Soundman Sues Discovery Network Over Accident in Reality Show

A soundman says the injuries he suffered after a vehicle he was riding in landed in a ditch were the result of negligence.

Kenneth Hathcock, who is listed on IMDB as a sound mixer and technician on shows such as Joe Millionaire, filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Discovery and Jimmy Blaze Entertainment. His filing in L.A. Superior Court says that on March 24, he was riding in an all-terrain vehicle at Safari Ranch in Oklahoma during a video shoot when the vehicle suddenly drove into a ditch concealed by tall grass. Hathcock says he was “ejected” from the vehicle and “seriously injured.”

The suit alleges that Discovery, Blaze and others involved acted both “negligently" and "carelessly," and that they "recklessly operated, maintained, repaired, owned, supervised and controlled” the vehicle so as to “cause the accident.”

The suit goes on to say Hathcock sustained shock and injuries, which have caused him mental and physical pain and suffering. The suit says his medical bills have topped $25,000. The filing does not include the name of the show Hathcock says he was working on at the time.

Discovery Network, which hires producers to make its reality shows, has recently been involved in several incidents resulting in injuries or death for individuals working on its shows.

In June 2012, two people being filmed for a proposed Discovery series in Colorado were injured when a smoke bomb detonated and sent metal into the air. A woman was killed.

In February, filmmaker John Driftmier and a pilot filming footage for the Discovery series Dangerous Flights were killed when their small plane crashed. Earlier that month, three men died in a helicopter crash in northern Los Angeles County, where they had been involved in the production of a new military-themed reality series.   

Read More... http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/crewmember-sues-discovery-network-reality-430509

 

Baseball, Apple Pie and now DRUGS! Major League Baseball Drug Lawsuit supplying players with PEDs

Major League Baseball on Friday sued a South Florida clinic Biogenesis of America and several men associated with it for flouting its drug prevention program by allegedly providing performance enhancing substances to players, the pro sports league said.

According to reports and the MLB suit, filed in Florida's Miami-Dade County, the clinic reportedly supplied banned performance enhancing substances to a number of current and former pro baseball players such as ex-Boston Red Sox Manny Ramirez.

"We believe we have a legitimate legal claim against the defendants, and we intend to pursue it vigorously," said Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball's executive vice president of economics and legal affairs.

A phone call placed Friday night by CNN to Bosch's lawyer was not immediately returned. Previously, CNN has been unable to reach those involved in the clinic. And after the New Times story broke, a CNN crew went to the Coral Gables, Florida, address of the Biogenesis clinic and found its offices vacant.

The 14-page complaint names Biogenesis, its predecessor and six individuals -- among them its program director Anthony Bosch, others at the company, someone who worked at a sports agency, a former University of Miami baseball player and a "self-proclaimed chemist" who supplied substances.

The accused, according to Major League Baseball, solicited players, supplied them with drugs and offered dosage recommendations in order not to test positive for banned substances under the league's program.

The complaint did not specify how much money it is seeking, beyond that it's more than $15,000. But it insists the league rightfully deserves to be paid given what BioGenesis and its affiliates have done to the sport.

"MLB has suffered damages, including the costs of (the) investigation, loss of goodwill, loss of revenue and profits and injury to its reputation, image, strategic advantage and fan relationships," the league alleges in its complaint.

After a surge in home runs in the late 1980s and 1990s -- highlighted by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa racing to break Roger Maris's single-season home run record in 1998, followed three years later by Barry Bonds breaking the new record -- Major League Baseball came under a cloud amid allegations it hadn't done enough to recognize, and combat, the use of performance enhancing substances.

The league, in conjunction with its players' union, in recent years has beefed up its drug testing programs and penalties. A number of top-level and minor league players have been suspended as a result, like Ramirez who was suspended 50 games in 2009.

Biogenesis became part of this story publicly in late January, when the Miami New Times reported that more than a dozen professional baseball players and other athletes were named in records kept over several years by the clinic.

CNN was unable to independently obtain the documents the newspaper said it based its reporting on. And New Times reported earlier this month that it refused Major League Baseball's request for records that contributed to its story.

One of those players named by the publication is Alex Rodriguez, a 37-year-old New York Yankee who ranks fifth in home runs in major league history.

Shortly after the New Times article came out, ESPN.com published a story quoting unidentified sources as describing how Bosch allegedly went to Rodriguez's waterfront Florida mansion when summoned and injected the star player with performance-enhancing drugs, or PEDs.

Read More... http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/22/us/florida-mlb-sues-clinic/index.html

Win by Losing, this Lawyer Did

As a young lawyer, Bruce Jacob represented the state of Florida in the case now known to the world as Gideon v. Wainwright. Decided unanimously by the justices on March 18, 1963, 50 years ago next Monday, the Gideon decision established a universal right to counsel in criminal cases. You’ve heard about this a million times on television: “You have the right to an attorney if you cannot afford one.”

The case came about because the Court accepted the argument made by a middle-aged drifter named Clarence Earl Gideon, who had been convicted and sentenced to five years in state prison for breaking into a pool room. At his trial, Gideon had asked to have a lawyer appointed to represent him. The Constitution required it, Gideon said. The trial judge declined. The trial judge was wrong, said all nine justices in Washington.

