New York Paralegal Blog

Company’s Former Use of Criminal Background Checks Discriminated Based On Race, Agency Found MINNEAPOLIS – Pepsi Beverages (Pepsi), formerly known as Pepsi Bottling Group, has agreed to pay $3.13 million and provide job offers and training to resolve a charge of race discrimination filed in the Minneapolis Area Office of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The monetary settlement will primarily be divided among black applicants for positions at Pepsi, with a portion of the sum being allocated for the administration of the claims process. Based on the investigation, the EEOC found reasonable cause to believe that the criminal background check policy formerly used by Pepsi discriminated against African Americans in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

DETROIT - TSW Management, Inc, an owner of several Burger King restaurants in the Metro Detroit area, violated Title VII by subjected a class of female employees to pervasive sexual harassment and retaliation, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today.

(CN) - Michael Jackson's former manager claims he is entitled to commissions on business deals that have taken place in the years since the King of Pop's death. Frederick DeMann, owner and president of the company DeMann Entertainment, then Weisner-DeMann Entertainment Inc., was Michael Jackson's manager during the lucrative years between 1978 and 1983 - when Jackson released the albums "Thriller" and "Off the Wall."

MILWAUKEE – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced today that a federal judge has entered a $110,000 consent decree that resolves an EEOC race discrimination and retaliation lawsuit brought against Federal Insurance Company, doing business as Chubb & Son, a U.S.-based property and casualty insurance giant with business worldwide. The EEOC charged that Chubb refused to promote Kong Chee Vang, a Hmong employee, in its Milwaukee underwriting office because of her Asian race. The EEOC contended that Chubb failed to stop its managers from using stereotypes and negative assumptions based on race while supposedly considering Vang in 2006 and 2007 for a promotion to underwriter. The suit further asserted that Chubb retaliated against Vang after she filed a complaint with EEOC alleging that her Hmong national origin and Asian race were the reasons she did not get the promotion. The retaliation, the EEOC said, consisted of Chubb’s rejecting Vang for a second pr...

MILWAUKEE, Wis. – HCS Medical Staffing, Inc. violated federal law by discriminating against a pregnant employee and then firing her while she was on maternity leave, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed here today. According to the EEOC’s suit, (EEOC v. HCS Medical Staffing, Inc., Case No. 2:11-cv-00402), filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Charles Sisson, owner of the Milwaukee medical staffing company, engaged in escalating negative comments about the upcoming maternity leave of HCS bookkeeper Roxy Leger. Sisson’s statements allegedly included insisting that Leger’s pregnancy was a joke, describing her maternity leave as “vacation,” and insisting that maternity leave should be no longer than two days. The EEOC contends that Sisson then terminated Leger, who had no prior negative comments on her work performance, seven days after she gave birth as she recovered from the delivery of her baby by Caesarean ...

An indictment has been returned in federal court in Minneapolis charging a 47-year-old New Prague woman with threatening to kill Vice President Joe Biden and several federal law enforcement officers. Kim Rolene Hutterer has been charged with one count of threats against the vice president, one count of threatening interstate communications, and two counts of mailing threatening communications. The indictment alleges that on October 19, 2010, Hutterer mailed a letter containing threats against Vice President Biden and an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In addition, Hutterer allegedly mailed a similar threat to a federal law enforcement officer on March 29, 2011. Finally, the indictment alleges that on September 21, 2010, Hutterer threatened an employee of the United States Bureau of Prisons (“BOP”) during a telephone call to the BOP’s Federal Correctional Institute in Welch, West Virginia. A law enforcement affidavit filed in the present case states that in 1991, Hutte...

PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and JANICE K. FEDARCYK, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced today the unsealing of charges against JOSEPH F. SKOWRON III, a/k/a “Chip Skowron,” a former portfolio manager of a health care unit of a hedge fund group (the “Hedge Fund”) for engaging in an insider trading scheme. SKOWRON allegedly used material, non-public information (“Inside Information”) that he received from YVES BENHAMOU, a doctor who served as an advisor to Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (“HGSI”) on a clinical drug trial, to avoid approximately $30 million in trading losses. SKOWRON also was charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice for urging BENHAMOU to lie during an investigation into his trading. SKOWRON surrendered to authorities earlier this morning and is expected to be presented in Magistrate Court this afternoon. BENHAMOU, who was previously charged a...

PHOENIX – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today announced that Federal District Court Judge Mary H. Murguia has entered a consent decree for nearly $2 million and significant remedial relief to resolve a class religious discrimination lawsuit against the University of Phoenix, Inc., and its parent corporation, Apollo Group, Inc. Apollo Group and the University of Phoenix are one of the largest employers in the Phoenix metropolitan area. In its lawsuit, filed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (EEOC v. University of Phoenix, Inc., and Apollo Group, Inc., CV 06-2303-PHX-ROS), the EEOC charged that the University of Phoenix engaged in a widespread practice of discriminating against non-Mormon employees who worked as enrollment counselors in the University’s Online Division. Enrollment counselors at the University of Phoenix are responsible for recruiting students and are largely evaluated based on the number of students they recruit. At present, the Universi...

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department announced today the filing of a lawsuit against the State of Vermont and Vermont Secretary of State Deborah L. Markowitz, alleging violations of the Uniformed Overseas Citizen Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA). UOCAVA is designed to ensure that uniformed military members and overseas citizens may effectively participate in federal elections. Vermont and the Secretary are responsible for collecting and reporting the number of military voters and overseas citizens who are sent ballots, return them and have them successfully cast in each federal general election. Vermont has failed to fulfill this important obligation ever since it became law in the Help America Vote Act of 2002. The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Burlington, Vt., seeks a declaration that Vermont has previously violated the law, and seeks an injunction against any future noncompliance. "Accurate and complete information about whether our uniformed service members and over...

WASHINGTON - The Department of Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) have jointly filed a complaint in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas to enforce a mediation settlement agreement that was entered into by the EEOC on behalf of an individual and the Housing Authority of the City of El Paso (Housing Authority). The settlement agreement resolved a charge that was filed against the Housing Authority under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in employment on the bases of sex, race, national origin and religion, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA). The charging party claimed that she had been discriminated against on the basis of her national origin and her age when she was not selected for a promotion. In exchange for the dismissal of the charge, the Housing Authority agreed to pay the charging party $2,000, make certain changes to its promotional interview panels, and allow an outsid...