UPDATED FRAUD VIABLE NEWS REPORT:
Former Rockville deaf-services workers win $1.1M back-pay case
Employees sued convicted executives of Rockville company
By Kevin James Shay
A federal judge has ruled in favor of 140 former employees of Rockville deaf services company Viable Communications, awarding them $1.1 million in back pay and damages in a class-action lawsuit.
The civil judgment against Viable, founder and former CEO John T.C. Yeh and his brother, former Viable vice president Joseph Yeh, was filed this week in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt. It comes as the Yehs await sentencing scheduled for Nov. 30 in a separate criminal case in a Trenton, N.J., federal court.
The Yehs in October pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud. They each face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Nicholas Woodfield, an attorney who is representing the former employees, said he will do whatever possible to get his clients their money.
"We will start our efforts to collect the judgment after the time for appeal has run," he said.
John Pierce, an attorney for Viable, said Thursday that the company "has never disputed the wages owed to its employees." He said he didn't foresee an appeal on the substantive part of
the order, but he or his partner had not analyzed the order to see if any other portion could be appealed.
"It was never the intention [of Viable] to be put in the position it was in, where it couldn't meet its payroll," Pierce said.
Judge Peter J. Messitte awarded the plaintiffs a total of $567,443 in back wages and an equal amount in damages. Plaintiffs for the lawsuit, filed two years ago, include Glenn Lockhart,
Viable's former director of corporate communications, who was awarded almost $12,000. David Bruce was awarded the most, $35,104.
Mary Yeh, John Yeh's wife, was dis-missed from the lawsuit. Stanley Reed, who represented Mary Yeh in the civil case, said that Messitte found that she was not personally liable for the
unpaid wages of former Viable employees and contractors.
Joseph Yeh said in court documents filed this year that he was not involved in the hiring or firing of employees and did not control company finances when employed at Viable. His employment was terminated in November 2009, and he had still not been paid himself for
four weeks, he said.
"While I have knowledge of Viable Communications' failure to pay wages to its employees, I have no personal knowledge pertaining to the claims of the individual plaintiffs in this lawsuit, and played no role in Viable Communications' failure to pay wages, which resulted from factors outside of its control," Joseph Yeh said.
Messitte granted some parts of Joseph Yeh's request to be dismissed from the civil case, but still named him a party in the suit.
In November 2009, John and Joseph Yeh were among 26 people nationwide to be charged in an indictment with conspiring to defraud the Federal Communications Commission's Video Relay
Service program, which helps deaf people communicate, by billing the government for millions of dollars in illegitimate calls.
NEWS SOURCE: Business Gazette
PUBLISHED: 8.19.2011
Credited to a writer for contributing
to this report from Rockville, MD
CSDR ALUMNI NETWORK CIRCULATES
FREE EMAIL NEWSLETTERS FOR THE
CSDR ALUMNI MEMBERS, TEACHERS,
AND EDUCATORS.
Join CSDR Alumni Network news group
today? Sign-up online now.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CSDR_Alumni_Network/join
8/19/11
8/15/11
Sex Ringleader in Hawaii School for the Deaf/Blind
Sex Ring Alleged at Deaf and Blind School
By Purna Nemani
A mother claims dozens of students at a state school for the deaf and blind were sexually abused and the head of the school knew of the abuses but failed to report them.
The mother of John Doe, who is deaf, says her son was one of as many as 35 students who were sexually abused by a gang who called themselves the "Ringleaders" at the Hawaii Center for the Deaf and Blind. She sued the State of Hawaii, the school, its administrator Sydney Dickerson, and a counselor, Scott O'Neal, in state court.
"Students, including plaintiff John Doe, were coerced into submitting to anal sex with multiple members of the Ringleaders," the mother says.
She says, "A young girl at the school became pregnant, which was known to school officials."
The complaint continues: "The Ringleaders coerced students into doing what the Ringleaders wanted by threats of violence and sexual attack, including sodomy and rape.
"Under coercion by the Ringleaders, John Doe was forced to surrender to them various items of property, including clothing and video games.
"The Ringleaders threatened that if John Doe did not provide them with what they wanted, he would be harmed and sexually assaulted.
"At times when John Doe had nothing to provide the Ringleaders, they proceeded to fulfill their threats and engaged in sexual acts with John Doe, including on school property.
"Students, including plaintiff John Does, were coerced into submitting to anal sex with multiple members of the Ringleaders.
"At one point, a young girl in the presence of other students was coerced into giving oral sex to a
member of the Ringleaders who filmed the act on his cell phone."
The mother, Jane Doe, claims that the "defendants had actual or constructive knowledge of what was going on."
She adds: "Scott O'Neal himself engaged in inappropriate and questionable activities with
students at the school, including having them stay with him overnight.
