Latest news with #LawyerMonthly
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Yahoo
Arrest made in killing of Colombian trans woman Sara Millerey González that was caught on video
Police in Colombia have arrested a suspect in the killing of Sara Millerey González, a transgender woman who was raped, beaten, and had her legs, hands, and arms broken before she was tossed into a ravine. Keep up with the latest in + news and politics. Juan Camilo Muñoz Gaviria, alias Teta, and a reputed member of the El Mesa drug trafficking gang, was arrested Wednesday, the Spanish-language Vanguardia reports. He was captured by a special task force created by the country's national police and prosecutors in response to the outrage over the crime. Millerey González, 32, was raped, had her hands, arms, and legs broken, then was thrown into a stream in a deep ravine to drown in Colombia on April 4, LawyerMonthly reports. Rather than helping, some witnesses recorded her on video trying in vain to escape the ravine and stream, which they later posted to social media. She was killed in Bello, Antioquia, a high-crime area that was once the turf of the late drug trafficker and narco terrorist Pablo Escobar. Police said they were able to track Muñoz Gaviria's movements from the scene of the crime to his eventual arrest. They have released little further information about the suspect and the crime as the investigation is ongoing. Police are reportedly looking for at least one other man as a possible suspect but believe up to five men may be implicated in the Millerey González's death. 'In an investigative action coordinated by the Attorney General's Office, CTI personnel and the police arrested one of the alleged perpetrators of the murder of a trans woman, whose given name was Sara Millerey González, in Bello, Antioquia, on April 5," Colombian prosecutors announced on social media. "In the coming hours, he will be brought before a judge, and a local prosecutor will charge him with aggravated homicide and torture.' Millerey González's mother, Sandra, told the Spanish-language news El País, last month that she saw many people watching and filming her daughter, but nobody was trying to save her. Sandra also said she was prevented from entering the fast-moving stream. Millerey González was eventually rescued by first responders and taken to a local hospital. "Mom, I'm going to die,' Sandra said her daughter told her after she was pulled from the stream. Although Millerey González suffered a punctured lung as well as her broken bones during the attack, Sandra said the hospital didn't consider her an emergency because she wasn't shot. 'I knelt down and hugged her and told her that I loved her very much," Sandra recalled. "I told her she was going to be with God because no one in heaven was going to humiliate or discriminate against her for being her.' Millerey González suffered two cardiac arrests the following morning, with the second proving fatal. She asked her mother to bury her in a white dress, but the mortician said a closed-casket funeral was more appropriate due to the severity of injuries to her face and extremities. The public, activists, and politicians quickly responded to news of the attack. 'What happened in Bello is fascism,' President Gustavo Petro said in a post to X. 'Fascism is the violent erasure of human difference — be it political, religious, ethnic, or sexual. There are Nazis in Colombia.' Bello Mayor Lorena González Ospina also issued a post to social media, expressing outrage and a resolve to bring her killers to justice. 'I raise my voice as mayor but above all as a human being to reject with total forcefulness the murder of Sara Millerey, a trans woman victim of a heinous and hateful act,' González Ospina said in a post to social media. 'Sara was violated, her arms and legs were broken, and she was thrown into the river.' Authorities are still offering a reward of 50m pesos (around $11,000) for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killers of Sara Millerey González.
The Independent
25-02-2025
- General
- The Independent
Grandmother who suffered crushed spine on Harry Potter ride awarded $7.25 million in damages
The Arizona grandmother who suffered a crushed spine and other injuries that left her unable to use the bathroom independently after falling while she was exiting a Harry Potter ride at Universal Studios Hollywood in 2022 has been awarded $7.25 million in damages. Pamela Morrison, 74, from Arizona, had been visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter with her grandson when she was asked to step off a ride after her harness failed to secure properly. However, as she disembarked the ride, she slipped off a moving walkway and fell onto solid ground – an incident that resulted in a catastrophic fracture to her lower back and damage to the muscles around her hip, stated court documents. 'The belt was still moving, and so my foot went on that belt, and then [...] my other foot went onto the stationary floor, and it knocked me off my feet', said Morrison, describing the fall in court documents. Universal Studios Hollywood's defense team tried to argue Morrison's fall was her own doing, citing surveillance footage that appeared to show the retireee being distracted by her grandson. The jury disagreed and came to the ruling that Morrison was owed significant damages for her suffering – a substantial $7.25 million to be exact. Morrison's attorney, Taylor Kruse, told the jury her fall had been preventable and caused by a failure of park employees to halt the moving walkway to allow the woman to step off the ride safely. Kruse insisted, as per the documents, that stopping the belt would have been a reasonable and easy solution, but the park continued to operate the ride at a high capacity – their intended aim being to facilitate 1,800 riders per hour. According to reports, Kruse concluded that Universal Studios was guilty of prioritizing efficiency over safety. Ban Choi, a safety expert from the Institute of Risk & Safety Analyses, was crucial to the ruling, according to Lawyer Monthly. He testified that Universals' ride design posed a significant danger because stepping on and off a moving walkway was challenging and unstable – particularly when landing on stationary ground. Choi explained: 'Entering and exiting a moving walkway perturbs the gait stability of the walkers, even when entering/exiting in the longitudinal direction of the moving walkway. 'Given that Plaintiff Morrison was walking in the lateral direction of the moving walkway while feeling rushed to get off the moving walkway, her gait instability would have been greater.' After Morrison experienced the traumatizing fall she was quickly taken to hospital to be treated for her severe injuries. But the damage was long-lasting, and one that came with financial repercussions. Her mobility had been severely compromised making daily tasks such as going to the bathroom a challenge – issues that required aid and subsequently amassed in significant medical expenses. The damages were broken down into $250,000 for economic damages, $2 million for past noneconomic damages, such as the mental and physical toll of her injuries, and $5 million for future noneconomic damages. Morrisons' case has called into question the safety standards being maintained at theme parks in the U.S. According to USA Today in 2023, the IAAPA, International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, estimated the odds of serious injury on a fixed-site ride at an amusement park was 1 in 15.5 million rides taken. The likelihood of sustaining injuries in a motoring incident remains significantly higher, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, which revealed in its latest report that roughly 40,9901 people died on America's roads in 2023. However, they insisted these numbers were declining.
