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Woman who threatened insurance company has charges dropped

homesafetytechpros — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 01:43:09 +0000

Briana Boston (Polk County Jail).

Florida prosecutors dropped a felony charge against a woman who allegedly threatened her health insurance company after being denied a claim and invoked the now-infamous phrase “Delay, Deny, Depose.”

Records show that prosecutors dropped the threats to conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism earlier this month against 42-year-old Briana Boston. Prosecutors did not say why they dropped the case but it likely was tied at least in part to Boston’s lack of criminal history and her that she had no desire to actually carry out the alleged threat.

“My client is 42, married mother of three,” her attorney Jim Headley said during her first appearance, according to NewsNation. “Never had any criminal charges or convictions.”

Boston had been out on bond since mid-December and was allowed to go to her children’s medical appointments and school, per an order filed with the court.

As Law&Crime previously reported, Boston’s comments came on the heels of the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO.

The FBI notified the Lakeland Police Department on Dec. 10 about a local woman who threatened an employee of BlueCross BlueShield during a recorded phone call. A probable cause arrest affidavit said Boston had called about a recent medical insurance claim that was denied. At the end of the call, Boston allegedly said “Deny, Delay, Depose. You people are next.”

Investigators reportedly found the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” handwritten on the shell casings from the bullets that killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City. Luigi Mangione, the alleged shooter who was arrested after a massive manhunt, wrote a manifesto railing against health care companies.

Lakeland cops went to Boston’s home to interview her. She reportedly admitted to threatening the person on the other line. Boston said she was sorry, doesn’t have any firearms and is not a danger to anyone.

“Boston further stated the healthcare companies played games and deserved karma from the world because they are evil,” cops wrote.

Following Thompson’s killing insurance companies have taken safety measures such as taking down online biographies about executives and hiring personal security.

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Storage company contends it has no obligation to sort through client files allegedly left by defunct law firm

homesafetytechpros — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 23:46:38 +0000

Trials & Litigation

Storage company contends it has no obligation to sort through client files allegedly left by defunct law firm

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 6, 2025, 9:36 am CST

A records management company is asking a court to declare that it has no obligation to clients of a defunct Pittsburgh law firm that allegedly left more than 7,500 boxes in its warehouse that likely contain numerous client files. (Image from Shutterstock)

In a Jan. 29 lawsuit, the Access Information Management Corp. said shuttered firm Rothman Gordon is asking the company to deliver the files to clients, even though the Access Information Management Corp. “has no authority whatsoever to relocate, handle, deliver or otherwise provide the files to any person or entity aside from Rothman.”

Indeed, the suit said, rifling through large unlabeled boxes could expose the Access Information Management Corp. to liability.

Law360 has the story on the suit, which also contends that Rothman Gordon owes the storage company more than $91,000 in unpaid bills, an amount that increases daily.

Rothman Gordon stopped operating in October 2024, but it has not filed articles of dissolution and remains obligated to fulfill its contractual obligations, the suit said. The firm allegedly stopped paying storage fees around June 2023.

The initial contract was between the firm and Business Records Management, a company acquired by the Access Information Management Corp. when it was known as Retrievex.

The firm agreed in the contract that it is the owner of the stored records, and that the storage company can’t destroy “useless records” absent written instruction and payment of the “standard published rates,” the suit said.

The Access Information Management Corp. filed the suit in Pennsylvania state court in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

The Access Information Management Corp. is seeking a declaratory judgment regarding its obligations, an injunction requiring Rothman Gordon to take back or destroy the files and to stop telling clients to contact the storage company, and damages of more than $91,000 for the unpaid bills.

Law360 identified the lawyer for Rothman Gordon as Matthew M. Herron of Herron Business Law. He did not immediately respond to an ABA Journal voicemail requesting for comment. Rothman Gordon’s former managing partner, Frank Salpietro, also did not immediately respond to a voicemail message.

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CNN’s parent company must turn over docs in defamation case

homesafetytechpros — Sat, 16 Nov 2024 00:01:13 +0000

Inset: Zachary Young. Main: A court exhibit highlights the chyron from the Nov. 11, 2021, CNN segment at issue (court documents).

CNN‘s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery must conduct a financial deep dive and then hand relevant information over to a Navy veteran who is suing the network in a high-profile, and potentially high-dollar, defamation case, a judge in Delaware ruled on Friday.

In the event the requested documents do not exist, however, the company must issue a “sworn declaration” to that effect, Delaware Superior Court Judge Lynne M. Parker ruled, Fox News reports.

