Maryland lawyer bites back with bedbug lawsuits

Daniel Whitney has staked his claim on the title of Maryland’s bedbug barrister: Since Sept. 1, the Towson attorney has filed eight lawsuits on behalf of bedbug victims across the state seeking a total of more than $7 million in damages.

The claims, ranging from $100,000 to $3.55 million, are mostly against apartment building owners and managers who the victims say were negligent in dealing with infestations.

The lawsuits have made Whitney the object of scorn, with some people suggesting that he’s, well . . . something of a human parasite himself.

“I’m very aware of the derogatory comments people make about me being a bloodsucker seeking large sums of money,” Whitney said. “It’s nonsense. These people need help.”

Whitney is far from done. He says he’s on the verge of filing five more bedbug lawsuits and has another 21 open files that could result in complaints.

“Potential clients keep contacting me, almost daily,” said the lawyer, whose firm, Whitney & Bogris, would collect between 33 percent and 40 percent of any settlement or judgment in the cases. “I’m going to have to take my number off our Web site.”

Over a three-decade career, Whitney has mostly defended corporate clients in product liability, malpractice and toxic tort cases.

“I never thought I’d become known as the bedbug attorney,” he said.

Bedbug complaints constitute a relatively nascent legal niche, surfacing only a few years ago after the bloodsucking insects came back from the brink.

The common bedbug, Cimex lectularius, which generally feasts on the blood of sleeping humans, was nearly eradicated in the United States in the 1950s through liberal application of potent pesticides such as the since-banned DDT. But the apple-seed-sized insects, which survived in other parts of the world, have made an unexpected and unwelcome return here since the late 1990s.

They’re showing up everywhere: In college dorms, government buildings, Google’s offices – even luxury hotels such as the Waldorf-Astoria, which has been sued by guests who say they got chewed up at the New York landmark.

As the snarky legal blog, Above the Law, put it recently: “There’s Only One Way to Deal With Bedbugs: Release the Sharks.”

More…

Maryland lawyer bites back with bedbug lawsuits.

Ugandan gay rights activist: ‘I have to watch my back more than ever’ | Amnesty International

Frank Mugisha

Frank Mugisha, Chair of the NGO Sexual Minorities Uganda, is no stranger to receiving threats because of his sexual orientation. But when a Ugandan tabloid published his personal details in October and called for him and others to be hanged for ‘recruiting children’ he knew there would be a struggle ahead – on the streets and in the courts.

Mugisha has told Amnesty International about the impact of the article on his life, and the so far successful legal battle by his organization, to stop the tabloid from inciting more hatred and violence towards the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) community.

One day last month, “a friend gave me the paper, and told me ‘well, you’re one of the top homos in Uganda’.”

The first issue of the ‘Rolling Stone’ tabloid on 2 October bore the front page headline ‘100 Pictures of Uganda’s Top Homos Leak’ with a caption reading ‘Hang Them’.

According to Mugisha, the ‘Rolling Stone’ article was the most hostile attempt yet to incite panic about gay people in Uganda.

The front page also bore the claims “We Shall Recruit 100,000 Innocent Kids by 2012 – Homos” and “Parents Now Face Heart-Breaks [sic] as Homos Raid Schools.”  The issue, and another published on 31 October, together publicised the identities of 117 alleged homosexuals.

“When I read the headline that said ‘hang them’ and then the fact they said we are out to recruit children, I was worried about the Ugandan community reading that kind of information and how they would react to it.”

“Two days after the paper was on the streets I was harassed in my area, with verbal insults. Almost every person who was named in the paper has been harassed, and some have been attacked.”

“The harassment comes from phone calls, people on the street, from neighbours, asking them why they are recruiting children, saying ‘the newspapers are calling for you to be hanged, we think you are worth it, worth being hanged, being killed’.”

One of the members of his organization had her home pelted with stones by her own neighbours.

“I do feel threatened, I feel now I have to watch my back more than ever.”

