Staten Island couple files lawsuit vs. city, Facebook:
26-year-old Caroline Wimmer of Staten Island was murdered on March 28th of this year when 28-year-old Calvin Lawson of The Bronx allegedly beat her and strangled her with a hair dryer cord.
Caroline’s mother, Martha Wimmer, was the one who called 911 when her daughter’s body was found. When help arrived it’s alleged that 46-year-old EMT and former NYPD Emergency Services Unit detective Mark Musarella snapped a picture of Caroline Wimmer’s body on his cell phone. Then it’s alleged that Musarella posted the picture to his Facebook. The picture was allegedly posted to his private profile but all it takes is for one person to be able to see the picture then it’s all over the internet.
Musarella was arrested and is looking at a year behind bars.
Because of the pictures being leaked the Wimmers are suing New York City and Facebook. I could see the merit in a lawsuit against the city but the suit against Facebook should be thrown out. It’s not like Facebook is allowing thousands of pictures like this to be released to the public.
This isn’t the first post I’ve made about EMTs who post these kind of pics to their MySpace or Facebook either. I’ve made posts about crash victims and rape victims whose pictures were posted to social networking sites by EMTs.
Now I’m not saying all EMTs are like this. I briefly ran with a rescue squad in my younger days and most EMTs are really good people. However there is a certain section of EMTs that are ghouls who get off on accident and crime scenes. This isn’t something new either because of the internet. Even before internet days some EMTs were taking pictures and trading them with their ghoulish friends.
I have nothing but respect for paramedics and EMTs, I didn’t have the stones to handle it. However the ghouls need to be exorcised.
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Appeals court to hear MySpace case:
Here we go again. Another ‘free speech’ lawsuit.
This time 20-year-old Justin Layshock from Pennsylvania is suing the Heritage School District for suspending him. Back when Layshock was in high school he mad a MySpace that ridiculed his principal.
At the time he was suspended for 10 days, banned from after school activities then transferred to an alternative school.
The precious snowflake also has the backing of the ACLU. That’s the organization that obviously believes that no one is responsible for their own actions.
Originally the court ruled in Layshock’s favor but that was overturned by the U.S. District Court.
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Former Pembroke Pines student sues principal over Facebook suspension:
So back in November of last year Katherine Evans was a student at Pembroke Pines Charter High School in Florida. She made a Facebook group with the sole purpose of saying how horrible, in her opinion, her English teacher was. She invited other students also to express their vitriol if they so choose. Instead students showed support for the teacher and Evans took the page down days later. Evans was suspended for three days because of her actions.
Now that she’s graduated from the school she’s suing the Principal for ‘violating her first amendment rights’ and she’s being supported by the ACLU.
I’m sorry but where’s the part in the first amendment that says that you’re free from any repercussions from your free speech. Oh wait, that’s right, it doesn’t.
Apparently this precious little snowflake’s classes didn’t cover the Constitution and apparently neither did the law school of her ACLU lawyer.
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Court Rules Against Teacher in MySpace ‘Drunken Pirate’ Case:
Who remembers the Drunken Pirate of MySpace Stacy Snyder? For those of you with short memories she was a student at Millersville University in Pennsylvania. She was going for her teaching degree but was denied the degree because she had a picture on her MySpace of her in a pirate hat while drinking that said ‘Drunken Pirate’.
She sued the school but the courts made her walk the plank.
According to the court’s decision the school cited examples of her poor competency in its refusal to graduate Snyder.
Before filing lawsuits educate yourself on what the first amendment is really about. And like I always say, nothing on the internet is private.
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On Students, MySpace and the First Amendment:
Here’s another story where rather than punishing their kid decided to file a lawsuit.
A 12-year-old girl from a Pennsylvania school made a fake profile of Principal James S. McGonigle. The profile said that his interests included hitting on students and parents called him a pedophile among other things. The unnamed student was given a 10-day suspension. Back in my day if I did something like this not only would I have been suspended I also would have been grounded by my parents until about 15 minutes ago. But no, now parents feel the need to protect their precious little snowflakes from their own actions and show them how they’re not responsible.
