Pennsylvania
Lawsuit filed over 2 deaths in air ambulance crash
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The families of two of the eight people killed earlier this year when an air ambulance crashed in Philadelphia filed a lawsuit on Monday, claiming the medical air transport company and others negligently caused their deaths.
The wrongful death case was filed by the estates of Dr. Raul Meza Arredondo, a pediatrician, and Lizeth Murillo Osuna, the mother of a girl who was flying home to Mexico after being treated at a Philadelphia hospital.
All six people on board the Learjet 55 were killed, along with two people on the ground. More than 20 people were hurt.
About a minute after takeoff from Northeast Philadelphia Airport on Jan. 31, the Tijuana, Mexico-bound plane crashed into a busy neighborhood, “erupting in a massive explosion that engulfed multiple vehicles and houses and sent fiery debris raining down on terrified and helpless bystanders,” the plaintiffs alleged in the lawsuit.
The crash occurred near Roosevelt Mall, an outdoor shopping center in the Rhawnhurst neighborhood.
The National Transportation Safety Board has said the voice recorder on the plane was not working and that the crew made no distress calls to air traffic control.
The defendants are the Guadalajara air ambulance company, Med Jets, S.A. de C.V., which does business as Jet Rescue, along with unspecified others who were responsible for the plane’s design, manufacture, maintenance and inspection.
Messages seeking comment were left Monday for a Jet Rescue spokesman, for lawyers listed as representing Med Jets in a related federal lawsuit, and for a Jet Rescue Air Ambulance facility in Florida.
Arredondo and Osuna were both described in the lawsuit as Mexican citizens. Arredondo lived in Atizapan de Zaragoza, Osuna in Ensenada.
Massachusetts
State Police loses $6.8M judgment in lawsuit accusing it of discrimination
BOSTON (AP) — A jury has ordered the Massachusetts State Police to pay $6.8 million after a finding that it discriminated against female and minority troopers.
The verdict confirmed Tuesday by a Suffolk Superior Court clerk came in a lawsuit accusing the agency’s leadership of enabling a discriminatory process for hiring and promotions that kept women and people of color from rising through the ranks.
The 2016 lawsuit accused leadership of handpicking candidates for jobs before they were posted and enabling a “pattern of discriminatory practices that prevent many from obtaining choice assignments throughout the department.”
A group of current and former state troopers that included women, Black and Hispanic officers, said employees who were not male or white were regularly passed over for promotions that went to white men who were less qualified with more extensive disciplinary records.
In a statement Tuesday, the Massachusetts State Police said it has changed the way it operates and remains committed to building a department “at every rank that reflects the communities we serve.”
“We continue to implement promotional processes that align the Department with national best practices and strengthen our workforce by elevating candidates who not only possess the necessary skills and experience, but also uphold the values essential to delivering excellent police services,” the agency said.
In September 2018, about 5% of the state police force were women and just under 10% were minorities, according to the lawsuit, which said the state had “created, maintained, and enforced substantial headwinds that fly against the possibility of having a diverse force.”
The agency has been under scrutiny in recent years, including an overtime scandal that implicated dozens of current and retired troopers. State Trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator in the Karen Read case, was fired after a disciplinary board found he had sent sexist and crude texts about her to his family and colleagues.
Earlier this year, a former state police sergeant was found guilty of taking part in a scheme to take bribes, including a new snowblower and a driveway, in exchange for giving passing scores on commercial driving tests.
California
Police investigate new sex battery allegation against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said it’s investigating a new sexual battery allegation against hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is serving a four-year prison sentence on prostitution-related convictions.
A male music producer and publicist said he was asked in late 2020 to come to a photo shoot involving clothing belonging to the late rapper Notorious B.I.G. at a Los Angeles warehouse, according to a police report. Once there, Combs exposed himself, told the man to perform a sex act, then tossed a dirty shirt that once belonged to the rapper at the man, according to the police report.
The accuser, whose name is redacted from the police report, said he did not tell anyone for several years because he felt embarrassed. He came forward to police in Largo, Florida, this September, shortly after Combs was convicted on other charges.
Combs rejects the latest allegations, his civil attorney, Jonathan Davis, said in a statement in which he also said he could not address every “meritless allegation.”
“Let me make it absolutely clear, Mr. Combs categorically denies as false and defamatory all claims that he sexually abused anyone,” Davis said.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Monday that it received an official copy of the report from the Florida department on Friday, and will investigate the allegations.
The report also details a March 2021 encounter in which the accuser claims two men covered his head before Combs came into the room, called him a snitch and sexually assaulted the accuser, according to the police report.
Combs was convicted in July of flying his girlfriends and male sex workers around the country to engage in drug-fueled sexual encounters in multiple places over many years. However, he was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could have put him behind bars for life.
He is set to be released in May 2028, though he can earn reductions in his time behind bars through his participation in substance abuse treatment and other prison programs.
B.I.G., whose real name was Christopher Wallace, collaborated with Combs on music. He was fatally shot in Los Angeles in 1997.