But Mugisha and his organization were not forced into silence by this wave of harassment.  They have taken the tabloid to the Ugandan High Court.

On 1 November, the court issued an interim injunction against ‘Rolling Stone’, banning them from publishing any further personal details of alleged homosexuals as an invasion of privacy.  A hearing into the merits of the case will be heard later this month.

According to media reports, the paper has since reportedly vowed to break the ban, saying it will continue to publish personal details of alleged homosexuals.

Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda under colonial-era laws contrary to international human rights standards. In a chilling development in 2009, the government proposed the death penalty for ‘aggravated homosexuality‘ in an Anti-Homosexuality Bill which has yet to be debated in parliament.

“All this homophobia comes from ignorance.  The fact that there’s no space for discussion, no space for understanding, that’s why some of these government officials don’t understand the LGBTI issues.”

Mugisha’s work continues, with a further High Court hearing against the newspaper scheduled for 23 November. He is optimistic about the hearing and confident in his organisation’s legal team.  Still, the life of an LGBTI activist in Uganda is one lived in caution.

“I don’t know what could happen to me at any minute. I do not know who wants to hang me, I do not know who wants to attack me. I cannot decide on my fate. [But] I cannot go back in the closet – I gave my life to the movement, I can’t change it now.”

“What I can do is keep fighting on and be very careful.”

Ugandan gay rights activist: ‘I have to watch my back more than ever’ | Amnesty International.

25 years in Thailand’s sex industry | CNNGo.com

Founding director Khun Chantawipa ‘Noi’ Apisuk

One of Thailand’s most controversial and intriguing organizations celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

Empower, which stands for “Education Means Protection of Women Engaged in Recreation”, is a non-profit organization with centers in Bangkok’s Patpong red light district, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Mae Sai and Patong Beach in Phuket. It provides women involved in Thailand’s illegal sex trade with free English classes and advice on health, law, education and counseling. It also lobbies the government to extend employment rights and benefits to sex workers and to legalize prostitution.

Founding director Khun Chantawipa ‘Noi’ Apisuk talks to CNNGo about the need to recognize sex workers as contributors to the economy, while sharing her controversial views on the trafficking of women.

‘We never call ourselves bar girls’

Describing the organization’s beginnings, Noi says they started out as a small group of women, both activists and sex workers, sharing language skills and life experiences together.

“We didn’t plan to evolve into a foundation; initially we just wanted to learn from each other and support each other.”

Unlike most Thai organizations operating in this field, Empower takes a neutral stance towards sex work and does not pressure people to leave the trade.

“It’s frustrating to keep repeating ourselves for over 25 years that sex work is work,” she says. “Sex workers are workers who must be given the same benefits and protections as other workers and equal respect and space in society.

“We never call ourselves ‘bar girls’,” says Noi, adding that they don’t dub themselves “prostitutes” either, as that word carries an old-fashioned stigma. Noi says that 50,000 sex workers have joined Empower over the last 25 years, though the group does not aim to help in the traditional sense that a charity or welfare organization might.

“Empower is a space where sex workers can promote our human rights, including advocating change in government policy. It is largely run and managed by sex workers for sex workers, providing access to basic rights like education, health and community belonging.”

Contributing to the economy

Pointing out the importance of Thailand’s sex trade, Noi says that sex workers are often the head of the family, supporting five to eight other adults.

“Much of the tourist industry is dependent on sex workers and it makes up around 7 percent of the GDP — more than rice exports,” she says. “The International Labour Organisation found sex workers send home US$300 million a year to rural areas, which is more than any government development project.”

Noi says that most of Thailand’s sex workers work in entertainment venues serving drinks, dancing, singing, playing snooker, massaging or chatting with customers.

“None of these activities are illegal and the places themselves can be legally registered. Sex workers need the work we do recognized as work so the Thai labor law and social security act, along with occupational health and safety codes, can be applied to our workplaces. This would give sex workers the same protections and benefits that other workers enjoy.”

