocese’s obligations to all survivors of sexual abuse.” It says the civil court litigation and claims have been costly and will likely increase with the number of claims it faces.
John Evers, a lawyer representing some of the plaintiffs, said Tuesday that he and other attorneys in the cases, look forward to getting more information about the church’s assets.
“We expect there will be a fair amount of litigation through the bankruptcy proceeding where efforts are made to try and get the full picture of what the assets are and not just what the diocese has said or has listed in their financial statements or has said otherwise publicly,” he said.
In addition to Vermont, 32 U.S. dioceses and three religious orders have filed for bankruptcy protection, according to the group BishopAccountability.org.
Indiana
Appeals court reinstates lawsuit against TikTok alleging child safety concerns
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana Court of Appeals has reinstated a lawsuit filed by the state accusing TikTok of deceiving its users about the video-sharing platform’s level of inappropriate content for children and the security of its consumers’ personal information.
In a 3-0 ruling issued Monday, a three-judge panel of the state appeals court reversed two November 2023 decisions by an Allen County judge which dismissed a pair of lawsuits the state had filed in December 2022 against TikTok.
Those suits, which have been consolidated, allege the app contains “salacious and inappropriate content” despite the company claiming it is safe for children 13 years and under. The litigation also argues that the app deceives consumers into believing their sensitive and personal information is secure.
In November’s ruling, Allen Superior Court Judge Jennifer L. DeGroote found that her court lacked personal jurisdiction over the case and reaffirmed a previous court ruling which found that downloading a free app does not count as a consumer transaction under the Indiana Deceptive Consumer Sales Act.
But in Monday’s ruling, Judge Paul Mathias wrote on behalf of the appeals court that TikTok’s millions of Indiana users and the $46 million in Indiana-based income the company reported in 2021 create sufficient contact between the company and the state to establish the jurisdiction of Indiana’s courts over TikTok, The Times of Northwest Indiana reported.
Mathias also wrote that TikTok’s business model of providing access to its video content library in exchange for the personal data of its Indiana users counts as a “consumer transaction” under the law, even if no payment is involved.
“The plain and ordinary definition of the word ‘sale,’ which is not otherwise defined in the DCSA, includes any consideration to effectuate the transfer of property, not only an exchange for money,” Mathias wrote.
“It is undisputed that TikTok exchanges access to its app’s content library for end-user personal data. That is the bargain between TikTok and its end-users. And, under the plain and ordinary use of the word, that is a ‘sale’ of access to TikTok’s content library for the end-user’s personal data. TikTok’s business model is therefore a consumer transaction under the DCSA.”
A spokesperson for the Indiana Attorney General’s office said Tuesday in a statement that the appeals court “took a common sense approach and agreed with our office’s argument that there’s simply no serious question that Indiana has established specific personal jurisdiction over TikTok.”
“By earning more $46 million dollars from Hoosier consumers in 2021, TikTok is doing business in the state and is therefore subject to this lawsuit,” the statement adds.
The Associated Press left a message Tuesday afternoon for a lead attorney for TikTok seeking comment on the appeals court’s ruling.
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020. The app has been a target over the past year of state and federal lawmakers who say the Chinese government could access the app’s users’ data.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has repeatedly personally urged Hoosiers to “patriotically delete” the TikTok app due to its supposed ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
