Latest news with #WigdorLLP
Yahoo
30-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sean Combs Requests to Be Released Before Sentencing
Sean Combs' legal team has requested his release from prison ahead of his October sentencing on prostitution charges. The lawyers for the former music mogul and Sean John founder claimed that his continued confinement is 'unwarranted.' He is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he has been since his arrest in September. More from WWD African Designers to Be Focus of First Fashion Show at Festival in Rwanda Fashion Designer Charlene Hyman Dies at 68 Levi Evans Makes a Name for Himself in the Music Space Following a seven-week trial, the 'I'll Be Missing You' singer was found guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. Each count could carry a prison sentence of up to 10 years. The 12-person jury found Combs not guilty of one count of racketeering, and two counts of sex trafficking. The prosecutors had argued that Combs ran a criminal enterprise with the help of his associates from at least 2004 to 2024. He denied all charges against him as well as any wrongdoing. During the trial, jurors heard from Combs' former girlfriend Cassie Ventura, a model and singer, and another ex-girlfriend, who testified anonymously. Both women testified that they had been forced to have drug-fueled sex with hired escorts for days on end. Combs' lawyers claimed that the Mann Act 'has never been applied to facts similar to these to prosecute or incarcerate any other person.' Passed in 1910 and previously known as the White-Slave Traffic Act, the federal law 'criminalizes the transportation of any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any immoral purpose.' Sent on July 29, the 12-page request to Justice Arun Subramanian was signed by eight attorneys with the Agnifilo Intrater law firm. The filing claims, 'There has literally never been a case like this one, where a person and his girlfriend arranged for adult men to have consensual sexual relations with the adult long-term girlfriend as part of a demonstrated 'swingers' lifestyle and has been prosecuted and incarcerated under the Mann Act.' Media requests seeking comment about the release request to Ventura's attorney Douglas Wigdor of Wigdor LLP were not immediately returned Tuesday. Combs' proposed bail package would include his signing a $50 million bond secured by his Miami home and co-signed by 'three financially responsible people,' whose names were not identified. Combs would reside in Miami and limit travel to the southern district of Florida and the southern district of New York for attorney meetings. He would surrender his passport and be placed under the supervision of the U.S. Pretrial Services Agency, according to the filing. In an attempt to 'invalidate any claim that Mr. Combs poses a future danger,' the request notes how he had enrolled in a domestic violence program prior to his arrest and detention. In order for the 55-year-old to be released, two conditions must be met: the district court must find by clear and convincing evidence that person is not likely to flee or pose a danger to the safety of any other person in the community if released. Secondly, it must be shown that there are exceptional reasons why such person's detention would not be appropriate, according to the request. The request also notes how across the country where the primary or sole conviction was for a violation of 18 U.S.C. 2421(a), the 'defendants who were not charged with running a prostitution business have been released pending sentencing.' The motion insists: 'Sean Combs should not be in jail for this conduct' (page 3) and argues that the government's approach 'is inconsistent with Justice Department policy' (page 3), which historically prioritizes the prosecution of commercial profiteers, not individual customers in consensual settings. The request cites how Combs 'pursued a consensual lifestyle with two of his long-term girlfriends and obviously was not involved in making a profit from prostitution, which was not even alleged by the government.' The filing stated, 'In the lifestyle that he and other adults voluntarily chose, Mr. Combs would be called a swinger. But in the vocabulary of the Mann Act or of prostitution generally, he might — at worst — be somewhat analogous to a 'John,' someone who pays to have sex with a sex worker, in this case a male sex worker, more particularly a male sex worker who works for and is vetted by a well-known agency called Cowboys for Angels, or another similar agency or who works as a paid porn star in connection with movies. Sean Combs should not be in jail for this conduct. In fact, he may be the only person currently in a United States jail for being any sort of john, and certainly the only person in jail for hiring adult male escorts for him and his girlfriend, when he did not even have sex with the escort himself.' Combs' attorneys contended that over the past 75 years, 'the White-Slave Traffic Act has been limited to defendants, who cause interstate travel for financial gain through the business of prostitution, as reflected in the cases brought under the statute as well as the explicit enforcement policies set out in the United States Attorney Manual, more recently called the Justice Manual.' Best of WWD The Biggest Legal Battles Shaping the Fashion Industry Today PETA Asks Lululemon About Slaughterhouse Practices China's Livestreaming Star Viya Fined $210 Million for Tax Evasion
Reuters
05-06-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Madison Square Garden, ex-Knicks star fight over lawyer fees