Lawsuit filed over 2 deaths in air ambulance crash
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The families of two of the eight people killed earlier this year when an air ambulance crashed in Philadelphia filed a lawsuit on Monday, claiming the medical air transport company and others negligently caused their deaths.
The wrongful death case was filed by the estates of Dr. Raul Meza Arredondo, a pediatrician, and Lizeth Murillo Osuna, the mother of a girl who was flying home to Mexico after being treated at a Philadelphia hospital.
All six people on board the Learjet 55 were killed, along with two people on the ground. More than 20 people were hurt.
About a minute after takeoff from Northeast Philadelphia Airport on Jan. 31, the Tijuana, Mexico-bound plane crashed into a busy neighborhood, “erupting in a massive explosion that engulfed multiple vehicles and houses and sent fiery debris raining down on terrified and helpless bystanders,” the plaintiffs alleged in the lawsuit.
The crash occurred near Roosevelt Mall, an outdoor shopping center in the Rhawnhurst neighborhood.
The National Transportation Safety Board has said the voice recorder on the plane was not working and that the crew made no distress calls to air traffic control.
The defendants are the Guadalajara air ambulance company, Med Jets, S.A. de C.V., which does business as Jet Rescue, along with unspecified others who were responsible for the plane’s design, manufacture, maintenance and inspection.
Messages seeking comment were left Monday for a Jet Rescue spokesman, for lawyers listed as representing Med Jets in a related federal lawsuit, and for a Jet Rescue Air Ambulance facility in Florida.
Arredondo and Osuna were both described in the lawsuit as Mexican citizens. Arredondo lived in Atizapan de Zaragoza, Osuna in Ensenada.
Massachusetts
State Police loses $6.8M judgment in lawsuit accusing it of discrimination
BOSTON (AP) — A jury has ordered the Massachusetts State Police to pay $6.8 million after a finding that it discriminated against female and minority troopers.
The verdict confirmed Tuesday by a Suffolk Superior Court clerk came in a lawsuit accusing the agency’s leadership of enabling a discriminatory process for hiring and promotions that kept women and people of color from rising through the ranks.
The 2016 lawsuit accused leadership of handpicking candidates for jobs before they were posted and enabling a “pattern of discriminatory practices that prevent many from obtaining choice assignments throughout the department.”
A group of current and former state troopers that included women, Black and Hispanic officers, said employees who were not male or white were regularly passed over for promotions that went to white men who were less qualified with more extensive disciplinary records.
In a statement Tuesday, the Massachusetts State Police said it has changed the way it operates and remains committed to building a department “at every rank that reflects the communities we serve.”
“We continue to implement promotional processes that align the Department with national best practices and strengthen our workforce by elevating candidates who not only possess the necessary skills and experience, but also uphold the values essential to delivering excellent police services,” the agency said.
In September 2018, about 5% of the state police force were women and just under 10% were minorities, according to the lawsuit, which said the state had “created, maintained, and enforced substantial headwinds that fly against the possibility of having a diverse force.”
The agency has been under scrutiny in recent years, including an overtime scandal that implicated dozens of current and retired troopers. State Trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator in the Karen Read case, was fired after a disciplinary board found he had sent sexist and crude texts about her to his family and colleagues.
Earlier this year, a former state police sergeant was found guilty of taking part in a scheme to take bribes, including a new snowblower and a driveway, in exchange for giving passing scores on commercial driving tests.
California
Police investigate new sex battery allegation against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said it’s investigating a new sexual battery allegation against hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is serving a four-year prison sentence on prostitution-related convictions.
A male music producer and publicist said he was asked in late 2020 to come to a photo shoot involving clothing belonging to the late rapper Notorious B.I.G. at a Los Angeles warehouse, according to a police report. Once there, Combs exposed himself, told the man to perform a sex act, then tossed a dirty shirt that once belonged to the rapper at the man, according to the police report.
The accuser, whose name is redacted from the police report, said he did not tell anyone for several years because he felt embarrassed. He came forward to police in Largo, Florida, this September, shortly after Combs was convicted on other charges.
Combs rejects the latest allegations, his civil attorney, Jonathan Davis, said in a statement in which he also said he could not address every “meritless allegation.”
“Let me make it absolutely clear, Mr. Combs categorically denies as false and defamatory all claims that he sexually abused anyone,” Davis said.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Monday that it received an official copy of the report from the Florida department on Friday, and will investigate the allegations.
The report also details a March 2021 encounter in which the accuser claims two men covered his head before Combs came into the room, called him a snitch and sexually assaulted the accuser, according to the police report.
Combs was convicted in July of flying his girlfriends and male sex workers around the country to engage in drug-fueled sexual encounters in multiple places over many years. However, he was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could have put him behind bars for life.
He is set to be released in May 2028, though he can earn reductions in his time behind bars through his participation in substance abuse treatment and other prison programs.
B.I.G., whose real name was Christopher Wallace, collaborated with Combs on music. He was fatally shot in Los Angeles in 1997.