The ruling may come as something of a double-edged victory for Zachary Young, who is suing CNN over a 2021 segment that aired on “The Lead with Jake Tapper.” In the lawsuit, Young claims the cable news channel falsely painted him as an “illegal profiteer” exploiting “desperate Afghans” with “exorbitant” extraction fees amid the fallout of President Joe Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Young and his attorneys have been trying to get their hands on certain financial documents they claim are relevant to the case for some time but complain that CNN has not been forthcoming with such discovery.

The underlying lawsuit was filed in Bay County, Florida, where 14th Judicial Circuit Court Judge William Henry is overseeing the case.

Young, a U.S. citizen who lives in Austria and is the president of Florida-based corporation Nemex Enterprises, is suing for CNN defamation per se, defamation by implication, group libel and trade libel, claiming that his efforts to save lives in Afghanistan as a security consultant were distorted by “lies published for sensationalism.”

The segment at issue, which aired on Nov. 11, 2021, and featured correspondent Alex Marquardt’s reporting on Tapper’s show, displayed a photo of Young over chyrons that read: “AFGHANS TRYING TO FLEE TALIBAN FACE BLACK MARKETS, EXORBITANT FEES, NO GUARANTEE OF SAFETY OR SUCCESS” and “AFGHANS AND ACTIVISTS REPORT DEMANDS OF $10K-$14K FOR ATTEMPTS TO GET FAMILY MEMBERS OUT OF COUNTRY.”

CNN has since tried and failed to prevent Young from amending his lawsuit to request likely costly punitive damages, failed to keep Tapper from being deposed, failed to prevent the release of embarrassing internal messages, and, relevant now, failed to keep the trial court from signing off on an “expansive” financial spelunking trip.

But the multinational mass media conglomerate, for their part, says the documents Young wants simply do not exist.

“If it doesn’t exist, we can’t be compelled to produce anything,” Jennifer Ying, representing Warner Bros. Discovery, told the judge in Delaware, according to a courtroom report by Fox News.

“We have told them twice now that such information does not exist,” Ying reportedly continued. “They have refused to accept that. We cannot create information that simply does not exist.”

Henry previously issued an order directing CNN to turn over the requested documents — but threw up his hands at the suggestion of directing the network to issue a sworn declaration attesting to the would-be non-existence of the financial statements in question.

The Florida court’s broad ruling, while helpful to the plaintiff, ultimately created a state of limbo in a fast-approaching trial.

Tired of waiting, the plaintiff’s team recently moved up the corporate organization chart — filing a request with the Delaware court because that is where Warner Bros. Discovery is incorporated.

“It’s simply inconceivable that Warner Bros. Discovery is incapable of providing cashflow and balance sheet information for its wholly owned subsidiary,” attorney Joe Delich told Parker. “Warner Bros. Discovery has produced some documents but has not produced any information about cashflow, or any kind of balance sheet information. We know that Warner Bros. Discovery has the ability to do this.”

On Friday, the parent company’s attorney shot back that the latest ask from Young was “premature” because the original subpoena return date had yet to lapse. Ying also complained that the subpoena lacked any mention of cash flow statements and balance sheets.

Parker aimed to cut through the confusion — unintentional or otherwise; essentially instructing both parties to get it together.

She told Young to issue a new, more specific subpoena that explicitly demands both cash flow statements and balance sheets.

“Well, CNN does not have to provide a sworn declaration, but Warner Bros. does,” the Delaware judge said. “You’re going to subpoena Warner Brothers requesting these two specific things, and they’re either going to produce documents or they’re going to give you a sworn declaration that it does not exist.”

The court instructed Young’s team to act fast.

“Issue the subpoena right away,” Parker continued. “They have 20 days from the date of issuance to respond.”

In the underlying lawsuit, Young says he “never advertised to, or took a single penny from, any Afghan, much less ‘exploited’ ‘desperate Afghans,”” that he “certainly never sold any services on a ‘black market,’” and that “[e]verything he did was legal.” But the CNN report “rendered” him “permanently unemployable in the career he has trained his whole life for” and, in turn, cost him millions of dollars.

The complaint includes an on-air correction and apology where CNN says they did not “mean to suggest” Young “participated in the black market,” despite the chyron under his photo on the segment.

The court docket in Florida currently shows two pre-trial hearings scheduled for Nov. 25 and 26. Trial is slated to begin Jan. 6.

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‘Company’ is the perfect short story collection for spooky season

homesafetytechpros — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 01:30:19 +0000

The Modern Law Library

‘Company’ is the perfect short story collection for spooky season

By Lee Rawles

October 9, 2024, 4:00 pm CDT

Most—though not all—of the 13 short stories in Company deal with members of the Collins family. Three generations of narrators bear witness to the changing fortunes of the family, and as with any witness statement, everyone has a different perspective on what actually happened. Also, there are ghosts—and at least one witch.

