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John F. Kennedy in Burlesque
March 15, 2011
An Oakland college professor has sued John F. Kennedy University, arguing she was fired after her bosses discovered she performed with a Bay Area burlesque group. In her federal suit, filed last week, Sheila Addison said she lost her job teaching marriage and family therapy at the Pleasant Hill-based university after administrators found out she was performing anonymously as "Professor Shimmy" with the Hubba Hubba Revue. A male professor who stripped down during a separate show kept his job, Addison argued.
The university issued a short statement Monday, calling the lawsuit "completely without merit." A university spokeswoman did not respond to phone or e-mail messages. Addison's attorney said the burlesque performances were the only reason given for the professor's firing in a letter from JFK President Steven Stargardter in June. The Attorney declined to provide the letter.
Stargardter told Addison her actions were "adverse to the interests of the university," the attorney said. But Addison never mentioned the university or her occupation during the burlesque shows, which mix stripping, commentary and comedy, her attorney said. "Like all artistic performances, it needs to be enjoyable, at least to the audience," he said. "But there also is a political and social message to it."
Performers routinely keep their identities a secret to avoid such reprisals, said a Hubba Hubba Revue performer known as Sparkly Devil. She declined to provide her real name because she feared repercussions in her professional life; she works part-time as a burlesque performer.
Sparkly Devil, who said her parents are college professors, said she was upset that a university would retaliate against an employee for outside activities. She noted that a male Northwestern University professor who recently allowed a couple to demonstrate how to use a sex toy on campus kept his job after apologizing. "I'm just interpreting this as the university punishing a woman for expressing her sexuality in a positive way," she said. "We have to ask what would happen if she were in a play where she was topless."
Addison's suit asks for lost wages and punitive damages. She did not name the male professor who she said had disrobed on stage, and it was not immediately clear who he was. Burlesque performers do not completely disrobe, but the performances include revealing outfits. Nobody had complained directly to Addison, Addison's attorney said. "They claimed it was some students who came forward," he said. "But no one ever came to Dr. Addison and said, 'We don't like what you're doing.'"
Addison's Complaint
Document: Sheila Addison vs. JFK University, March 9, 2011 -
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Cesar E. Chavez Middle School
May 20, 2010
San Bernardino, CA - School officials in San Bernardino allegedly failed to protect a 13-year-old girl who was seduced and raped in 2006 by a convicted sex offender, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday. The suit, filed in San Bernardino Superior Court, alleges that registered sex offender Darold Hecht began talking to the girl in August 2006 while he was working for his father-in-law's construction company, which was building new facilities at Cesar E. Chavez Middle School.
In October, Hecht, then 34, "began to repeatedly rape, batter and sexually abuse" the girl, according to the lawsuit.
The suit alleges that officials in the San Bernardino Unified School District failed to properly investigate once they became aware of the abuse.
School district officials were not available for comment Thursday evening.
The lawsuit states that Hecht was convicted of sexually abusing the girl and is now incarcerated at Tehachapi State Prison. The suit seeks damages in excess of $5 million.
Fast Facts:
Cesar E. Chavez Middle
6650 North Magnolia Ave.
San Bernardino, 92407
Public school in the San Bernardino City Unified district.
Grades: 6-8
Students: 1,385
Faculty members: 57
(Source: California Department of Education)
Award Upheld!
OAKLAND (WCJB) ― A federal appeals panel on Tuesday affirmed a $3.2 million award to an Oakland man and his girlfriend in a false arrest and imprisonment case in which the man claimed Oakland officers planted a gun on him. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Magistrate Judge Edward Chen did not abuse his discretion in awarding the money to Torry Smith and Patricia Gray on March 17, 2008. Chen found that a civil rights trial that ended in November 2007 with a favorable verdict for Smith and Gray was fair, but reduced the jury's $6 million award to Smith and Gray to $3 million, saying that the amount awarded to Smith for emotional distress was excessive. But he kept in place the jury's punitive damages award of $100,000 against each of the two Oakland police officers, John Parkinson and Marcus Midyett, who arrested Smith in 2004.
Smith, now 27, claimed in his lawsuit that he was falsely accused by the officers of possessing a rifle and that he was wrongly kept in jail for more than four months while an unjustified charge of parole violation was being processed. While in jail he was also awaiting two preliminary hearings, both of which resulted in dismissal of the charges. Smith was arrested at his home in Oakland on Sept. 10, 2004, by Parkinson and Midyett, who said they saw him trying to hide an assault rifle under some stairs at the back of his house. He claimed the officers planted the rifle. At the time, Smith was on parole with the California Youth Authority for a juvenile offense. The officers came to his house after they found his bank card in the car belonging to the girlfriend of a paroled drug dealer they were investigating.
Chen wrote in his ruling that the jury found Smith's "version of the events more plausible" than the officers' version. Smith was released in late January 2005 after the criminal charges and the parole revocation charge were dismissed.
In their appeal, Parkinson and Midyett challenged the jury instructions and the admissibility of evidence in the civil trial. The panel did not find their claims to be valid, and stated, "the officers agreed to the standard about which they now complain and tried the case on the basis of that standard." Parkinson and Midyett also argued that they should only be liable for four days of damages for Smith, which was the period of time between when Smith was arrested and when the Alameda County District Attorney's Office charged him. After that, they argued, the case was in the hands of prosecutors.
But the appeals panel said it was appropriate for the officers to be liable for four months of damages because Smith's incarceration for an alleged parole violation was based largely on the officers' arrest report.
Alex Katz, a spokesman for Oakland city attorney John Russo, said Russo will not have a comment until later Tuesday.
Oakland civil rights attorney John Burris, who represents Smith, said Smith is "elated" that his case is almost over now, except for a hearing on the amount of attorneys' fees that the city of Oakland must pay. Burris said the fees, which will be in addition to the $3.2 million award, will be "significant" because they will cover his time both during the trial and during the appeals process. Smith went through "a difficult time" after his arrest but is now working and "doing very well," Burris said.
Burris said he believes Parkinson's and Midyett's conduct "was so outrageous they should have been fired at the time and I still think they should be fired." Oakland police spokeswoman Holly Joshi said Tuesday that both officers are still with the department; Parkinson is a sergeant and Midyett is an officer. More On O.P.D.»
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