Trinity Mount Ministries

Showing posts with label Lawsuit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lawsuit. Show all posts

Thursday, January 10, 2019

Lawsuit: Mormon Church failed to keep child safe from abuse




Of the five temples in Arizona, with one more coming in Tucson, all but one have on top a golden figure pointed east. Hannah Gaber/azcentral.com
Another member of the Navajo Nation is suing the Mormon church, saying he was abused in a now-defunct program that sent children into foster care for the school year. 
Unlike similar lawsuits, the complaint filed Tuesday in tribal court doesn't seek changes to the policies of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It seeks unspecified monetary damages for decades of alleged emotional harm, including attempted suicide.
"This poor guy. He was devastated by what happened, just devastated," said David Jordan, an attorney for the man identified as LB in court documents. "He has not escaped it his entire life."
LB was baptized into the Mormon church before he started the fifth grade in 1984 and placed with a Mormon foster family in Utah. He was one of thousands of Native Americans who participated in the church's Indian Student Placement Program that aimed to give children educational opportunities they didn't have on the reservation.
The voluntary program started in the late 1940s and ended around 2000.
The lawsuit says LB was sexually molested three times in the 1980s by a church bishop who lived across the street from his foster family, twice at the bishop's home and once at a church office. The bishop persuaded LB to return to his home the second time by offering him candy, the lawsuit states.
LB told his foster mother about the abuse, but she accused him of lying. She sent him to bed without dinner and grounded him another time, according to the lawsuit. His foster father spanked him for reporting abuse to a caseworker, the lawsuit states. LB also said he told a teacher.
LB was sent back home to the Navajo Nation after he stole from his foster family, part of his plan to get kicked out of the foster program, the lawsuit states.


The Salt Lake Temple is shown in Salt Lake City. (Photo: Rick Bowmer/Associated Press)

The lawsuit says the church failed to keep LB safe and did not have a way to supervise those who participated in the placement program. The church did not report the abuse to law enforcement, the victim's family or the public, the lawsuit states.
"If somebody takes your child and says 'I will keep them safe,' I think the highest duty imposed on that person should be safety and security until they're returned," Jordan said.

The church's media representatives didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. But they previously have said the church works to prevent abuse.


Jordan filed a similar lawsuit in October on behalf of a Navajo woman identified as CB who alleges she was sexually abused in 1976 by her foster brother, who threatened he would do worse things if she told anyone. She was moved to another home after reporting the abuse, the lawsuit filed in tribal court states.
Jordan also is representing a Navajo woman identified as BN whose case was part of a group reportedly settled last year, but she wanted to move forward with the claims she first filed in 2016, he said.
The church has sought to keep tribal courts from hearing the cases, arguing the Navajo Nation doesn't have jurisdiction. But a tribal judge says it does because the program was based on the reservation, even though the children were sent to homes in Utah, Arizona and Idaho.
The church once believed it had a duty to restore the heritage of Native Americans who referred to as Lamanites, or the wicked of two civilizations that emerged when God guided families to the Americas. The church changed the introduction to the Book of Mormon a few years ago to say that Lamanites are among the ancestors of Native Americans.

Friday, February 22, 2013

United States Joins Lawsuit Alleging Lance Armstrong ...


Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
    
United States Joins Lawsuit Alleging Lance Armstrong and Others Caused the Submission of False Claims to the U.S. Postal Service
The Department of Justice announced today that the government has joined a civil lawsuit alleging that Lance Armstrong, Johan Bruyneel and Tailwind Sports LLC and Tailwind Sports Corporation (Tailwind) submitted or caused the submission of false claims to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) in connection with its sponsorship of a professional bicycle racing team by regularly employing banned substances and methods to enhance their performance, in violation of the USPS sponsorship agreements.  

From 1996 through 2004, the USPS sponsored a professional cycling team owned by Tailwind and its predecessors.   Lance Armstrong was the lead rider on the team, and between 1999 and 2004, he won six consecutive Tour de France titles as a member of the USPS-sponsored team.  Johan Bruyneel was the directeur sportif, or manager, of the cycling team.  

