California
San Diego State University frat members charged after pledge set on fire at party, prosecutors say
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Four fraternity members at San Diego State University are facing felony charges in connection with a skit performed at a party last year during which a pledge was set on fire, causing third-degree burns that covered over 16 percent of his body, prosecutors said.
Caden Cooper, 22; Lucas Cowling, 20; Christopher Serrano, 20; and Lars Larsen, 19 were all charged with at least one felony Monday in San Diego Superior Court. All pleaded not guilty.
The four included active members and pledges of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. The fraternity did not immediately respond to an email from the Associated Press requesting to speak to them. A voicemail was left with attorney Michael Malowney, who is representing Cooper, asking for comment. A similar message was also left with the office of Jay Temple, who is representing Cowling. Serrano and Larsen are being represented by unnamed public defenders.
Over the years, SDSU fraternities have had several problems that have prompted investigations, and at least a half a dozen have been put on probation over the past two years, according to the university’s website. In 2020, the university investigated allegations whether a frat leader promoted blackout drinking. It came a year after the death of a freshman who fell out of a bunk bed and cracked his skull after a night of drinking with his fraternity.
The fraternity was already on probation by the university for violating its policies on alcohol and hazing when its members planned a large party at the fraternity house Feb. 17, 2024, that involved a skit in which Serrano would set Larsen on fire, according to the San Diego County District Attorney’s office.
Cowling, Serrano and Larsen planned the skit, during which Serrano would set Larsen on fire, prosecutors said. Larsen spent weeks in the hospital for treatment of third-degree burns, mostly to his legs.
Afterwards, prosecutors said Larsen, Cooper, and Cowling lied to law enforcement officers investigating the incident and deleted evidence on social media, and instructed other fraternity members to delete evidence and not talk to anyone about it, prosecutors said.
The charges include recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury, conspiracy to commit an act injurious to the public, and violating the social host ordinance. If convicted of all the charges, the defendants could face up to seven years, two months in prison.
At the time of the incident, Cooper was the fraternity’s president, Cowling was on the Pledge Board, and Serrano and Larsen were pledges, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Larsen and Serrano, who were not of legal drinking age, also consumed alcohol before the skit in Cowling’s presence.
The four were released from jail, but they were ordered to not to participate in any fraternity parties, recruitment events for the fraternity, and to adhere to alcohol laws. They were also ordered to return to court March 18 to prepare for a preliminary hearing set for April 16.
California
Exxon sues state AG for defamation over plastic recycling claims
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Exxon Mobil Corp. filed a federal defamation lawsuit against California Attorney General Rob Bonta and several environmental groups, months after Bonta sued the oil and gas giant alleging that it deceived the public for half a century by promising the plastics it produced would be recycled.
The Texas-based company said in its lawsuit, filed Monday in that state’s Eastern District, that Bonta, the Sierra Club, San Francisco Baykeeper, Heal the Bay and the Surfrider Foundation conspired to defame it with statements regarding the efficacy of its plastic recycling technology.
“Together, Bonta and the US Proxies — the former for political gain and the latter pawns for the Foreign Interests — have engaged in a deliberate smear campaign against ExxonMobil, falsely claiming that ExxonMobil’s effective and innovative advanced recycling technology is a ‘false promise’ and ‘not based on truth,’” the company said in its lawsuit.
It seeks unspecified damages and retractions of “defamatory statements” from Bonta and the groups.
A spokesperson for the California Department of Justice called the lawsuit “another attempt from ExxonMobil to deflect attention from its own unlawful deception” and said Bonta looks forward to “vigorously litigating” the case.
In its lawsuit filed in September, Bonta’s office said that less than 5% of plastic is recycled into another plastic product in the U.S. even though the items are labeled as “recyclable.”
As a result landfills and oceans are filled with plastic waste, creating a global pollution crisis, while consumers diligently place plastic water bottles and other containers into recycling bins, the lawsuit alleges.
Colorado
DOJ accuses six major landlords of scheming to keep rents high
DENVER (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department is suing several large landlords for allegedly coordinating to keep Americans’ rents high by using both an algorithm to help set rents and privately sharing sensitive information with their competitors to boost profits.
