Articles about Law
Ryan Romo, the Highland Park Student Who Sued the Girl Who Accused Him of Rape, is Now Being Countersued For That Alleged Rape
You’ll remember that last fall an 18-year-old Highland Park High School student named Ryan Romo was charged with raping a fellow student after a concert. The grand jury declined to indict him. Then Romo’s family sued the accuser for defamation.
Today we learn that accuser, a 16-year-old at the time of the alleged crime and identified in court documents only as Jane Doe, has countersued Romo for “mental anguish, physical pain and suffering, and medical treatment as a result of sexual assault.”
She’s being represented by Charla Aldous, who won a $9.3 million verdict in the case resulting from the Episcopal School of Dallas sex scandal. Via Culture Map Dallas:
“Ultimately, the criminal justice system did not punish Ryan Romo, in part because of what appears to be an inadequate presentation of the case by the attorney in charge,” the suit reads. “For reasons unknown, corroborating evidence was not presented to the grand jury, including the testimony of an examining gynecologist who was willing and will testify that, based on the physical trauma to Jane Doe, she in reasonable medical probability was forcibly sexually penetrated.”
The lawsuit further claims that the Romos intend to cause Jane Doe and her family distress and to discourage sexual assault victims from coming forward in cases of date rape.
“This jury will have the opportunity to send a message that this community will support those making good faith claims of assault and not tolerate attempts to trample on victims,” the suit reads.
Leading Off (4/22/13)
West Blast Investigation Continues, Children Head back to School: The center of the fertilizer factory explosion was located over the weekend. Media were allowed a look at the epicenter of the blast Sunday. In Dallas, a memorial for a local firefighter who died in the explosions. West students head back to school in nine nearby school districts. Donations to West have been strong. And, if you haven’t yet, check out Zac’s expanded reflections on his hometown on NBC.
Photos and Criticism of the New Bush Center: The Dallas Morning News has a special section dedicated to the new George W. Bush Presidential Center, which opens this Thursday. It includes a sneak peek, an interview with the ex-president, and the news’ new architecture critic’s first bow:
Designed by New York architect Robert A.M. Stern, it seems decidedly undecided about its place in the world, trading in the language of architectures past while claiming, without much conviction, the mantle of the present. Everywhere competent, it nowhere rises to a level of inspiration.
Trial Over Kaufman Slayings Will Likely Take Place in Kaufman: You would think a highly publicized trial in a small county like Kaufman would force the trial to move in order to find jurors less familiar with the case. But finding any location in Texas where potential jurors are unfamiliar with the shooting death of the Kaufman County district attorney may be close to impossible.
Dallas Lawyer’s Suit Claims Firm Scheef & Stone Banned Men and Women From Fraternizing
Kim Elkjer
Kimberly A. Elkjer of Dallas-based Scheef & Stone is suing the firm because of its ban on men and women working alone together. The suit claims this policy made it more difficult for women to advance in their careers there. From AOL Jobs:
While the rules are no longer in effect, Elkjer’s lawsuit says, they created a segregated culture that persists — a culture that denies female attorneys the same opportunities for business and for raises as their male colleagues, and hurts their ability to work. This violates the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act, her suit states, which prohibits employers from making decisions that harm the “terms, conditions, or privileges” of employees on the basis of gender.
“If their concern was harassment or something, you wouldn’t do that to African American employees,” says [Elkjer's attorney Amy] Gibson. ” ‘We’re afraid someone will accuse us of racial harassment, so white employees can’t be alone with African American employees.’ That’s crazy.”
The firm says there’s no evidence to support Elkjer’s claims.
The lawsuit wasn’t specific about the exact wording or rationale of the policy, or the years that it was in effect. Gibson says that she’s concerned about violating the firm’s confidentiality policy, which was brought to her attention — in a manner she found “threatening” — not long before she filed suit.
UPDATE: The PR firm for Scheef & Stone asked me to share their full statement on the suit. Take the jump if you’d like to read it:
(more…)
Leading Off (4/12/13)
No $20 Million Severance For American Airlines CEO. As part of an order approving the airline’s merger with US Airways, a judge has disallowed the payment that the bankrupt airline planned to give Tom Horton, who will step down as the company’s CEO once the merger is complete. The $19,875,000 Horton was slated to receive is more than 10 times the average severance paid to outgoing AMR employees during the bankruptcy. According to the judge, the proposed payment exceeds what’s allowed under federal bankruptcy code. But maybe this meddling judge just doesn’t understand the way that big corporations have to operate, huh? I mean, how’s American Airlines ever going to attract top talent to lead it into bankruptcy again if Horton gets only a piddly $9 million or $10 million severance check?