The sponsorship agreements gave the USPS certain promotional rights, including the right to prominent placement of the USPS logo on the cycling team’s uniform.  Each of the agreements required the team to follow the rules of cycling’s governing bodies, which prohibited the use of certain performance enhancing substances and methods.  Between 2001 and 2004 alone, the Postal Service paid $31 million in sponsorship fees.  

The lawsuit joined today by the government alleges that riders on the USPS-sponsored team, including Armstrong, knowingly caused the USPS agreements to be violated by regularly employing banned substances and methods to enhance their performance.   The lawsuit further alleges that Bruyneel knew that team members were using performance enhancing substances and facilitated the practice.

The government today notified the court that it is joining this lawsuit against Armstrong, Bruyneel and Tailwind, and will file its formal complaint within 60 days.  

“The Postal Service contract with Tailwind required the team to enter cycling races, wear the Postal Service logo, and follow the rules banning performance enhancing substances – rules that Lance Armstrong has now admitted he violated,” said Stuart F. Delery, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the Department of Justice.   “Today’s action demonstrates the Department of Justice’s steadfast commitment to safeguarding federal funds and making sure that contractors live up to their promises.”

“Lance Armstrong and his cycling team took more than $30 million from the U.S. Postal Service based on their contractual promise to play fair and abide by the rules – including the rules against doping,” said Ronald C. Machen Jr., U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. “The Postal Service has now seen its sponsorship unfairly associated with what has been described as ‘the most sophisticated, professionalized, and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.’   This lawsuit is designed to help the Postal Service recoup the tens of millions of dollars it paid out to the Tailwind cycling team based on years of broken promises.   In today’s economic climate, the U.S. Postal Service is simply not in a position to allow Lance Armstrong or any of the other defendants to walk away with the tens of millions of dollars they illegitimately procured.”

“The Postal Service conducts business with many different contractors and subcontractors, with a large majority of them providing a much needed service and fulfilling their contractual duties.  It is critical that public confidence in contractor performance remains high.  When that public trust is compromised, as occurred in this case, the Office of Inspector General will fully investigate,” said David C. Williams, Inspector General, U.S. Postal Service, and Office of Inspector General.

“The Postal Service strongly supports intervention by the Department of Justice in this matter and a vigorous pursuit of this case,” said Postal Service General Counsel and Executive Vice President Mary Anne Gibbons.   “The defendants agreed to play by the rules and not use performance enhancing drugs.   We now know that the defendants failed to live up to their agreement, and instead knowingly engaged in a pattern of activity that violated the rules of professional cycling and, therefore, violated the terms of their contracts with the Postal Service.  For that reason, the Postal Service fully agrees with the decision by the Department of Justice to seek appropriate damages under the False Claims Act.”

For many years, including during the USPS sponsorships, Armstrong and others repeatedly denied that the team used performance enhancing substances or methods.    Yet on Oct. 10, 2012, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) issued a report concluding that Armstrong used banned performance enhancing substances starting in at least 1998 and continuing throughout his professional career, and that he pressured and helped his teammates to engage in similar conduct.   Accordingly, USADA disqualified all of his competitive results since Aug. 1, 1998, including his seven Tour de France victories, and banned him from sport for life pursuant to the World Anti-Doping Code.  

In a recently-televised interview with Oprah Winfrey, Armstrong contradicted his earlier denials and admitted that he used banned substances and methods throughout his career, starting in the mid-1990s.   In particular, he admitted having engaged in banned practices during each of his seven Tour de France victories, including the six he won as a USPS rider. Armstrong explained that he avoided detection by anti-doping authorities by carefully timing his use of banned drugs so that they would leave his system prior to his undergoing cycling’s required periodic drug testing.  