"Out of malice and an improper purpose, defendants at times concealed and conspired to conceal what was going on an negligently, recklessly, and intentionally failed to take effective action to stop the wrongful activities."
Doe claims that "For many years, the school has had a problem with certain students, some of whom called themselves the 'Ringleaders,' who on an ongoing basis bullied, terrorized,
assaulted, robbed, sodomized, raped, anally raped, gang raped, and/or sexually attacked students who were younger and smaller, including plaintiff John Doe."
Doe claims that school officials and employees of the state Department of Education were informed of the sex-by-intimidation in April 2009, May 2009, and June 2009. The April complaint involved "a deaf student at the school other than the plaintiff [who] had been
intimidated into sexual acts with five boys at the school, believed to be Ringleaders," according to the complaint.
In most states, public school teachers are required to report allegations of sexual abuse of students.
But Jane Doe claims that "Out of malice and an improper purpose, defendants at times concealed and conspired to conceal what was going on and negligently, recklessly and
intentionally failed to take effective action to stop the wrongful activities," which occurred
in the school's bathroom, indoor swimming pool area and woodshop.
She says they did not notify police immediately and "defendants conspired with each other to use threats, intimidation and retaliation to discourage reporting by teachers and parents of the improper activities at the school."
ABC affiliate KITV reported this month that the Honolulu Police Department has arrested several boys at the school "in an investigation into multiple sexual assault cases at the Hawaii School for the Deaf and Blind."
The school has, or had 70 students, age 3 to 20.
The Doe family is represented by Michael Jay Green.
Green told KITV: "There's no question that people in the highest places of DOE knew about this. They knew about it at the very latest in 2009 and probably before. You're talking about some people that can't see, so they can't be witnesses. We have people that can't hear, so they can't
hear outcries, and somebody has to be held accountable for it. I have a concern that the police investigation was frustrated."
The Does seek punitive damages for sexual harassment, deliberate indifference, gross negligence and conspiracy.
NEWS SOURCE: The Courthouse News Service
PUBLISHED: 8.15.2011
Credited to a writer for contributing to this report from Honolulu, Hawaii
By Purna Nemani
A mother claims dozens of students at a state school for the deaf and blind were sexually abused and the head of the school knew of the abuses but failed to report them.
The mother of John Doe, who is deaf, says her son was one of as many as 35 students who were sexually abused by a gang who called themselves the "Ringleaders" at the Hawaii Center for the Deaf and Blind. She sued the State of Hawaii, the school, its administrator Sydney Dickerson, and a counselor, Scott O'Neal, in state court.
"Students, including plaintiff John Doe, were coerced into submitting to anal sex with multiple members of the Ringleaders," the mother says.
She says, "A young girl at the school became pregnant, which was known to school officials."
The complaint continues: "The Ringleaders coerced students into doing what the Ringleaders wanted by threats of violence and sexual attack, including sodomy and rape.
"Under coercion by the Ringleaders, John Doe was forced to surrender to them various items of property, including clothing and video games.
"The Ringleaders threatened that if John Doe did not provide them with what they wanted, he would be harmed and sexually assaulted.
"At times when John Doe had nothing to provide the Ringleaders, they proceeded to fulfill their threats and engaged in sexual acts with John Doe, including on school property.
"Students, including plaintiff John Does, were coerced into submitting to anal sex with multiple members of the Ringleaders.
"At one point, a young girl in the presence of other students was coerced into giving oral sex to a
member of the Ringleaders who filmed the act on his cell phone."
The mother, Jane Doe, claims that the "defendants had actual or constructive knowledge of what was going on."
She adds: "Scott O'Neal himself engaged in inappropriate and questionable activities with
students at the school, including having them stay with him overnight.
"Out of malice and an improper purpose, defendants at times concealed and conspired to conceal what was going on an negligently, recklessly, and intentionally failed to take effective action to stop the wrongful activities."
Doe claims that "For many years, the school has had a problem with certain students, some of whom called themselves the 'Ringleaders,' who on an ongoing basis bullied, terrorized,
assaulted, robbed, sodomized, raped, anally raped, gang raped, and/or sexually attacked students who were younger and smaller, including plaintiff John Doe."
Doe claims that school officials and employees of the state Department of Education were informed of the sex-by-intimidation in April 2009, May 2009, and June 2009. The April complaint involved "a deaf student at the school other than the plaintiff [who] had been
intimidated into sexual acts with five boys at the school, believed to be Ringleaders," according to the complaint.
In most states, public school teachers are required to report allegations of sexual abuse of students.
But Jane Doe claims that "Out of malice and an improper purpose, defendants at times concealed and conspired to conceal what was going on and negligently, recklessly and
intentionally failed to take effective action to stop the wrongful activities," which occurred
in the school's bathroom, indoor swimming pool area and woodshop.
She says they did not notify police immediately and "defendants conspired with each other to use threats, intimidation and retaliation to discourage reporting by teachers and parents of the improper activities at the school."