The lawsuit arrives as U.S. renters continue to struggle under a merciless housing market, with incomes failing to keep up with rent increases. The latest figures show that half of American renters spent more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities in 2022, an all-time high.
That means exhausting, day-to-day decisions between medications, groceries, school supplies and rent. It means eviction notices and protracted court cases in which children face the highest eviction rates, with 1.5 million evicted each year, according to Princeton University’s Eviction Lab.
While the housing crisis has been assigned several causes, including a slump in homes built over the last decade, the Justice Department’s lawsuit claims major landlords are playing a part.
The department, along with 10 states including North Carolina, Tennessee, Colorado and California, is accusing six landlords that collectively operate more than 1.3 million units in 43 states and the District of Columbia of scheming to avoid lowering rents.
The landlord Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC, a defendant in the case, declined a request for comment from The Associated Press, but published an unsigned statement on its website.
“Greystar has and will conduct its business with the utmost integrity. At no time did Greystar engage in any anti-competitive practices,” the statement read. “We will vigorously defend ourselves in this lawsuit.”
The lawsuit accuses the landlords of sharing sensitive data on rents and occupancy with competing firms via email, phone calls or in groups. The information shared allegedly included renewal rates, how often they accept an algorithm’s price recommendation, the use of concessions such as offering one month free, and even their approach to pricing for the next quarter.
The Justice Department said one of the six landlords agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. The proposed settlement would restrict how the company can use their competitors’ data and algorithms to set rents.
“Today’s action against RealPage and six major landlords seeks to end their practice of putting profits over people and make housing more affordable for millions of people across the country,” said Doha Mekki, the acting assistant attorney general for the department’s antitrust division in Tuesday’s press release.
Those landlords were added to an existing lawsuit against RealPage, which runs an algorithm that recommends rental prices to landlords. Prosecutors say the algorithm uses sensitive competitive information, allowing landlords to align their prices and avoid competition that would otherwise push down rents.
Jennifer Bowcock, RealPage’s senior vice president for communications, said in a statement to the AP that their software is used on fewer than 10% of rental units in the U.S., and that their price recommendations are used less than half the time.
“It’s past time to stop scapegoating RealPage — and now our customers -- for housing affordability problems when the root cause of high housing costs is the under-supply of housing,” Bowcock said.
New York
Man acquitted in NYC subway chokehold case seeks dismissal of suit brought by victim’s father
NEW YORK (AP) — The former U.S. Marine acquitted last month of criminal charges in the death of a man on a New York City subway train is seeking to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the victim’s father.
Daniel Penny’ s lawyer, in a court filing Monday, said his client denies the lawsuit’s claims that the 26-year-old is culpable for civil damages for using a chokehold on Jordan Neely while Neely was shouting and acting erratically on a crowded train on May 1, 2023.
Andre Zachery, in a suit filed last month before a jury cleared Penny in the criminal trial, accused the Long Island native of negligence, assault and battery for placing his 30-year-old son in a chokehold for about six minutes, leading to his son’s death.
But Penny’s lawyer Steven Raiser, in his legal filing, said “all injuries or damages” were caused by Neely’s “culpable conduct, negligence, carelessness, and lack of care.”
Raiser, in a statement, said Penny continues to maintain his innocence and that his acquittal “underscored New Yorkers’ belief in their right to defend themselves and their neighbors from random violence.”
“We are committed to defending this ill-conceived civil action brought by Jordan Neely’s estranged father with same the vigor with which we defended the criminal case,” he added.
Lawyers for Zachery didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday, but have previously noted that civil court cases have a lower burden of proof than criminal ones.
Zachery seeks unspecified damages in the suit filed in state Supreme Court.
The case sparked national debate, with some hailing Penny as a hero who subdued a threatening man while others saw him as a white vigilante who choked a Black man to death.
A Manhattan jury cleared Penny of criminally negligent homicide. A more serious manslaughter charge was dismissed when the jury deadlocked on that count.
Penny, who served four years in the Marines before going on to study architecture, didn’t testify in his own defense. But he said in an interview after the verdict that he put himself in a “very vulnerable position” in the encounter with Neely yet still felt compelled to act.