Second Fatal Accident For Driver. Loyd Rieve, 65, was the bus driver in yesterday’s accident in Irving that left two women dead and injured 42 others. In 1998 he drove a tour bus that ran over a good Samaritan helping at an accident scene. A grand jury declined to indict him then. There’s been no official determination of the cause of yesterday’s incident.
Jasso, Griggs Spar Over Trinity Toll Road, Gas Drilling. Due to redrawn Dallas City Council districts, incumbent council members Scott Griggs and Delia Jasso are running against each other for the District 1 seat. At last night’s debate, Griggs was working hard to draw a contrast between them, arguing that he’s the only candidate to oppose all natural gas drilling in urban areas. (Jasso indicated she’s not a big fan of the drilling but that the city may be legally obligated to allow it because of a lease it granted five years ago.) Griggs also was adamant about his opposition to building a toll road between the Trinity River levees. (Jasso said other options for the toll road should be looked at, but that the citizens of Dallas have asked for the road through a referendum, and so the city should do what the voters want.)
High School Coach Sues Cowboys Stadium Over Runaway Golf Cart. Willie Amendola, the football coach at Spring’s Dekaney High School, filed suit earlier this week. In 2011, while he was being interviewed after his team won the state title, an unmanned golf cart plowed into him from behind. He flew back into the cart’s seat and had to roll out when he couldn’t get it under control himself. He’s asking for $1 million in damages due to personal injury and “great personal anguish and embarrassment.” Look for his embarrassment in the video above.
Ryan Romo Sues Rape Accuser For Defamation
Former Highland Park baseball star Ryan Romo has filed a defamation suit against the family of the girl who accused him of rape last October.
Filed today in district court, the suit alleges that the girl’s family hoped to use the incident as a type of money-making scheme, and that the family “acted with malice, fraud and oppression and/or in conscious disregard of Ryan Romo’s rights, and with specific intent to cause substantial injury or harm to Ryan Romo.” The Romo family is seeking an unspecified amount.
CultureMap originally reported the civil suit.
Back in January, a grand jury did not indict Romo for the alleged rape. On Jan. 29, Romo family attorney Mark Senter told reporters “truth and justice prevailed.” He also said the family has “not considered any civil litigation at this point”; that has obviously changed.
The suit claims that the girl’s parents exercised little control over the teen, allowing her to drink heavily before the Oct. 27 Ghostland Observatory show. The civil filing goes into detail about what, according to Romo, happened in the backseat of his SUV following the show, contending that the acts were consensual.
On Jan. 12, two months after Romo took a polygraph test about the incident, the Romo family met with the girl’s mother and stepfather. At this meeting, the girl’s parents allegedly informed the Romos “that they would seek to have the criminal charges dropped against Ryan if the Romos would meet their various demands.” The demands are not outlined in the filing, but included money, the filing reads. Two weeks later, Romo was cleared criminally.
The Romo family is suing for malicious prosecution, negligence and vicarious liability, negligence, negligent supervision, and defamation. Some counts are filed against the parents, some against the girl.
Leading Off (3/11/13)
Police Need Help Cracking Murder Case Involving Senior: A 79-year-old woman in East Dallas was found slain in her home Saturday, and police are turning to the public for help. There were signs of forced entry, but no word on whether the residence where the woman was found was burglarized. And Bernie Tiede’s locked up, so you can scratch him off the list of suspects.
Should UNT Dallas Open New Law School When Law Grads Can’t Find Jobs? That’s one of the questions put to Ellen Pryor, associate dean for academic affairs at the new UNT Dallas College of Law, which is set to open in the old Dallas City Hall in August 2014. Her answer? Well, yes, of course, but she adds that in the current economic and education environment, UNT Dallas is in a unique position to rethink the value and shape of legal education.
Trends: We Like Driving, Botox: The tranquility of the country and the distance between Dallas and Fort Worth contribute to the percentage of North Texans with “mega-commutes,” daily drives of at least 90 minutes and 50 miles. And all that driving makes the lunch hour one of the few times during the day to take care of little errands, you know, like face-lifts.