To this day, Jacob doesn’t know exactly why he was selected to handle the case. He was the youngest and newest member of the criminal appeals section of the attorney general’s office. Maybe that was it. Unlike his colleagues, he had not yet argued a case before the high court. Maybe that was it. Florida seemed destined to lose the case, he recalled many years later, but he’s never considered himself the sacrificial lamb.

Before the case was heard, Jacob graciously asked the attorneys general of other states if they wanted to join the case on Florida’s side — that is, arguing for a limited right to counsel. Dozens of those state lawyers did choose to get involved — but on Gideon’s side. “I was neither thinking in terms of a ‘strategy’ not was I trying to ‘win’ the case,” Jacob said. “My goal was to make sure the other states knew that was happening and what was at stake in Gideon.”

The Supreme Court appointed Abe Fortas, one of the best lawyers in the country, to represent Gideon. As if the skill and reputation of opposing counsel weren’t daunting enough, during oral argument at the Supreme Court, the nervous young attorney was peppered by questions from the justices of the Warren Court, itching to recognize broader Sixth Amendment rights to a fair trial. Jacob counted 92 such questions in a half hour.

And then, to no one’s surprise, Jacob and Florida lost. Writing for the Court, Justice Hugo Black declared that “in our adversary system of criminal justice, any person haled into court, who is too poor to hire a layer, cannot be assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided to him." What did the state attorney do next? He immediately helped the state’s poorest criminal defendants. Jacob wrote:

                       After the Gideon decision, in 1963, the Florida Legislature enacted a statewide public defender law that, among other things, allowed a private lawyer (which I was at the time) to sign up with the trial court to become an unpaid, volunteer public defender. On the day that law took effect I signed up, and during the next couple of years the court appointed me to several cases.

                       In 1965-68, while teaching at Emory Law School, I started the Legal Assistance for Inmates Program for inmates of the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta. I was the supervisor and 53 students volunteered to help. During the first two weeks 750 inmates made requests for legal help, and most involved post-conviction questions. I taught two clinical courses at Ohio State College of Law, where we represented indigents on a pro bono basis. Since going into law school administration and traditional classroom teaching, I have continued to handle pro bono cases of all kinds.

And he’s still going strong. Today, after a career in which he taught 20 different law school courses, Jacob is dean emeritus and a professor of law at Stetson University in Gulfport, Florida, where he continues to talk publicly about the right to counsel—and how disappointed he is that over the past 50 years, America has failed to fulfill the Court’s promise in Gideon of providing competent counsel to all who need it.

Here is a state lawyer, an assistant attorney general, who for decades dedicated his time to helping indigent criminal defendants. Here is a lawyer who argued nobly, who lost graciously, who took nothing personally, and who put the law ahead of everything else. Bruce Jacob, you could say, is the other winner of the case of his lifetime.

Read More... http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/bruce-jacob-gideon-case-profile-032213#ixzz2ONLOTyAJ

Nitrous Oxide was the cause of the Feds raiding 17 Ca. Businesses

Hundreds of law enforcement officers on Friday raided Southern California auto parts shops and other businesses suspected of illegally selling nitrous oxide for use as a recreational drug, in what federal authorities said was the nation's largest such raid ever.

Authorities served search warrants on 17 businesses and nine delivery vehicles during the simultaneous raids in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties.

Edward Valencia, 51, Federico Valencia, 58, and Rose Marie Cuellar, 20, were arrested on misdemeanor charges of misbranding a drug in violation of the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The Valencia brothers work at Victor Welding Supply in South Los Angeles, and Cuellar is an employee of LA Rush, an auto parts store.

It was the second time the shop had been raided. In 2009, authorities spoke with the Valencia brothers and owner William Victor about their sales of nitrous oxide and its popular use as a party drug, according to a federal affidavit.

Victor, 65, also was named in an arrest warrant and was being sought by authorities Friday.

The raids were the result of a year-and-a-half-long joint investigation dubbed "No Laughing Matter" by the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

During the operation, federal agents seized 367 tanks or 36,000 pounds of nitrous oxide with a street value of $20 million, said Andre Birotte Jr., U.S. attorney for the Central District of California.

"Our investigation has revealed and uncovered evidence that many of these shops don't contain any auto supplies at all, just tanks of nitrous oxide," Birotte said.

The FDA has recently focused on the illegal use of nitrous oxide, and this was its largest case to date, said special agent Lisa Hartsell. Though nitrous oxide, also known as "laughing gas" or "nos," has long been a rave phenomenon, it has recently grown into more mainstream use, propelled by the ease of social media to reach young people and spread the word.

"This is a very cheap drug, can be had very easily, it is not a controlled substance, so your big members of the law enforcement community don't have the ability to control it," Hartsell said.

The gas is legally used by dentists for anesthesia, to pressurize whipped cream canisters and to speed up race cars. But authorities say its illegal use has spurred fatal car accidents, rapes and teen deaths — all in the name of a temporary high.