The matriarch and patriarch of the Collins family ran a jazz club in Atlantic City. Their four daughters and eight grandchildren face issues of race and class, fecundity and infertility, marriage and divorce.

In this episode of The Modern Law Library podcast, the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles speaks with author Shannon Sanders about the similarity between crafting a perfect brief and a short story and its differences from novel writing. They discuss the ways that families are built—through biology, shared experiences and legal paperwork.

Sanders shares how she balances her full-time legal work, her family life and her work as a writer. She also offers tips for people looking to publish their short stories in magazines and literary journals. The hardback version of Company is available now, and the paperback will be released Nov. 12.

Want to listen on the go? The Modern Law Library is available on several podcast listening services. Subscribe and never miss an episode.
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In This Podcast:

Shannon Sanders

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Shannon Sanders

Shannon Sanders is a Black writer and attorney and the author of the linked short story collection Company. Sanders’ short fiction was the recipient of a 2020 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers and has appeared in several publications, including One Story, TriQuarterly, Joyland, Electric Literature and elsewhere. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with her husband and three sons.

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Creative Legal Fundings company was ‘neither creative nor legal,’ SEC official alleges

homesafetytechpros — Sat, 14 Sep 2024 19:23:23 +0000

Criminal Justice

Creative Legal Fundings company was ‘neither creative nor legal,’ SEC official alleges

By Debra Cassens Weiss

September 5, 2024, 9:08 am CDT

A California woman who created a company ostensibly to loan money to personal-injury attorneys is accused of spending millions of dollars in investor funds to support her “lavish lifestyle.” (Image from Shutterstock)

A California woman who created a company ostensibly to loan money to personal-injury attorneys is accused of spending millions of dollars in investor funds to support her “lavish lifestyle.”

Maria Dickerson, 47, of Sacramento, California, who is also known as Dulce Pino, is facing federal criminal charges and a civil lawsuit by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to Sept. 3 press releases here and here.

Reuters, ABS-CBN News and KGTV are among the publications with coverage.

ABS-CBN News described Dickerson as a “Filipino beauty queen.” She allegedly ran her company, Creative Legal Fundings, in the manner of a Ponzi scheme, paying guaranteed returns to early investors with money from later investors, according to the SEC suit.

The company did not lend money to lawyers and did not make other investments, the suit says.

“As alleged, Creative Legal Fundings’ operations were neither creative nor legal,” said Monique C. Winkler, director of the SEC’s San Francisco regional office, in the press release. “This was nothing more than fraud perpetrated against retail investors, many of whom were members of the Filipino American community.”

The Aug. 29 federal indictment charges Dickerson with 24 counts of wire fraud, one count of securities fraud and seven counts of money laundering. More than 140 people invested more than $10 million in the company, more than $4 million of which was lost during the course of the scheme, according to the indictment.

The alleged scheme lasted from about December 2020 through September 2023, the indictment says. The SEC suit focuses on March 2021 through May 2023. During that period, the SEC says, Dickerson sold interest in her company to more than 130 investors who paid $7 million.

She used at least $2.5 million for her personal benefit, according to the SEC.

Dickerson’s spending was apparent in her social media photographs, which showed her traveling on private jets, participating in adult pageants and sporting luxury goods, according to the Aug. 29 indictment. She is also accused of spending investor money on real estate, luxury vacations, home furnishings, appliances and “extensive gambling.”

When Dickerson was unable to raise new investor funds quickly enough, she shut down Creative Legal Fundings and opened a new company called the Ubiquity Group, the SEC suit says.

“Her scheme, however, remained the same,” according to the suit.

Mark Reichel, Dickerson’s lawyer, told ABS-CBN that his client started a “creative and honest plan to form a beneficial investment fund,” but it grew at an unmanageable speed. Many early investors solicited funds from others while making promises, often without Dickerson’s awareness, he said.

“Many investors made extreme returns on their investments and then refused to share their exorbitant returns with those they had brought in,” Reichel said. Dickerson was “trying to liquidate assets to make everyone whole when this arrest occurred.”

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Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop sued by sexual wellness company

homesafetytechpros — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 20:41:24 +0000

Goop, a company founded by actress Gwyneth Paltrow, right, is being sued by an Oregon-based company named Good. Clean. Love. The lawsuit claims Goop products, bottom left, infringe on the trademarks of Good. Clean. Love. products, top left. (Paltrow: John Nacion/STAR MAX; Wellness products via the lawsuit)

A sexual wellness company in Oregon is suing Gwyneth Paltrow‘s Goop, claiming the actress’ business infringed on copyrights by using a similar trademarks that are intentionally confusing customers.