Still waiting for concrete change

“We have had maybe 10 governments since we began. We have worked closely with some addressing social problems like HIV or child abuse; others have used sex workers as scapegoats or happily used sex worker earnings to build the economy. Many are our good customers,” she notes, adding that Empower has been recognized by the Department of Non Formal Education and the Department of Public Health, and has worked together with the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Art and Culture and the Ministry of Human Resources and Development.

Nui says Empower is still waiting for a sincere government that will make concrete changes to policy and law enforcement to improve the lives of sex workers. Meanwhile, she says many anti-trafficking organizations fail to recognize the important difference between migrant sex workers and women forced to prostitute themselves against their will.

“In my opinion, many raid-and-rescue operations and the following arrests and stigmatization only worsen the situation of sex workers,” she says. “Our bar, Can Do, is a model for exemplary working conditions in the industry. Workers have a day off each week and we provide social security benefits, proving a safe, fair work place is possible.”

25 years in Thailand’s sex industry | CNNGo.com.

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• Supporting Your Local Sex Worker (socyberty.com)

Fake Tripadvisor reviewers face legal action – Telegraph

People who post fake online hotel reviews are to be granted a two-week amnesty to remove them or face legal action, it emerged this week.

Kwikchex, which describes itself as an online reputation-management company, told Telegraph Travel that next month it will publish a list of “thousands” of reviewers it suspects of posting fraudulent and defamatory comments.

Last month, Kwikchex, which is acting on behalf of more than 800 hotels and restaurants, announced plans to bring a group legal action against user-generated review websites such as TripAdvisor.

Once its list of suspects is published, the websites concerned will be told to notify any of their “reviewers” on the list.

“People who leave these anonymous reviews, which can damage the reputation of both businesses and individuals, need to realise that not only can they be sued for libel but they can also face criminal prosecution,” said Chris Emmins, of Kwikchex.

The firm is threatening legal action against reviewers who fail to remove objectionable posts within a 14-day period or who fail to substantiate their claims and show that they were actually guests at the establishments concerned.

“This will commence with a court application for disclosure of all information held by the website publisher regarding the identity of the poster, in order for the business to be able to repair the damage done to its reputation,” he said.

He added that those who could prove they had asked the website, without success, to remove their comments would also be exempt from prosecution.

“In these cases, the website will be presumed to have taken full responsibility for the continued publication of the posts.”

A spokeswoman for TripAdvisor said she could not comment on threatened or pending litigation, but said the company had always allowed reviewers – via the help centre on the site – to request that reviews they had posted be taken down.

TripAdvisor takes privacy protection very seriously and will not release, publish or endorse any lists of the actual names of reviewers, suspected of posting fraudulent reviews or otherwise, unless required by a court of law,” she said.

The move follows a Telegraph Travel investigation this month of the reviews that appear on TripAdvisor, which use potentially defamatory terms such as “racist, pervert and homophobic” and appear without any proof or confirmation that the “reviewer” has visited the establishment concerned.

This week, Graham Stephenson, the owner of Cheviot Holiday Cottages, a set of award-winning properties in Northumberland, told Telegraph Travel of the damage that an unsubstantiated review on TripAdvisor had caused his business. Although he has provided evidence that he was away on holiday at the time, TripAdvisor has refused to remove the post. Mr Stephenson has posted a management response beneath the review to make people aware that the claims are untrue, but he believes the damage has been done.

Martin Verdon-Roe, TripAdvisor’s director of sales, said that growing numbers of owners were using this facility to respond to reviews. Addressing an audience at Abta’s annual travel convention this week, Mr Verdon-Roe said: “We have had 250,000 responses from hotel managers since January 2009. Of the millions of reviews on our site, some 76 per cent are positive.”

Last month, Tripadvisor became the world’s largest travel website, with more than 40 million hits a month and 25 reviews posted every minute.

