I’m a trial lawyer for injured people and businesses at The Beasley Firm, founded in 1958. Our clients have been awarded over $2 billion through hundreds of verdicts and settlements in excess of $1 million. We’re listed in Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers in America, U.S. News’s Top Lawyers, et cetera. The [...]
Colleges and Universities Start To Take Campus Rape Seriously (We Hope)
The fallout from the child molestation scandal at Penn State continues with a thousand articles saying roughly the same thing and a handful of in-depth reports, like Sports Illustrated’s This is Penn State piece, which explains a lot about what Happy Valley was like: Outgoing, accessible (his home phone number is in the campus directory) and philanthropic, Paterno was the benevolent despot. But he was a despot nonetheless. Org chart be damned—unlike Schultz and Curley, Paterno is not classified as a senior staff member—he ran the place. "He built this university, he built this town, and everybody knows it," says ... Continue Reading
Can Sandusky’s Sexual Abuse Victims Sue Penn State?
[UPDATE, July 12, 2012: The independent report by Louis Freeh's law firm has been released. It is damning, to say the least, concluding there was a "total and consistent disregard by the most senior leaders at Penn State for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims." Blame is rightfully heaped upon Paterno, Spanier, Curley, and Schultz.] [UPDATE, June 22, 2012: Jerry Sandusky was convicted on almost all counts. Reuters quoted me talking about the effect of the prosecution and conviction on the civil lawsuits pre-verdict here and post-verdict here. Short version: Penn State, as I had hoped, is signaling their ... Continue Reading
Can Jaycee Dugard Sue The Government For Negligent Parole Supervision?
I've written several times before how difficult it is to sue the government for failing to do its job, like how you can't sue the police department for failing to enforce a court order. It's tough to sue the government even when they wrongly entrap and then kill your son for the trivial 'crime' of sports betting. The government doesn't even need to train its prosecutors in the basics of constitutional law. "Civil rights" is a tough area in which to practice law, if you're representing the plaintiffs. There aren't "typical" civil rights cases, because typical isn't good enough under ... Continue Reading
Can The West Memphis Three Sue For Wrongful Imprisonment?
The "West Memphis Three" have long been a cause célèbre, for good reason: the case had all the hallmarks of a railroad prosecution, from hysteria over Satanism to a coerced confession by a minor with a well below average I.Q. to the lack of any forensic evidence or eyewitness testimony connecting Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley to the brutal murder of three young boys in 1993. NPR's blog sums up much of the story: The original convictions, based on a theory that Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley killed the three children as part of a Satanic ritual, were the ... Continue Reading
Hotel Rape Epidemic Back In The Spotlight Again
Prompted by the Dominique Strauss-Kahn prosecution for allegedly raping a hotel maid, Jacob Tomsky in the NYTimes offered a window into the epidemic of hotel crime directed at women: On top of [their grueling work], they have to be sexually accosted by guests? Sadly, yes. And more often than you’d think. It’s not an everyday occurrence but it happens enough to make this question all too familiar: “Mr. Tomsky, can you give the new girl Room 3501 until next Tuesday? That man is back, the one who loves to let his robe fall open every time I try to clean.” ... Continue Reading
Third Circuit Reinstates Civil Rights Suit Of Rape Victim Arrested For Telling The Truth
Yesterday the Third Circuit released a unanimous precedential opinion in Reedy v. Evanson: While working as a cashier at a convenience store, nineteen-year-old Sara R. Reedy was sexually assaulted and robbed at gunpoint by a serial sex offender. She reported the crime to the police within minutes, subjected herself to a rape kit examination, and gave detailed and consistent statements to law enforcement officers and hospital staff. Reedy needed Sam Spade. Instead, she got Der Prozess: However, Detective Frank Evanson of the Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania Police Department, the lead investigator assigned to Reedy’s case, believed that Reedy had fabricated the ... Continue Reading