Good Clean Love Inc., based in Eugene, filed the lawsuit March 28 in the U.S. District Court in Oregon. The company, started in 2003 by a sex-starved mother of four who wanted more natural lubricants, offers female sexual health and hygiene products.

Goop started as a newsletter by Paltrow in 2008 and expanded into selling beauty products along with other projects such as podcasts and TV shows. Last October, the company began a line of products dubbed Good. Clean. Goop. It also applied for a trademark. But, the lawsuit says, the product line is too closely associated with the Good Clean Love line and could saturate the marketplace because of its notoriety thanks to Paltrow and prior controversies.

“With the massive public interest in, and focus on, Goop’s celebrity founder and brand, Goop is known to consumers worldwide, whether or not a Goop product has ever been purchased or a Goop podcast ever listened to. According to media reports, Goop, a private company, has been valued at $250 million,” the lawsuit said.

Good. Clean. Goop. immediately garnered media attention from outlets such as New York Magazine and People, just to name a few. It offers products such as “The Pleasure Seeker Daily Chews” and “Aphrodisiac with a Twist” that purportedly help improve a woman’s sex drive. The products are similar to what Good Clean Love already sells and come up in similar searches on websites such as Amazon and Target, the lawsuit states.

Paltrow’s new line threatens to confuse customers with Good Clean Love products and threatens to “foreclose” it from expanding.

From the lawsuit:

The situation is intolerable, especially given that Goop has been criticized for marketing products and treatments that are based on pseudoscience, are harmful, and do not work; has been sued by the State of California and named in numerous class action lawsuits for making unfounded health claims about its products; and has sold new-age and questionable products in the sexual wellness space. These associations are particularly harmful to Good Clean Love, which has built its reputation and brand on safe, organic, scientific, and exhaustively-researched sexual wellness products.

Without prompt assistance from this Court, Goop’s adoption of the mark GOOD. CLEAN. GOOP threatens to overwhelm the GOOD CLEAN LOVE trademark and undermine Good Clean Love’s two decades of investment in its goodwill and reputation. Good Clean Love has no choice but to protect its rights in its GOOD CLEAN LOVE trademark

A spokesperson for Goop did not return an email from Law&Crime seeking comment but called the lawsuit “meritless” in a statement to Bloomberg Law.

“We trust consumers to distinguish Goop from the plethora of other ‘good clean’ products in the marketplace,” the statement said. “We stand behind our products as clean and are proud to have been a pioneer in the clean beauty movement.”

More on Law&Crime: ‘It’s really embarrassing’: Woman contracted herpes at nail salon due to poor hygiene practices, lawsuit claims

Good Clean Love accuses Goop of federal trademark infringement, false advertising and unfair competition. The lawsuit claims Goop’s sexual product offerings have “mocked the notion of sexual health, been criticized by medical experts and, in some cases, resulted in legal action against the company.” Among the examples the lawsuit cites are a candle called “This Smells Like My Vagina” and a 24-karat gold vibrator that costs $15,000. The lawsuit also notes the $145,000 in civil penalties the company paid the State of California for “egg-shaped stones intended to be inserted in the vagina to increase sexual energy” that allegedly didn’t work.

It also claims some of Goop’s products “contain harsh surfactants and chemicals which are known allergens and are listed on the European Union fragrance allergen annex.” Those products do not compare to the “highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability” of Good Clean Love’s merchandise.

Lawyers for Good Clean Love are asking the court to order Goop to “expressly abandon” the Good. Clean. Goop. line and pay damages.

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Cerebral CEO defends company amid DOJ investigation

homesafetytechpros — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 23:56:45 +0000

Cerebral CEO defends company amid DOJ investigation – CBS News

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Cerebral, an online mental health provider, faces growing scrutiny overs its prescribing practices, including a Justice Department investigation. Anna Werner has an exclusive interview with the company’s CEO to address the concerns.

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Candy company Mars uses cocoa harvested by kids in Ghana, CBS News investigation finds

homesafetytechpros — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 22:18:45 +0000

Candy company Mars uses cocoa harvested by kids in Ghana, CBS News investigation finds – CBS News

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CBS News found children in Ghana as young as 5 years old using machetes nearly as big as themselves to harvest the cocoa beans that end up in some of America’s most-loved chocolates like M&Ms and Snickers. Debora Patta reports.

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