“Whether you believe these reviews to be true or false, they have huge influence,” said Charlie Osmond, of Fresh Networks, a London company that specialises in social media. “Some hotels will soon have dedicated terminals to allow people to leave reviews as they check- out.”

The editors of the Good Hotel Guide this week accused TripAdvisor of being “brazen and shameless” in printing malicious reviews without checking their authenticity. They said they had been inundated with complaints from hoteliers about “fraudulent” reviews.

Fake Tripadvisor reviewers face legal action – Telegraph.

Related Articles

• Tripadvisor reviews: can we trust them? (telegraph.co.uk)
• Tripadvisor case study: ‘A guest with a grudge attacked my business’ (telegraph.co.uk)

“Smile, Officer,” you’re on Candid Camera | The Barr Code

New developments in modern technology, coupled with a burgeoning social media network and a 24/7 news cycle, have combined to create a cottage industry of  amateur videos that are shedding much-needed light on everything from politicians’ gaffes to police abuses.  And law enforcement officers especially are not taking kindly to the unwanted scrutiny.

Perhaps the most well known example of this is an incident that took place on a rail platform in Oakland, California on New Year’s Day in 2009. Transit officers were responding to a fight and while attempting to detain one of the suspects, who was unarmed; an officer pulled his weapon and fatally shot the man in the back. The incident was captured on video by witnesses, and later was used to convict the officer of involuntary manslaughter.

It may also be that the same video evidence saved the officer from a more serious charge, as experts in the trial testified he mistakenly thought he was pulling his taser, not his firearm.

Police irritation at being videoed when they don’t want to be, has led to a number of incidents where officers improperly have bullied citizen camera operators to stop recording.  This was the case earlier this year when United States Park Police stopped reporters from recording a protest against the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, where six members of the military handcuffed themselves to a gate in front of the White House.

Police offered no explanation to reporters as they hurried them away from the scene other than saying that Lafayette Park, a public area directly across the street from the White House, was “closed.”

So long as private citizens record what takes place in public, and do not in so doing actually interfere with an arrest or other legitimate law enforcement activity, they have every right to do so.  If the police or politicians have a problem with that because it might cause them embarrassment, then they probably shouldn’t have been doing what they were doing that prompted the recording in the first place.

Thankfully, there is something called the “First Amendment” that guarantees the citizen’s right to record what happens in public.  And, unfortunately, things have reached the point at which politicians and law enforcement alike need to be reminded of that.

“Smile, Officer,” you’re on Candid Camera | The Barr Code.

Related Articles

• Some Police Officers Should Chill (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)
• “Watch this! Cuff him up” (apublicdefender.com)

Father accidentally shoots own mother, son – Las Cruces Sun-News

CHAPARRAL – A man accidentally shot his young son and his own mother just after 11 this morning in the 600 block of Luna Azul Drive in Chaparral, N.M.

The man was cleaning his 9 mm semiautomatic handgun when he shot both his 4-year-old son and his own mother, Doña Ana Sheriff’s Department investigator Bo Nevarez said.

“The grandmother was sitting behind the boy when the gun accidentally discharged striking the boy, continuing through, striking his grandmother in the abdomen as well,” Nevarez said.

Both victims were taken by ambulance to University Medical Center in El Paso, where they were listed in critical condition early this afternoon, Nevarez said.

The shooter is believed to be 26-year-old Aaron C. Eliserio, based on phone records, but Nevarez declined to confirm or deny that information.

Eliserio identifies himself both as a U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq and a corrections officer at a detention center on his MySpace profile online. One of his photos, in which he shows one of his sons how to hold a small handgun, is titled, “never to [sic] early to play with guns.”

The case will be forwarded to the 3rd Judicial District Attorney’s Office to determine possible criminal charges.

UPDATED: Chaparral father accidentally shoots own mother, son (1:05 p.m.) – Las Cruces Sun-News.

Related Articles

• NM man cleaning gun accidentally shoots mom, son (seattletimes.nwsource.com)