June 5 (Reuters) - (Billable Hours is Reuters' weekly report on lawyers and money. Please send tips or suggestions to opens new tab) Lawyers for one-time New York Knicks All-Star Charles Oakley and Madison Square Garden are squaring off over attorney fees, as the stadium fights to finally escape an eight-year-old lawsuit over the former NBA player's televised removal from a February 2017 Knicks game. Oakley's case against the Manhattan stadium and its chief executive James Dolan, who also owns the Knicks, has twice been dismissed by a federal judge, only to be revived each time by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. MSG on Friday asked U.S. Circuit Judge Richard Sullivan, who is overseeing the case in the lower court, to reject Oakley's lawsuit, opens new tab for good, arguing that the evidence shows that he refused to leave the stadium when asked and assaulted security guards. They separately asked the judge to sanction Oakley, opens new tab and his lawyers at Wigdor LLP and Petrillo, Klein & Boxer for pushing what they called a "false narrative" about Oakley's ejection. Wigdor partner Valdi Licul, in a letter to Sullivan, opens new tab filed Wednesday, said Oakley would be filing his own sanctions motion against MSG, arguing that the stadium's sanctions bid is unreasonable and was improperly filed. MSG is represented by New York first deputy mayor Randy Mastro and lawyers at Mastro's former law firm King & Spalding. They did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams, who appointed Mastro in March, said the city had determined there was no conflict of interest for Mastro to continue his "limited representation" of MSG. Mastro is working on the case "in his personal capacity, on his own time, without compensation, and without city resources," the spokesperson said. The amount of sanctions the arena's lawyers are seeking could be significant — MSG wants Wigdor to reimburse it for the money it paid Mastro and its high-powered lawyers going as far back as the beginning of the case. If Sullivan won't go that far, MSG has asked him to at least award fees since July 2021, when Douglas Wigdor, one of Oakley's lawyers, personally oversaw revisions to the former NBA player's autobiography that MSG alleges were intended to bolster his lawsuit. MSG claimed that Oakley's initial drafts undermined his claims that he was not given a reasonable opportunity to leave the stadium before he was ejected, and that he admitted to slipping and falling on his own and not being pushed by MSG security guards. Licul pushed back in Wednesday's court filing, arguing that MSG was engaged in "self-serving editorialization." He also said MSG and its lawyers should be sanctioned for making allegedly false assertions that Dolan was not involved in Oakley's removal from the stadium that night. Oakley is a 19-year NBA veteran and fan favorite who was a Knicks power forward from 1988 to 1998. He initially brought a bevy of claims against MSG and Dolan. He sued for defamation over several statements, including when the Knicks tweeted that his behavior was "highly inappropriate and completely abusive" and expressed hope he "gets some help soon," which Oakley said insinuated substance abuse. In his latest amended complaint, opens new tab from April 2024, the former NBA player is alleging claims of assault and battery against MSG and its related entities. --Alphabet's (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google has hired U.S. Supreme Court veteran Donald Verrilli Jr of Munger Tolles to lead the company's high-stakes appeal in the D.C. Circuit challenging a ruling that said the company was illegally monopolizing the web search market. Verrilli separately is battling the Trump administration in a spate of cases. He is lead counsel for law firm Susman Godfrey in its lawsuit against a Trump executive order targeting the firm. A court filing in March in a U.S. bankruptcy case involving a Munger client showed Verrilli has billed at $2,270 an hour. Verrilli did not immediately respond to a request for comment about his new work for Google, which has denied any wrongdoing. --Google has agreed to pay $80 million in legal fees, opens new tab to plaintiffs' lawyers at Scott+Scott for their work on a shareholder lawsuit and settlement with the tech giant. In the accord, Google will dedicate $500 million over ten years to make a series of corporate reforms, resolving a lawsuit that accused the company's board of allowing anticompetitive conduct in search, advertising and apps. The settlement requires court approval. Google and its board denied any wrongdoing. --Some health insurer class members in a multibillion-dollar federal healthcare judgment will get a little more money in the coming weeks, thanks to a federal judge's ruling on an interest payment. Judge Kathryn Davis of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims on Tuesday directed law firm Quinn Emanuel, opens new tab to send a roughly $10 million check to the claims administrator in the case. Davis' ruling was tied to her decision in October to slash Quinn's legal fee in the case from $185 million to $92 million. Class members who questioned the original fee and Quinn then fought over which interest rate should apply to extra money that the lower fee award yielded to the judgment fund. The challengers had asked for a higher interest rate than what Davis applied in her ruling this week. Quinn Emanuel and a lawyer for the objectors did not immediately respond to requests for comment. --A U.S. judge in Maryland on Thursday awarded, opens new tab law firms Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll and Handley Farah & Anderson more than $132 million in fees for their work on settlements totaling nearly $400 million with major poultry producers. The defendants were accused of conspiring to suppress their workers' wages, in violation of antitrust law. The settling companies have denied any wrongdoing. Read more: Wegovy maker Novo faces fee demand after losing copycat drug lawsuit US agencies face fees over faulty cases, Ford seeks $300 million from lemon law lawyers Settlements mount against law firm caught up in bankruptcy judge's secret romance