The lawsuit joined by the United States was filed by Floyd Landis, a former rider and teammate of Armstrong on the USPS sponsored team from 2002 through 2004.   The lawsuit was filed under the False Claims Act, which imposes liability on those who submit false claims for government funds, and provides for the recovery of three times the government’s damages, plus civil penalties.   The False Claims Act contains a qui tam or whistleblower provision, which permits private parties to sue on behalf of the United States for false claims and share in any recovery.   The False Claims Act permits the government to investigate the allegations and intervene, or decline to intervene in the whistleblower’s lawsuit.   While the government notified the court that it was joining the lawsuit’s allegations as to Armstrong, Bruyneel, and Tailwind, it advised the court that it was not intervening in the case as to several other defendants named in the complaint.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Delery and U.S. Attorney Machen commended the coordinated effort of the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, and the USPS Office of Inspector General and Office of General Counsel, in their investigation of this matter.  

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is captioned United States ex rel. Landis v. Tailwind Sports Corporation, et al.  The claims made in the complaint are only allegations and do not constitute a determination of liability. Trial Attorney Robert Chandler of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Darrell Valdez and Mercedeh Momeni of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia are representing the government.




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Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Lawsuit Against the City of San Jacinto, California, Alleging Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities:



Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Justice Department Files Civil Rights Lawsuit Against the City of San Jacinto, California, Alleging Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities
  The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against the city of San Jacinto, Calif., alleging violations of the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act based on its treatment of group homes for persons with disabilities.   This lawsuit is part of the Justice Department’s continuing effort to enforce civil rights laws that require states and municipalities to end discrimination against, and unnecessary segregation of, persons with disabilities.

The lawsuit, filed on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, alleges that the city has impermissibly restricted the ability of group homes for people with disabilities to operate within the city.   Under the city’s zoning code, group homes that are not required to be licensed by the state, as well as some licensed homes, are not permitted uses in any zoning district within the city, and their ability to operate in multi-family zones is restricted.   The United States’ lawsuit further alleges that the city targeted housing for persons with disabilities for enforcement actions, including a November 2008 sweep in which city and county officials, including armed and uniformed police officers and sheriff’s deputies, appeared at homes unannounced and interrogated residents with disabilities from a prepared questionnaire that included intrusive questions targeted to persons with mental disabilities.   The complaint also alleges that the city has conditioned the grant of reasonable accommodations on the adoption of unwarranted limitations on the residents of homes for persons with disabilities.

This lawsuit arose as a result of complaints filed with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) by the operators of group homes who were impacted by the city’s discriminatory enforcement activities.

The suit seeks a court order preventing the city from enforcing its laws in a way that unlawfully discriminates on the basis of disability, and prohibiting the city from failing to make reasonable accommodations.   It also seeks monetary damages to compensate victims and a civil penalty.     

“No person should be denied an equal opportunity for housing in his or her community, or suffer harassment or intimidation, because he or she is a person with a disability,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department is committed to preventing discriminatory treatment of people with disabilities.”

“This suit is part of my office’s continuing efforts, in partnership with DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, to ensure that all residents of the Central District are accorded the rights to which they are entitled under the law,” said André Birotte Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California.  “Under the law, people with disabilities, including mental disabilities, must be given the opportunity to live in our community, free from discriminatory efforts to exclude them.  This suit seeks to ensure that this opportunity is fully and fairly provided.”
 “Local governments may not zone out people with disabilities from the opportunity to live in mainstream communities,” said John Trasviña, HUD Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. “HUD and DOJ are united in our efforts to combat unlawful interference with the rights of people with disabilities, whether in the form of  unfair zoning restrictions, selective enforcement of ordinances, or otherwise.”
The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status and disability.   Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires that State and local governments give people with disabilities an equal opportunity to benefit from all of their programs, services and activities.   More information about the Civil Rights Division and the laws it enforces is available at www.usdoj.gov/crt .  Individuals who believe they have been victims of housing discrimination or have information related to this lawsuit can call the Housing Discrimination Tip Line at 1-800-896-7743, e-mail the Justice Department at fairhousing@usdoj.gov , or contact the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) at 1-800-669-9777.

The complaint is an allegation of unlawful conduct.   The allegations must still be proven in federal court.
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