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Uber To Pay Millions For Penalizing Riders With Disabilities, Federal Authorities Announce Uber To Pay Millions For Penalizing Riders With Disabilities, Federal Authorities Announce
Uber To Pay Millions For Penalizing Riders With Disabilities, Federal Authorities Announce Uber will forfeit nearly $1.8 million to more than 1,000 passengers with disabilities and refund double the amount of wait time fees to more than 65,000 others to resolve a federal complaint, authorities announced. Uber will also furnish an additional $500,000 to others harmed by the practice and will also waive wait time fees for certified riders with disabilities going forward, the Justice Department said Monday. The agreement settles federal allegations that the ride-hailing giant violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, authorities said. The double-money-back part of the deal coul…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
'Coming To Rape Your Family': NJ Man Admits Texting Racist Threats To Black MD Woman 'Coming To Rape Your Family': NJ Man Admits Texting Racist Threats To Black MD Woman
'Coming To Rape Your Family': NJ Man Admits Texting Racist Threats To Black MD Woman A New Jersey man admitted that he sent racist texts to a Maryland woman threatening to hurt her and her family, federal authorities said. "I know where you live now, I'm coming to rape your family," Michael Marotta, 26, of Sewell (Gloucester County) texted the woman using an anonymizing messaging service, they said. Marotta "used racial epithets" in the texts, which included "eat my bullets," according to an FBI complaint. Taking a deal from the government rather than face trial, Marotta pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on Tuesday, March 8 to making threatening interstat…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Alleged Police Brutality Victim From Paterson Arrested After Eluding, Resisting, Sheriff Says Alleged Police Brutality Victim From Paterson Arrested After Eluding, Resisting, Sheriff Says
Alleged Police Brutality Victim From Paterson Arrested After Eluding, Resisting, Sheriff Says An alleged Paterson police brutality victim fled a traffic stop and then scuffled with Passaic County sheriff's officers who tracked him down at a nearby deli, authorities said. Osamah Alsaidi, 21, was stopped for an unspecified violation on Madison Avenue shortly after 2 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 27, Passaic County Sheriff Richard Berdnik said. Alsaidi "argued with the officer and then fled the scene in the vehicle," the sheriff said. Officers spotted the vehicle outside the Grab & Go Deli and found Alsaidi inside the Getty Avenue store, Berdnik said. They had to subdue him "after he trie…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Black Women Wrongfully Accused Of Shoplifting In Hershey Were Detained For Hours: Report Black Women Wrongfully Accused Of Shoplifting In Hershey Were Detained For Hours: Report
Black Women Wrongfully Accused Of Shoplifting In Hershey Were Detained For Hours: Report A pair of sisters and their cousin have filed a civil suit saying they were racially profiled and wrongly accused of stealing while shopping at an outlet mall in Hershey, then held for hours by police, PennLive reports. Sisters Quashae and Quanae Brown, and their cousin Trinity Reid, had just left The Gap and Old Navy at the mall in when a pair of Derry Township officers stopped them and accused them of stealing a $6 onesie on Dec. 22, 2020, the outlet says.  Police found no stolen items but held the women — who were never charged — for hours, according to PennLive. The sisters f…