San Diego State University frat members charged after pledge set on fire at party, prosecutors say
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Four fraternity members at San Diego State University are facing felony charges in connection with a skit performed at a party last year during which a pledge was set on fire, causing third-degree burns that covered over 16 percent of his body, prosecutors said.
Caden Cooper, 22; Lucas Cowling, 20; Christopher Serrano, 20; and Lars Larsen, 19 were all charged with at least one felony Monday in San Diego Superior Court. All pleaded not guilty.
The four included active members and pledges of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. The fraternity did not immediately respond to an email from the Associated Press requesting to speak to them. A voicemail was left with attorney Michael Malowney, who is representing Cooper, asking for comment. A similar message was also left with the office of Jay Temple, who is representing Cowling. Serrano and Larsen are being represented by unnamed public defenders.
Over the years, SDSU fraternities have had several problems that have prompted investigations, and at least a half a dozen have been put on probation over the past two years, according to the university’s website. In 2020, the university investigated allegations whether a frat leader promoted blackout drinking. It came a year after the death of a freshman who fell out of a bunk bed and cracked his skull after a night of drinking with his fraternity.
The fraternity was already on probation by the university for violating its policies on alcohol and hazing when its members planned a large party at the fraternity house Feb. 17, 2024, that involved a skit in which Serrano would set Larsen on fire, according to the San Diego County District Attorney’s office.
Cowling, Serrano and Larsen planned the skit, during which Serrano would set Larsen on fire, prosecutors said. Larsen spent weeks in the hospital for treatment of third-degree burns, mostly to his legs.
Afterwards, prosecutors said Larsen, Cooper, and Cowling lied to law enforcement officers investigating the incident and deleted evidence on social media, and instructed other fraternity members to delete evidence and not talk to anyone about it, prosecutors said.
The charges include recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury, conspiracy to commit an act injurious to the public, and violating the social host ordinance. If convicted of all the charges, the defendants could face up to seven years, two months in prison.
At the time of the incident, Cooper was the fraternity’s president, Cowling was on the Pledge Board, and Serrano and Larsen were pledges, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Larsen and Serrano, who were not of legal drinking age, also consumed alcohol before the skit in Cowling’s presence.
The four were released from jail, but they were ordered to not to participate in any fraternity parties, recruitment events for the fraternity, and to adhere to alcohol laws. They were also ordered to return to court March 18 to prepare for a preliminary hearing set for April 16.
California
Exxon sues state AG for defamation over plastic recycling claims
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Exxon Mobil Corp. filed a federal defamation lawsuit against California Attorney General Rob Bonta and several environmental groups, months after Bonta sued the oil and gas giant alleging that it deceived the public for half a century by promising the plastics it produced would be recycled.
The Texas-based company said in its lawsuit, filed Monday in that state’s Eastern District, that Bonta, the Sierra Club, San Francisco Baykeeper, Heal the Bay and the Surfrider Foundation conspired to defame it with statements regarding the efficacy of its plastic recycling technology.
“Together, Bonta and the US Proxies — the former for political gain and the latter pawns for the Foreign Interests — have engaged in a deliberate smear campaign against ExxonMobil, falsely claiming that ExxonMobil’s effective and innovative advanced recycling technology is a ‘false promise’ and ‘not based on truth,’” the company said in its lawsuit.
It seeks unspecified damages and retractions of “defamatory statements” from Bonta and the groups.
A spokesperson for the California Department of Justice called the lawsuit “another attempt from ExxonMobil to deflect attention from its own unlawful deception” and said Bonta looks forward to “vigorously litigating” the case.
In its lawsuit filed in September, Bonta’s office said that less than 5% of plastic is recycled into another plastic product in the U.S. even though the items are labeled as “recyclable.”
As a result landfills and oceans are filled with plastic waste, creating a global pollution crisis, while consumers diligently place plastic water bottles and other containers into recycling bins, the lawsuit alleges.
Colorado
DOJ accuses six major landlords of scheming to keep rents high
DENVER (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department is suing several large landlords for allegedly coordinating to keep Americans’ rents high by using both an algorithm to help set rents and privately sharing sensitive information with their competitors to boost profits.
