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$166M Verdict Entered Against NJ Division of Youth and Family Services (Agency For Child Protection) For Negligent Placement

Per The N.J. Law Journal:

"A New Jersey jury on Friday awarded $166 million to an infant beaten to the point of permanent blindness and brain damage by a parent that the state child-welfare agency allowed to keep custody.

"The Essex County verdict against the Division of Youth and Family Services came after a two-week trial and about two hours of deliberation.

"The state had made a $10 million settlement offer on Wednesday but plaintiff attorney David Mazie of Mazie Slater Katz and Freeman in Roseland rejected it.

"The suit—brought by the child's maternal grandmother Neomi Escobar, who had alerted DYFS to the father's abusive tendencies—claimed that case worker Felix Umetiti and other agency officials negligently failed to remove Jadiel Velesquez from his parents' care.
Escobar alleged that Umetiti recognized that the father was a danger but failed to obtain his criminal history, order a psychological evaluation or report the case to prosecutors or the regional diagnostic treatment center.

"DYFS violated at least 17 of its own policies, the suit alleged."

Full article after the jump...

Federal Judge Rules NSA Bulk Phone Record Collection Unconstitutional - Klayman v. Obama (13-cv-881)

Per NPR:

"A federal judge in Washington says the National Security Agency's program for bulk phone record collection violates Americans' reasonable expectation of privacy.

"The ruling (pdf), however, has been stayed pending a likely appeal.

"Judge Richard Leon says the sweeping NSA collection of U.S. phone metadata constitutes an unreasonable search or seizure under the Fourth Amendment.

"The judge says the Smith v. Maryland Supreme Court ruling the Obama administration has used to underpin that program involved only a short period of collection, not the years-long approach the NSA has been taking based on advances in technology.

"In sometimes blistering language, Leon, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, says times have changed since 1979, when Maryland was decided. Leon says advances in technology and people's use of cell phones mean that old case no longer holds."

Full article after the jump...