If ingested at high levels, nitrous oxide can cause death from lack of oxygen; it can also lead to spasms, convulsions and other health problems. Nitrous oxide is also considered a greenhouse gas and is 310 times more dangerous to the Earth's ozone layer than carbon dioxide, said Joseph Johns, chief of the U.S. attorney's environmental crimes section.

"The amount of gas that was taken off the streets today, is equivalent to one year's worth of carbon dioxide emissions from a small petroleum refinery in the heart of Los Angeles," Johns said. He said the investigation is ongoing.

"These (raids) are the initial baby steps," and more charges would likely be filed in the next weeks, Johns said.

Los Angeles County sheriff's officials have zeroed in on the recreational use of nitrous oxide since September, cracking down on more than 350 illegal parties, spokesman Mike Parker said Thursday.

The operations are part of a new team set up by the Sheriff's Department over the last six months to monitor social media around the clock. The team has found many public posts that target teens and advertise alcohol and illegal drugs such as nitrous oxide.

"They're doing the social media equivalent of standing outside the front doors of a high school at 3 o'clock as school lets out with a megaphone announcing that there'll be drugs, noz and alcohol for children, and then handing out fliers to all the kids that are interested," Parker said.

These parties can be lucrative for those provisioning them. Sheriff's deputies have been tracking one distributor who is making more than $60,000 a month in the bulk sale of nitrous oxide, said Sgt. Glenn Walsh, who works in the Sheriff's Department's narcotics bureau.

Hartsell said the drugs have also spurred armed robberies as gangs steal tanks from each other.

Part of the problem for law enforcement officers going after the illegal use of nitrous oxide is that its distribution or use as a recreational drug is only a misdemeanor, officials said.

Sheriff's Lt. Rod Armalin said the department is working on legislation to increase the penalties.

Read More... http://news.yahoo.com/feds-raid-17-calif-businesses-nitrous-oxide-001509842.html

Park Si Hoo’s Lawyer & Police Accuses News Sources of Spreading False Information

Park Shi Hoo’s legal team is reminding fans to not believe everything you read, and accused news organizations of sloppy reporting. Inflammatory headlines stating that Park Shi Hoo had lied on every question on his polygraph test were published hours ago, widely circulated, and then swiftly refuted, with major news sites that had previously linked to the false articles removing the links.

Soon, Park Si Hoo’s lawyer accused the sources of spreading false information. He said that “the recent report that Park Si Hoo’s polygraph came out all false isn’t true. They misunderstood how the polygraph process works.”

A spokesperson of Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency also claims that what was said regarding the polygraph test “isn’t our official announcement, and we don’t know who said such a thing.” He also added that “it’s ridiculous to decide whether someone’s guilty or not based on polygraph.”



His fans have been extremely supportive.

Read More... http://blog.dramafever.com/2013/03/park-si-hoos-lawyer-accuses-news-sources-of-false-information/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=tweet&utm_campaign=df%2Bnews

MMA Fighter Arrested After Death

Mixed Martial Arts promoters Christo Piliafas and Scott DiPonio say they were shocked to learn today of Charles Rowan's arrest for armed robbery and assault… because they were led to believe he died in a car accident last month.

Just two weeks ago, the promoters helped raise $1,000 to pay for Rowan's funeral, only to discover that his girlfriend, Rosalinda Martinez, clearly misled them.

After all, Martinez, Rowan and a friend were booked this afternoon after holding up a gun shop in Michigan Monday.

They were charged with three felonies, including assault with intent to murder because they left the gun shop owner a bloody mess.

“It made me sick to my stomach. I was furious. I was livid,” Piliafas said upon seeing Rowan's mug shot. “It’s not so much about the money. It’s just how many people were involved in this scam.... The little bit that I knew [about] this kid, I never would have thought that he’d try to pull some Machiavelli crap like that.”

Rowan’s fifth career fight was scheduled for February in Traverse City. That evening, according to DiPonio said, Martinez called from Rowan’s phone number to inform him that her Rowan had been involved in a wreck on the way to the event and was dead.

Read More...  http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/mma-fighter-faked-death-arrested-for-armed-robbery/#sthash.hBltbjH0.dpuf

Bobby Brown out of Jail, only serviced 8 Hours

Singer Bobby Brown is now wearing an electronic ankle bracelet and is out of jail after serving eight hours behind bars in connection with a DUI conviction, sheriff's officials said Thursday.

Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said Brown was likely to serve no more than nine days in County Jail because of overcrowding, as well as time off for good behavior and credit for "good time work time." But Whitmore also noted the sentence could be influenced by his county probation officials.

It was their decision to place Brown on an electronic ankle bracelet, Whitmore said. The exact requirements were not available, Whitmore said, but inmates typically cannot travel outside their homes for the time they are under electronic monitoring.

In addition to the jail time for pleas related to drunk driving, driving on a suspended license and a probation violation for a prior DUI incident, Brown also must complete an 18-month alcohol-treatment program and attend three Alcoholics Anonymous meetings a week.

Read More... http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/03/bobby-brown-out-of-jail-in-8-hours-and-on-electronic-monitoring.html