The lawsuit arrives as U.S. renters continue to struggle under a merciless housing market, with incomes failing to keep up with rent increases. The latest figures show that half of American renters spent more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities in 2022, an all-time high.
That means exhausting, day-to-day decisions between medications, groceries, school supplies and rent. It means eviction notices and protracted court cases in which children face the highest eviction rates, with 1.5 million evicted each year, according to Princeton University’s Eviction Lab.
While the housing crisis has been assigned several causes, including a slump in homes built over the last decade, the Justice Department’s lawsuit claims major landlords are playing a part.
The department, along with 10 states including North Carolina, Tennessee, Colorado and California, is accusing six landlords that collectively operate more than 1.3 million units in 43 states and the District of Columbia of scheming to avoid lowering rents.
The landlord Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC, a defendant in the case, declined a request for comment from The Associated Press, but published an unsigned statement on its website.
“Greystar has and will conduct its business with the utmost integrity. At no time did Greystar engage in any anti-competitive practices,” the statement read. “We will vigorously defend ourselves in this lawsuit.”
The lawsuit accuses the landlords of sharing sensitive data on rents and occupancy with competing firms via email, phone calls or in groups. The information shared allegedly included renewal rates, how often they accept an algorithm’s price recommendation, the use of concessions such as offering one month free, and even their approach to pricing for the next quarter.
The Justice Department said one of the six landlords agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. The proposed settlement would restrict how the company can use their competitors’ data and algorithms to set rents.
“Today’s action against RealPage and six major landlords seeks to end their practice of putting profits over people and make housing more affordable for millions of people across the country,” said Doha Mekki, the acting assistant attorney general for the department’s antitrust division in Tuesday’s press release.
Those landlords were added to an existing lawsuit against RealPage, which runs an algorithm that recommends rental prices to landlords. Prosecutors say the algorithm uses sensitive competitive information, allowing landlords to align their prices and avoid competition that would otherwise push down rents.
Jennifer Bowcock, RealPage’s senior vice president for communications, said in a statement to the AP that their software is used on fewer than 10% of rental units in the U.S., and that their price recommendations are used less than half the time.
“It’s past time to stop scapegoating RealPage — and now our customers -- for housing affordability problems when the root cause of high housing costs is the under-supply of housing,” Bowcock said.
New York
Man acquitted in NYC subway chokehold case seeks dismissal of suit brought by victim’s father
NEW YORK (AP) — The former U.S. Marine acquitted last month of criminal charges in the death of a man on a New York City subway train is seeking to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the victim’s father.
Daniel Penny’ s lawyer, in a court filing Monday, said his client denies the lawsuit’s claims that the 26-year-old is culpable for civil damages for using a chokehold on Jordan Neely while Neely was shouting and acting erratically on a crowded train on May 1, 2023.
Andre Zachery, in a suit filed last month before a jury cleared Penny in the criminal trial, accused the Long Island native of negligence, assault and battery for placing his 30-year-old son in a chokehold for about six minutes, leading to his son’s death.
But Penny’s lawyer Steven Raiser, in his legal filing, said “all injuries or damages” were caused by Neely’s “culpable conduct, negligence, carelessness, and lack of care.”
Raiser, in a statement, said Penny continues to maintain his innocence and that his acquittal “underscored New Yorkers’ belief in their right to defend themselves and their neighbors from random violence.”
“We are committed to defending this ill-conceived civil action brought by Jordan Neely’s estranged father with same the vigor with which we defended the criminal case,” he added.
Lawyers for Zachery didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday, but have previously noted that civil court cases have a lower burden of proof than criminal ones.
Zachery seeks unspecified damages in the suit filed in state Supreme Court.
The case sparked national debate, with some hailing Penny as a hero who subdued a threatening man while others saw him as a white vigilante who choked a Black man to death.
A Manhattan jury cleared Penny of criminally negligent homicide. A more serious manslaughter charge was dismissed when the jury deadlocked on that count.
Penny, who served four years in the Marines before going on to study architecture, didn’t testify in his own defense. But he said in an interview after the verdict that he put himself in a “very vulnerable position” in the encounter with Neely yet still felt compelled to act.
