Mass shooting survivors filing $100 million lawsuits against Oxford Schools
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. — Survivors of the mass shooting at Oxford High School are filing two $100 million lawsuits against the school district and employees, lawyer Geoffrey Fieger said Thursday.
The announcement comes more than one week after prosecutors say 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley fatally shot four students and wounded six other students and a teacher.
Fieger filed one federal lawsuit on behalf of Oxford students and siblings Riley Franz, 17, a senior, and Bella Franz, 14, a freshman. Riley was shot in the neck while next to Bella during the attack.
That lawsuit accuses school officials of failing to stop an attack that inflicted physical and psychological injuries on students and marked the start of what is expected to be a flurry of lawsuits against the district in the wake of the country’s deadliest school shooting since 2018.
Defendants listed in the federal lawsuit filed early Thursday include Superintendent Timothy Throne, High School Principal Steven Wolf, Dean Ryan Moore and unidentified counselors, teachers and staff members.
"The horror of November 30, 2021 was entirely preventable," Fieger said in a statement Thursday.
—The Detroit News
Militia man says Yale secret society made him storm Capitol
NEW YORK — An alleged member of the ultra-right Three Percenter militia movement said he was manipulated into participating in the Capitol riot by Yale secret society “Skull and Bones” and other groups he said were covertly acting for the government.
Allen Hostetter, who is among the handful of rioters facing more serious conspiracy charges over the Jan. 6 siege, made the outlandish claims in a Monday filing in federal court in Washington asking the judge to dismiss the charges against him. He is representing himself in the case.
In addition to Skull and Bones, San Clemente, California, resident Hostetter said “specific religious denominations known for secrecy such as Scientology and Mormonism” also helped covertly entice him into joining the assault at the behest of the federal government. Hostetter said he was targeted starting in March 2020 because he began organizing anti-lockdown protests during the pandemic, and that government agents “fashioned the lure to be as attractive as possible.”
The government’s tactics “resulted in the defendant literally being walked up the steps of the U.S. Capitol led by said agents or operatives,” he said.
As “proof,” Hostetter claimed those groups had a long history of colluding with the government and said one of his co-defendants was a Mormon. “Skull and Bones,” to which both Presidents Bush belonged, has long figured in conspiracy theories.
—Bloomberg News
NYC’s met pulls Sackler name from galleries after opioid scandal
NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Museum of Art is removing the name of the Sackler family, which made billions selling opioids and contributed to a staggering public health crisis in the U.S., from some of its most iconic exhibition spaces.
The New York museum said their names would be pulled from galleries, including the wing that houses the Temple of Dendur, according to a statement on Thursday. The decision was made in agreement with the families of Mortimer Sackler and Raymond Sackler.
“Our families have always strongly supported the Met, and we believe this to be in the best interest of the Museum and the important mission that it serves,” the Sackler descendants said in a statement. “The earliest of these gifts were made almost fifty years ago, and now we are passing the torch to others who might wish to step forward to support the Museum.”
The Sacklers were for decades leading figures in global philanthropy, with their name emblazoned on museums around the world. But as the Sacklers, whose company Purdue Pharma LP produced the blockbuster painkiller OxyContin, became the public face of the opioid crisis, organizations including the Met and Louvre came under fire for bearing their name.
In September, a U.S. bankruptcy judge approved Purdue’s plan to resolve thousands of opioid lawsuits that drove it to insolvency. As part of the settlement, the Sacklers agreed to contribute about $4.5 billion, sell their pharmaceutical holdings and forfeit their equity in Purdue. (The Sacklers themselves are not the subject of the bankruptcy proceedings involving Purdue Pharma, but some members of the family are named alongside the company in the civil lawsuits.)
—Bloomberg News
Mayor of Puerto Rican city is charged with corruption by federal authorities
Federal authorities arrested and charged the mayor of the Puerto Rican city of Guaynabo with accepting payoffs, amid a public corruption crackdown that has resulted in the arrest of multiple public officials and contractors in recent weeks.
“The mayor of Guaynabo, who was entrusted by his constituents with the best interests of the people, allegedly took part in an illegal scheme using his position for personal gain,” said the U.S. Attorney for Puerto Rico, Stephen Muldrow, at a press conference on Thursday morning.
Ángel Pérez Otero — who was first elected Guaynabo’s mayor in 2017, and whose predecessor recently admitted guilt in a sexual harassment and gender violence case — is facing three federal charges of conspiracy, federal program bribery and extortion. Videos of the arrest, carried out before the sun rose Thursday, show Pérez-Otero being taken into FBI custody amid flashing car lights.
The indictment says the mayor accepted bribes and kickbacks between 2019 and 2021 from a currently unidentified individual in exchange for municipal contracts. Pérez-Otero, federal authorities say, influenced and pressured Guaynabo officers to give contracts to the company of the unnamed person, from whom he received regular cash sums of $5,000.
At the press conference, Murdrow said that Pérez-Otero could face several prison sentences, including 20 years on the extortion charge. He added that the company involved in the criminal complaint offered construction services.
—Miami Herald