ABC affiliate KITV reported this month that the Honolulu Police Department has arrested several boys at the school "in an investigation into multiple sexual assault cases at the Hawaii School for the Deaf and Blind."
The school has, or had 70 students, age 3 to 20.
The Doe family is represented by Michael Jay Green.
Green told KITV: "There's no question that people in the highest places of DOE knew about this. They knew about it at the very latest in 2009 and probably before. You're talking about some people that can't see, so they can't be witnesses. We have people that can't hear, so they can't
hear outcries, and somebody has to be held accountable for it. I have a concern that the police investigation was frustrated."
The Does seek punitive damages for sexual harassment, deliberate indifference, gross negligence and conspiracy.
NEWS SOURCE: The Courthouse News Service
PUBLISHED: 8.15.2011
Credited to a writer for contributing to this report from Honolulu, Hawaii
7/6/11
Lawrence R. Newman dies at 86
Lawrence R. Newman, ardent advocate for the deaf, dies at 86
By Dennis Mclellan
Lawrence R. Newman, a prominent advocate for the rights of deaf people and a former longtime teacher and administrator at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside, has died. He was 86.
Newman, who served two terms as president of the National Association of the Deaf, died Monday at his home in Riverside of complications from emergency surgery and a long battle with Parkinson's disease, said his daughter Laureen Newman-Feldhorn.
"Larry was a true gentleman and someone I admired for his hard work and dedication on behalf of the deaf community," T. Alan Hurwitz, president of Gallaudet University Washington, D.C., said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday. Gallaudet is the world's only liberal arts university for students who are deaf and hard of hearing.
"His legacy for his contributions to the betterment of education for deaf children will forever be remembered," said Hurwitz, a former president of the National Association of the Deaf who served on its board of directors with Newman. "He was a significant role model for me, and I know he will always be regarded as a giant in the deaf community."
Deaf since he was 5 in 1930, Newman joined the faculty at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside as a mathematics teacher in 1953. He taught there for 20 years and was chosen California Teacher of the Year by the state Department of Education in 1969 - the first deaf teacher so honored in California.
Newman always stressed the importance of education in the lives of deaf children and fought for the right of deaf students to be educated using sign language.
"If deaf people could get an education, their minds would be set free and the kingdom of the world would be theirs," he once wrote.
After four years as principal of the Taft School for the Aurally Handicapped in Santa Ana, Calif. (now the Taft Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program) beginning in 1973, Newman returned to the California School for the Deaf in Riverside in 1977 as assistant superintendent. He retired in 1988.
Newman was president of the National Association of the Deaf in 1988 when student demonstrators at Gallaudet University, his alma mater, protested the selection of a hearing person, Elisabeth Ann Zinser, as president of the university over two deaf finalists for the position.
The California School for the Deaf in Riverside and Fremont closed in support of the Gallaudet demonstration.
"The deaf people here are stunned and outraged," Newman, who also was the Riverside school's assistant superintendent at the time, told The Washington Post. "Hearing people have
all kinds of ways to move up in the world. There's only one place for deaf people to move up, and that's Gallaudet."
Zinser resigned after five days as president and I. King Jordan became the first deaf president in the university's history.
When Jordan was officially installed at the university later that year, Newman told the crowd that his installation "marks the emancipation of deaf people from the shackles of limitations."
The youngest of three sons, whose parents ran a small neighborhood bakery in Manhattan, Newman was born in Brooklyn on March 23, 1925.
He had normal hearing until he was 5, but a chronic ear infection led to mastoiditis. As chronicled in a 2010 article on Newman in Deaf Life, "the doctor who operated on him accidentally severed the left seventh cranial nerve, which transverses the middle ear and
controls the muscles of facial expression on that side."
The operation not only left Newman profoundly deaf but also caused the left side of his face to become motionless.
He was a student at the Lexington School for the Deaf in New York before attending
the New York School for the Deaf, where he played on the football team.
At what is now known as Gallaudet University, he earned a bachelor's degree in English and met his future wife, Betty, who was hard-of-hearing most of her life and became deaf in her late 40s. They were married in 1950, and Betty later taught language arts at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside.
After earning a master's degree in English Literature at Catholic University in 1950, Newman launched his teaching career at the Central New York School for the Deaf in Rome, N.Y., where, instead of teaching English, he was assigned to teach high school math.
Newman, who served as president of the National Association of the Deaf from 1986 to 1990, established the National Committee on Equal Educational Opportunities for Deaf Children. Earlier, he served as president of the International Association of Parents of the Deaf, which is now known as the American Society for Deaf Children.
He also was a leading supporter of closed-captioned television, which has become widely available.
Newman wrote two books: "Sands of Time: NAD Presidents 1880-2003," published by the National Association of the Deaf in 2006, and "I Fill This Small Space: The Writings of a Deaf Activist," published by Gallaudet University Press in 2009.