Philanthropist’s Son Loses Suit Against Dallas Museum of Art
Remember that lawsuit brought by the son of the late Wendy Reves, the philanthropist whose art collection is now a wing of the Dallas Museum of Art? Arnold Leon Schroeder Jr., the Reves family’s sole heir, alleged that the DMA and former president of UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dr. Kern Wildenthal, bullied Wendy Reves into leaving her art collection to the museum as well as “several millions of dollars” to UT Southwestern.
Consider the issue officially buried. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld the lower court’s dismissal of the suit. Here’s the opinion.
Civil Rights Complaint Filed on Behalf Of Student Who Had Pencil Shavings Poured Into His Mouth
You’ve likely heard this story already, about the Arlington eighth-grader whose teacher poured pencil shavings into his mouth as a disciplinary action. The teacher was suspended, then allowed to return to work. All this: terrible.
The boy’s mother has now filed a civil rights complaint against the district. From CBS 11:
Local civil rights activist Kyev Tatum is representing the family in the case and says the complaint charges the district didn’t handle the teacher’s actions appropriately, that the boy involved was discriminated against because of his race and disability, and that the school was trying to cover up the whole thing.
“Instead of coming out clean and saying we don’t tolerate this, they decided to cover it up and let her go back to class,” said Tatum. “There’s no difference between what they did and the administration at Penn State [University] did.”
Well, that’s where we differ, I think. In one situation, a teacher poured pencil shavings into a boy’s throat. In another, an institution allowed a pedophile to molest multiple boys, for years. What happened at Boles Junior High School was terrible, yes, but don’t try to equate it to Penn State.
FC Dallas CEO Doug Quinn Steps Down
Photo: FCDallas.com
From a statement released by the club:
Doug Quinn has stepped down as president and CEO of FC Dallas, the club announced today.
Quinn has been on administrative leave from the club since November. He said the decision to resign will allow him to spend more time with his family.
“After much consideration, I have decided to resign from FC Dallas to spend more time with my two beautiful daughters,” Quinn said. “I will be forever grateful to Clark and the Hunt family for giving me an opportunity to lead this great franchise, and I sincerely appreciate the hard work and dedication shown every day by the FC Dallas family.”
Since joining FC Dallas in 2010, Quinn helped grow the Club’s supporters’ base. In 2012, FC Dallas set a single-season record with more than 1.7 million patrons at FC Dallas Stadium and Complex.
“Doug has significantly improved the operations of FC Dallas, and the club is well-positioned for future success,” said Clark Hunt, chairman of Hunt Sports Group. “We greatly appreciate his many contributions to the club and support his decision to step down to focus on his family and pursue other opportunities.”
Quinn took a leave of absence in November after being arrested for allegedly hitting and attempting to choke his wife in New York City. The statement goes on to say that the search for a new president and CEO will begin immediately, headed by Hunt Sports Group VP Dan Hunt.
A Bizarre Thing Happened at Al Hill III’s Hearing This Morning, and It Includes District Attorney Craig Watkins and the FBI
I’ll let the Morning News take it from here. There are sure to be updates.
Dallas Morning News Editor Plays Brilliant Game of Email Dodgeball, Ctd.
Yesterday I asked for help from the FrontBurner Nation. We needed clarification from someone who attended the January 28 given at SMU by Bryan Garner and Justice Antonin Scalia. The Dallas Morning News had quoted Scalia in a way that grossly distorted his view of the Constitution. Problem is, Scalia doesn’t allow recordings of his talks. So we couldn’t just go to the tape to hear what he actually said. Hence my call for help. And help came. Plenty of folks in attendance have confirmed that the DMN made a big mistake. As one sage commenter put it:
It’s a big deal because someone could use the quote in another article, paper, thesis, or book. A major newspaper is a reliable source, right? Then, the truncated phrase gets printed in another reputable publication and so on. So now, even though your professor says s/he doesn’t believe Scalia really said that, the Google provides you with two confirmed sources of the quote in the established press.
Then, interviews/panel discussions with Garner and Scalia could begin with that quote, which results in spending their time explaining why it’s not correct instead of moving on to issues that are of greater importance.
