Following up on our Feb. 24 report: “Three 12-year-old girls whose lies put an innocent man in jail for eight months pleaded guilty Thursday and were sentenced to Juvenile Hall and community service. Two of the girls must each serve 45 days and the third must serve 30 — the shorter sentence granted because she was considered less culpable, her lawyer said after the closed-door Orange County Juvenile Court hearing. The girls have already served most of their time while waiting in custody since their arrest Feb. 9. … The Orange County district attorney’s office had pressed for the Garden Grove girls to serve eight months and 13 days on criminal conspiracy charges, one day more than 36-year-old drifter Eric Nordmark was incarcerated.” (Claire Luna, “Girls Given Sentences for Lying”, Los Angeles Times, Mar. 5)
Posts Tagged ‘harassment law’
Harassment: has a bubble burst?
Naomi Wolf publishes an article seemingly destined to score a “surefire, indignant bang of contemporary succ?s de scandale” about being the subject of an alleged pass from Prof. Harold Bloom twenty years ago. The expected reactions, however, are not forthcoming. “I keep a close watch on my cultural windmills, and I can tell you categorically that a few years ago, this story would have had them spinning furiously, unanimously, in favor of Wolf.” But a cultural moment seems to have passed, and with it the old inquisitorial spirit once automatically triggered by harassment charges. “Wolf appears now like a helpless vendor trying to peddle a Semper Augustus tulip bulb in Rotterdam circa 1769.” (Celia Farber, New York Press, vol. 17, iss. 9)(via The Minor Fall, the Major Lift).
False accusations? Just a phase they’re going through
Three Garden Grove, Calif. schoolgirls, worried about having to explain getting home late after school, concoct a tale about being assaulted by a man in a park. 36-year-old drifter Eric Nordmark is arrested and thrown in jail where, after the girls tell various colorful lies, he spends more than half a year, planning to commit suicide if he is convicted. Then the girls’ story falls apart, and the principal accuser admits the attack never occurred. (L.A. Times coverage: H.G. Reza and Joel Rubin, “Young Accusers Arrested, Led From School in Cuffs”, Feb. 10; Christine Hanley and Joel Rubin, “No Jail Time Expected for 3 O.C. Girls”, Feb. 11; “2 Preteen Accusers to Stay in Custody”, Feb. 12; H.G. Reza, Christine Hanley and James Ricci, “Drifter Jailed on Girls’ Lies Set Course of Desperation”, Feb. 23). Curmudgeonly Clerk (Feb. 12) writes that “some of the reactions reported in the aftermath of this event simply take my breath away”. Such as? Quoting the Los Angeles Times: “Attorneys Lee [Patti Lee, the managing attorney in the juvenile division of the public defender’s office in San Francisco] and Earley [Jack Earley, an Orange County defense attorney and president of the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice] said the girls may not be guilty of anything more than being immature, and simply doing what a lot of kids their age do when they get in trouble: lie to get out of it. ‘It sounds like an adolescent tale gone awry,’ Lee said.” Historical echoes: Tawana Brawley (whose best-known advocate, lest we need reminding, is still running for president); and the English folk song “Fanny Blair” (text and tune with MIDI; background at Musical Traditions site)
Eenie meanie minie moe
The Southwest Airlines case (see Feb. 11, 2003, Jan. 22 of this year) turns out not to be the first time that the childhood counting-out rhyme has been cited as inflicting a hostile environment, with far-reaching repercussions. David Bernstein at Volokh Conspiracy (Feb. 5) prints a letter from a woman who lost her job over it in University City, Mo., near St. Louis. See Jeff Starck, “Can’t wait for end of P.C. age”, Webster Journal (Webster University), Dec. 5, 2002.
Harassment: do as we say?
“A federal jury on Wednesday awarded $500,000 to a former Cook County employee who alleged she was sexually harassed by her boss, who at the time was the county’s chief investigator of sexual harassment allegations. The jury of four women and three men deliberated for about 3 1/2 hours before deciding in favor of Sharla Roberts, a mother of three who said she was groped by Timothy Flick, the county’s first inspector general.” Flick denied the allegations. (Matt O’Connor, “$500,000 awarded in harassment case”, Chicago Tribune, Jan. 22; “County Official ‘Never’ Touched, Kissed Manager”, NBC5.com, Jan. 15). For more stories from the hoist-on-their-own-petard file, see Jun. 14-16, 2002 (EEOC says U.S. Commission on Civil Rights retaliated against employee who filed bias complaint), Mar. 6, 2001 (EEOC itself accused of age discrimination), Aug. 30, 1999 (U.S. Justice Department charged with ignoring employee overtime law), Feb. 6-9, 2003 (Sen. Wellstone, noted labor advocate, illegally failed to buy workers’ comp insurance for his campaign staff), and this 1998 list.
“Jury: Airline Not Liable for Racist Rhyme”
Updating the “eenie, meenie, minie, moe” saga featured in this space last Feb. 11: “Southwest Airlines is not liable for a flight attendant who upset two black passengers by using a version of a rhyme with a racist history, a jury determined Wednesday.” Attorney Scott A. Wissel had represented the two women in the Kansas City, Kan. federal trial. (AP/Wired News, Jan. 21)
Satanic abuse trials
Canada had them too, in places like Saskatoon and Martensville, Saskatchewan. Colby Cosh elucidates (“Which witch will we hunt next?”, National Post, Jan. 2)(his weblog)(our earlier coverage: Sept. 4, 1999, Apr. 17, 2001, etc.). More: Gerry Klein, “Saskatchewan not sorry for malicious prosecution: Family accused of sadistic child abuse”, CanWest/National Post, Jan. 9.
“Shut up! Or I’ll sue”
I review David Bernstein’s “You Can’t Say That! The Growing Threat to Civil Liberties From Antidiscrimination Laws” in today’s New York Post (see Nov. 7). The book can be purchased here.
Compulsory chapel for Minn. lawyers, cont’d
In the state of Minnesota, lawyers can lose their licenses unless they complete two credits every three years in what is called “Elimination of Bias” training, which resembles what is known in other contexts as diversity or sensitivity training. As we commented two years ago (see Dec. 18, 2001): “The point is less to regulate attorneys’ conduct than to instill in them opinions that the authorities consider correct about complex political and moral questions, and many of the resulting seminars have had a tendentious, preachy anti- white- male tone.” Now an attorney named Elliot Rothenberg has taken the matter to the Minnesota Supreme Court by defying the requirement. “The Board of Continuing Legal Education recommended last June that Rothenberg?s license be placed on involuntary restricted status” because of his refusal to submit to the training. “Rothenberg argues that the rule violates his free-speech rights and the Establishment Clause, which prohibits government endorsement of particular religious viewpoints.” (Barbara L. Jones, “Lawyer challenges two-credit anti-bias requirement”, Minnesota Lawyer, Nov. 17, subscriber-only article; website about the case by Peter Swanson, a lawyer who has filed an amicus brief in Rothenberg’s favor) More: Power Line has a summary with many further details. (& see Jan. 2). Update: Aug. 4, 2005.