In addition to his daughter Laureen and his wife of 61 years, Newman is survived by two sons, Mitchell and Warner, two other daughters, Carol Newman, who is deaf, and Rochelle Braithwaite; a brother, Leonard; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
NEWS SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
PUBLISHED: 07.06.2011
Credited to a writer for contributing to this report from Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles Times Report: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-lawrence-newman-20110706,0,1990301.story
By Dennis Mclellan
Lawrence R. Newman, a prominent advocate for the rights of deaf people and a former longtime teacher and administrator at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside, has died. He was 86.
Newman, who served two terms as president of the National Association of the Deaf, died Monday at his home in Riverside of complications from emergency surgery and a long battle with Parkinson's disease, said his daughter Laureen Newman-Feldhorn.
"Larry was a true gentleman and someone I admired for his hard work and dedication on behalf of the deaf community," T. Alan Hurwitz, president of Gallaudet University Washington, D.C., said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday. Gallaudet is the world's only liberal arts university for students who are deaf and hard of hearing.
"His legacy for his contributions to the betterment of education for deaf children will forever be remembered," said Hurwitz, a former president of the National Association of the Deaf who served on its board of directors with Newman. "He was a significant role model for me, and I know he will always be regarded as a giant in the deaf community."
Deaf since he was 5 in 1930, Newman joined the faculty at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside as a mathematics teacher in 1953. He taught there for 20 years and was chosen California Teacher of the Year by the state Department of Education in 1969 - the first deaf teacher so honored in California.
Newman always stressed the importance of education in the lives of deaf children and fought for the right of deaf students to be educated using sign language.
"If deaf people could get an education, their minds would be set free and the kingdom of the world would be theirs," he once wrote.
After four years as principal of the Taft School for the Aurally Handicapped in Santa Ana, Calif. (now the Taft Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program) beginning in 1973, Newman returned to the California School for the Deaf in Riverside in 1977 as assistant superintendent. He retired in 1988.
Newman was president of the National Association of the Deaf in 1988 when student demonstrators at Gallaudet University, his alma mater, protested the selection of a hearing person, Elisabeth Ann Zinser, as president of the university over two deaf finalists for the position.
The California School for the Deaf in Riverside and Fremont closed in support of the Gallaudet demonstration.
"The deaf people here are stunned and outraged," Newman, who also was the Riverside school's assistant superintendent at the time, told The Washington Post. "Hearing people have
all kinds of ways to move up in the world. There's only one place for deaf people to move up, and that's Gallaudet."
Zinser resigned after five days as president and I. King Jordan became the first deaf president in the university's history.
When Jordan was officially installed at the university later that year, Newman told the crowd that his installation "marks the emancipation of deaf people from the shackles of limitations."
The youngest of three sons, whose parents ran a small neighborhood bakery in Manhattan, Newman was born in Brooklyn on March 23, 1925.
He had normal hearing until he was 5, but a chronic ear infection led to mastoiditis. As chronicled in a 2010 article on Newman in Deaf Life, "the doctor who operated on him accidentally severed the left seventh cranial nerve, which transverses the middle ear and
controls the muscles of facial expression on that side."
The operation not only left Newman profoundly deaf but also caused the left side of his face to become motionless.
He was a student at the Lexington School for the Deaf in New York before attending
the New York School for the Deaf, where he played on the football team.
At what is now known as Gallaudet University, he earned a bachelor's degree in English and met his future wife, Betty, who was hard-of-hearing most of her life and became deaf in her late 40s. They were married in 1950, and Betty later taught language arts at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside.
After earning a master's degree in English Literature at Catholic University in 1950, Newman launched his teaching career at the Central New York School for the Deaf in Rome, N.Y., where, instead of teaching English, he was assigned to teach high school math.
Newman, who served as president of the National Association of the Deaf from 1986 to 1990, established the National Committee on Equal Educational Opportunities for Deaf Children. Earlier, he served as president of the International Association of Parents of the Deaf, which is now known as the American Society for Deaf Children.
He also was a leading supporter of closed-captioned television, which has become widely available.
Newman wrote two books: "Sands of Time: NAD Presidents 1880-2003," published by the National Association of the Deaf in 2006, and "I Fill This Small Space: The Writings of a Deaf Activist," published by Gallaudet University Press in 2009.
In addition to his daughter Laureen and his wife of 61 years, Newman is survived by two sons, Mitchell and Warner, two other daughters, Carol Newman, who is deaf, and Rochelle Braithwaite; a brother, Leonard; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
NEWS SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
PUBLISHED: 07.06.2011
Credited to a writer for contributing to this report from Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles Times Report: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-lawrence-newman-20110706,0,1990301.story
4/18/11
1/14/11
10/8/10
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)