In short, publishing comes with responsibilities because of the ability to multiple and amplify what is stated as fact. If there is a factual error, it is absolutely imperative to attach a correction at the end of the article as soon as possible, and should be left there for all time. Doing so gives more cred to the professionalism of the source than to leaving hanging because someone made a misjudgment and thinks it will blow over.
Also, we’re talking about a Supreme Court justice here. What he says in public becomes an enduring record of his views on the Constitution.
[looks at imaginary wristwatch] Still waiting for the correction, guys.
Dallas Morning News Editor Plays Brilliant Game of Email Dodgeball, Ctd.
Yesterday I asked for help from the FrontBurner Nation. We needed clarification from someone who attended the January 28 given at SMU by Bryan Garner and Justice Antonin Scalia. The Dallas Morning News had quoted Scalia in a way that grossly distorted his view of the Constitution. Problem is, Scalia doesn’t allow recordings of his talks. So we couldn’t just go to the tape to hear what he actually said. Hence my call for help. And help came. Plenty of folks in attendance have confirmed that the DMN made a big mistake. As one sage commenter put it:
It’s a big deal because someone could use the quote in another article, paper, thesis, or book. A major newspaper is a reliable source, right? Then, the truncated phrase gets printed in another reputable publication and so on. So now, even though your professor says s/he doesn’t believe Scalia really said that, the Google provides you with two confirmed sources of the quote in the established press.
Then, interviews/panel discussions with Garner and Scalia could begin with that quote, which results in spending their time explaining why it’s not correct instead of moving on to issues that are of greater importance.
In short, publishing comes with responsibilities because of the ability to multiple and amplify what is stated as fact. If there is a factual error, it is absolutely imperative to attach a correction at the end of the article as soon as possible, and should be left there for all time. Doing so gives more cred to the professionalism of the source than to leaving hanging because someone made a misjudgment and thinks it will blow over.
Also, we’re talking about a Supreme Court justice here. What he says in public becomes an enduring record of his views on the Constitution.
[looks at imaginary wristwatch] Still waiting for the correction, guys.
Leading Off (2/4/13)
Dallas-Dwelling Navy Seal Sniper Killed at Erath County Gun Range:Â Ex-Navy SEAL, decorated veteran, and the deadliest sniper in U.S. history, Chris Kyle, took former Marine Eddie Ray Routh to a shooting range in Erath County Saturday, most likely as part of a mentoring program for soldiers suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. Then, for some reason, Routh shot and killed Kyle.
Museum Tower Spoils Latest Nasher Exhibition: A new show by the artist Ken Price opens later this week at the Nasher Sculpture Center, and to prepare, the museum had to cover the glass ceilings of the galleries containing the loaned art work to protect it against Museum Tower’s intense reflective glare. Little progress has been made on finding a solution to the glare issue, and a lawsuit looks more likely after a lawyer for the pension fund that owns the condo tower suggested as much to the Texas attorney general last week.
Wetlands Construction Begins Along Trinity River: Remember the Trinity River Project? Dirt is flying on the thing — or at least part of it. Two hundred acres of trees are being cleared for the creation of a series of wetlands that will help ease flooding.
In Ryan Romo Case, ‘Truth and Justice Prevailed,’ Attorney Says
A statement by Romo family attorney Mark Senter.
Ryan Romo underwent a four-hour polygraph test, during which no “red flags” were raised, a family attorney told reporters Tuesday afternoon. Romo, 19, was arrested in late October for allegedly raping a 16-year-old classmate in the backseat of his Chevy Tahoe following a concert at the Palladium Ballroom. A grand jury declined to indict Romo on sexual assault charges yesterday.
Since the arrest, Romo has been finishing his senior year of Highland Park High School from his house, rarely going outside, said civil attorney Mark Senter. Baseball scholarship offers for Romo dried up following the arrest, Senter said, as did any prospect of  professional baseball career.
“This is akin to the kids who were seniors in New Orleans when Katrina came through…it’s a horrible setback,” he said.
During the polygraph Romo was asked about his intent, what was said in the backseat of the Tahoe, and what was done. He passed “with flying colors,” Senter said.
When asked whether the alleged victim was lying, Senter responded, “I believe her version of what transpired in the back seat is not accurate.” He would not comment on a possible civil lawsuit by the Romo family, saying only “we have not considered any civil litigation at this point.”
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