The parents obviously took some form of legal action and even got the ACLU involved stating that since the incident took place off of school grounds so the student should not have been suspended.
There’s only one problem. A federal judge gave everyone the good ol’ legal smackdown.
Tossing Tinker aside, Munley focused on other cases, including Bethel School District v. Fraser, in which the Court upheld a suspension imposed on a student who used “an elaborate, graphic, and explicit sexual metaphor” during a speech at a school assembly. In Fraser, Munley said, the justices held that “it is a highly appropriate function of public school education to prohibit the use of vulgar and offensive terms in public discourse,” and that limits on sexually explicit, indecent or lewd speech can be appropriate where the audience includes children.
Which is just a fancy way of saying having free speech doesn’t protect you from the actions of your speech.
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Parents may sue over cop’s MySpace school lecture:
Now some of the ‘offended’ parents from Windsor High in Colorado are planning on suing the school district and the Cheyenne, WY police department for the brutally honest internet safety seminar given by Officer John Gay. You know the one by now.
One student — whose MySpace page was pulled up for public view by Gay — left the assembly in tears, say students who witnessed the presentation. The MySpace page for Gillian C’s daughter was also put on display by Gay, which humiliated the girl.
“Never once have we (parents) questioned the message of what Gay was saying,” Gillian C said. She asked that her full name not be used, fearing retaliation against her daughter.
I’m sure the students will be able to figure out who she is by that awesome alias.
“We’re questioning why minor children were put in public situations and called vile and disgusting names in front of everyone at the school,” she said.
You are not guaranteed to not be offended. Neither are your kids. Maybe if you were checking up on your kid’s MySpace habits she wouldn’t have been singled out. Maybe she should sue you for not only being a lax parent but also for being an enabler.
Grow up and get a life.
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Legal Action Considered Against Polk Sheriff:
This one is from the “Boy does that woman have brass ones” department.
Christina Garcia is the mother of Mercades Nichols. Mercades is one of if not the main suspect in the videotaped beating of Victoria Lindsay.
You would think that Ms. Garcia has more important matters to attend to like making sure her daughter stays out of jail but no. Ms. Garcia has taken it upon herself to file a lawsuit against Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd for making ‘defamatory’ remarks and causing ‘severe emotional damages’.
In her intent to sue notice, Bernard wrote that Judd failed to handle the arrest of the teens “with integrity and a degree of care” that would have protected them “against unfair treatment and exposure.”
Judd has described the March 30 beating in published news stories as “animalistic” and said that after the teens were arrested, they were laughing together in a holding cell, saying “Am I going to miss cheerleading practice?” and “I guess we’re not going to the beach this week.”
I didn’t know you could be sued for the truth. Garcia’s face is causing me severe emotional damages. Can I sue for that?
UPDATE 1/8/09: Thread closed due to length. Conversation continues here.
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Court sides with MySpace in suit over sex assault:
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision to dismiss the infamous $30M lawsuit against MySpace.
The family of 24-year-old Julie Doe filed a lawsuit against MySpace after she was sexually assaulted by 19-year-old Pete Solis who met her over MySpace.
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Man gets 90 days in jail assaulting teen met on Myspace:
Pete Solis has pleaded out to a 90 day sentence for sexually assaulting a teenage girl he met on MySpace. Solis was looking at federal charges if he did not plea. Solis will be a registered sex offender.
If his name sounds familiar it’s because his victim was ‘Julie Doe’ whose mother failed at suing MySpace for $30M.
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Family seeks revival of MySpace suit over alleged sex assault:
The Texas family that had tried to sue MySpace over thair daughter’s sexual assault are trying to get the suit revived.
The victim, only known as Julie Doe was 14 when she was sexually assaulted by then 19-year-old Pete Solis. Solis had met his victim over MySpace. He’s now in prison for the sexual assault.
However the family of Julie Doe sued MySpace for 30 million dollars. The lawsuit was summarily dismissed. Now the family is asking the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to overturn the dismissal.
As much as I sympathize with the family for what their daughter went through I just have to reiterate that MySpace is not at fault and this comes off as just a grab for money.
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