Judicial Reports: LexPress: Walking While Black
By Jesse Sunenblick
jsunenblick@judicialstudies.com
Posted: 05-08-08
The New York Civil Liberties Union files another suit attacking the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policies. In other news, an Upstate judge allows a lawsuit to continue against the General Electric Company for its contamination of homes with an industrial solvent decades ago.
I SUED THE SHERIFF
A lawsuit filed yesterday against the NYPD by the New York Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a Jamaican New York Post reporter who was allegedly arrested because of his race is taking aim at the police’s stop and frisk policy. The New York Law Journal has the story. Leonardo Blair was confronted near his home in the Bronx by police and ultimately arrested after responding in Spanish when the cops asked him if he spoke English and not putting his hands up properly. The suit alleges the stop-and-frisk policies violated Blair’s Fourth Amendment rights and seeks damages as well as a court order sealing or expunging Blair’s and other innocent arrestees' records from the department’s stop-and-frisk database. According to a police report submitted to the City Council earlier this week, 145,098 people were stopped in the first quarter of this year, 32 percent more than the same period last year. Of those stopped, 51 percent were black and 32 percent Hispanic. “The fact that in about 90 percent of stops the police neither arrest the person nor issue a summons points to a widespread practice of unlawful police stops,” said NYCLU Legal Director Christopher Dunn.
GE CO. AND TCI
Meanwhile, The Glen Falls Post Star reports that Warren County Judge John Hall has allowed a lawsuit to continue by 45 Fort Edward property owners whose homes and businesses were contaminated by an industrial solvent General Electric Co. dumped into the soil. The case will likely hinge on whether the plaintiffs allowed the statute of limitations to pass — residents have been aware of possible trichloroethylene, or TCE, contamination since 1983, but didn’t realize the full consequences until 2005. “None of the plaintiffs were personally notified by the defendant [GE], the State of New York, or any other entity, that any contamination from GE was found in their drinking water,” Hall wrote. “None of the plaintiffs’ homes or water supply were ever tested for either drinking water contamination or soil vapor contamination prior to 2005.”
BOTCHED BUYOUT TRIAL WILL BEGIN
From Reuters comes word that Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Helen Freedman has allowed a disagreement concerning the botched buyout of Clear Channel Communications to proceed to trial. Clear Channel filed suit against six banks who reneged on funding the $20 billion deal as financial markets declined in the wake of last year’s private equity boom, when the cost of financing loans skyrocketed. Freedman threw out fraud and civil conspiracy charges against the banks, while allowing the breach of contract claim to move ahead.
JUST A MATTER OF TIME
Finally, The Daily News reports that Eastern District Judge Frederic Block has delayed sentencing for a convicted heroin trafficker who in a March court appearance sneaked a razor into court and lunged at a prosecutor. Appearing via video hookup from the Metropolitan Detention Center, Victor Wright claimed he needed more time to talk to his new lawyer. Wright has vowed to hurt a jail guard if he gets a life sentence — and he could receive two.
Posted by Jesse on May 8, 2008 08:48 AM to Judicial Reports