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by Jillian Pikora
News
NJ Officer Indicted In Accused Beating Of Arab-American Resident NJ Officer Indicted In Accused Beating Of Arab-American Resident
NJ Officer Indicted In Accused Beating Of Arab-American Resident A Paterson police officer beat a 19-year-old Arab-American man and then lied about it, a federal grand jury charged. Officers Kevin Patino, 29, violated the civil rights of the victim, according to the indictment returned in U.S. District Court in Newark, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said. Osamah Alsaidi was walking with his hands in his pockets the night of Dec. 14, 2020 when Patino and Officer Kendry Tineo-Restituyo approached him, the U.S. attorney said. What they didn’t know was that area surveillance cameras were recording the incident (see below). “Patino grabbe…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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3 NJ Officers Indicted Federally For Assaulting Handcuffed Suspect, 16 3 NJ Officers Indicted Federally For Assaulting Handcuffed Suspect, 16
3 NJ Officers Indicted Federally For Assaulting Handcuffed Suspect, 16 One former and two current Ewing Township police officers surrendered to federal agents on Friday after they were indicted on civil rights charges following a recorded assault on a handcuffed juvenile nearly four years ago, authorities said Friday. Current Officers Matthew Przemieniecki, 43, of Hamilton and Justin Ubry, 33, of Burlington and retired Lt. Michael Delahanty, 51, of Robbinsville all used "unreasonable and excessive" force in the Jan. 5, 2018 incident, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. Officers who pursued the 16-year-old boy after he stole a car and then crashed a car…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Family Of DelCo Girl Killed By Police Gunfire Files Federal Lawsuit Family Of DelCo Girl Killed By Police Gunfire Files Federal Lawsuit
Family Of DelCo Girl Killed By Police Gunfire Files Federal Lawsuit The family of a young girl who was killed by police gunfire in Delaware County earlier this year has filed a federal lawsuit. The 10-page lawsuit named the borough of Sharon Hill, Sharon Hill police chief Joseph Kelly, police officers John Scanlan III and Devon Smith, as well as an unspecified number of additional officers whose names are unknown by the Bility family. Fanta Bility, 8, was killed when gunfire rang out outside Academy Park High School after a football game on Aug. 27, Daily Voice reported. Preliminary ballistics analysis has concluded with "near certainty" that the shots tha…

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by Nicole Acosta
News
NJ Correctional Employees Indicted In Beating Of Federal Detainee Who Squirted Liquid At Them NJ Correctional Employees Indicted In Beating Of Federal Detainee Who Squirted Liquid At Them
NJ Correctional Employees Indicted In Beating Of Federal Detainee Who Squirted Liquid At Them Four Essex County correctional employees were indicted by a grand jury on civil rights charges in the beating last summer of a federal detainee. The indictment returned in Newark charges Officer Damion James, 41, with assaulting the pretrial detainee at the Essex County Correctional Facility, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. Sgt. Herman Pride, 51, Sgt. Jennifer Whitley, 38, and Lt. Nicholas Palma, 46, were all charged in the indictment with failing to intervene to stop the Aug. 17, 2020 assault, she said, adding that Whitley also was charged with submitting a false report. …

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Federal Grand Jury Indicts South Jersey Officer Who Pepper-Sprayed Handcuffed Driver Federal Grand Jury Indicts South Jersey Officer Who Pepper-Sprayed Handcuffed Driver
Federal Grand Jury Indicts South Jersey Officer Who Pepper-Sprayed Handcuffed Driver An angry South Jersey police officer doused a drunk driver with pepper spray twice after he’d been handcuffed, then filed a false report about the incident, an indictment returned by a federal grand jury on Thursday alleges. Another officer had handcuffed the disruptive driver and was beginning to put him in the rear of a patrol vehicle at a local gas station when Bridgeton Police John Grier III “grabbed a large can of OC spray and pulled out the pin,” Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael Honig said. Grier, 49, of Cedarville, told the officer to “step back,” then asked the driver, “Do you want to …

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Philadelphia Police Requested Federal Agents To 'Infiltrate' BLM Protests, Emails Show Philadelphia Police Requested Federal Agents To 'Infiltrate' BLM Protests, Emails Show
Philadelphia Police Requested Federal Agents To 'Infiltrate' BLM Protests, Emails Show The Philadelphia police department has asked federal agents to ‘infiltrate’ social justice marches last June, according to emails obtained by DC think tank Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. A Philadelphia police sergeant asked a Drug Enforcement Agency agent to assign personnel to “infiltrate crowds for intel purposes” on June 2, the emails say. Within 30 minutes of receiving the email, the DEA agent obtained approval from Principal Deputy DEA Administrator Preston Grubbs -- the agency’s second highest ranking official -- to conduct “covert surveillance from within prot…

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by Jillian Pikora