Friday, December 12, 2008

Suleman Ali and Lannie Haszard Demonstrate That Timing Can Be Everything... Update 9-11-09


Timing is everything! Suleman Ali, a 26 year old former Microsoft employee, sold Esgut, his portfolio of Facebook applications, for seven figures in April of 2008. He founded Esgut within months of Facebook's developer platform being launched. In April, Ali sold Esgut to the Social Gaming Network, a Silicon Valley company for seven figures.

Facebook has taken off! What started as a networking site for students at elite universities has expanded as a legitimate adult network. Millions of people have joined. MySpace, Friendster, and Hi5 have also improved their developer platforms. Fast forward a few months and the market for such innovations is over saturated with entrepreneurs with very few buyers. Ali suspects that Facebook is still a winner. He thinks it will be an IPO in 2011. But then again, timing is everything. For example take paramedics...

Paramedics can save lives and ease discomfort if they arrive "just in time." In fact, timeliness is so important, the law allows them to speed and break traffic laws. but there are limits! Over the past 18 months, at least 129 ambulance attendants across the U.S. have been accused of sex-related crimes many of which have allegedly occurred while on duty according to The Associated Press. Alleged molestations have occurred in the back of ambulances.
'A Dream Job for a Sexual Predator'?

Lannie Haszard, age 62, is serving a five-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to inappropriately touching female patients in the backs of ambulances. According to the A.P., Haszard is one of 129 ambulance attendants across the country have been accused of sex-related crimes in the past 18 months.This Oregon paramedic is serving a five-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to charges that he inappropriately touched four female patients while they were being taken by ambulance to hospitals. But Lannie Haszard, 62, is not a unique kind of criminal. An Associated Press investigation finds that at least 129 ambulance attendants across the country have been accused of sex-related crimes in the past 18 months, some while on duty. Greg Kafoury, a Portland, Ore., lawyer who represents three women allegedly groped by a paramedic thinks the job may attract improper applicants. "Everything is there: Women who are incapacitated, so they're hugely distracted. Medical cover to put your hands in places where, in any other context, a predator would be immediately recognized as such."
But how many of these EMTs were only doing there job? From convictions of a Standish, Mich., paramedic, a Pinellas County, Fla., paramedic, and a Chester County, Pa., paramedic, it's clear that not every one thinks these health care providers are just doing their job. 23 states have received sex-related complaints involving EMS workers. New York reported 17 of which 13 claims were believed to have been substatiated. Texas was next in frequency with 13 complaints. However, not all complaints arose from conduct that occurred while on the job. There are nearly 900,000 EMTs in the U.S. Statistically speaking, there are bound to be a few bad apples among such a vast number. "That number in and of itself doesn't shock me, knowing the number of providers we have in the country," said Steve Blessing, state EMS director in Delaware. Lannie Haszard was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to five counts of attempted sexual abuse. Three of the four women who accused Haszard of sexual abuse have sued American Medical Response, Haszard's employer at the time. The lawsuits contend that the company failed to react to previous complaints involving Haszard. One of the allegations is that Haszard touched a 28-year-old single mother's genitals while she was en route to the hospital for a gastrointestinal condition. As stated earlier, timing is every thing.

Update 9-11-09: A Multnomah County Circuit Court jury let AMR know their version of justice by awarding Royshekka Herring $2.25 million arising from allegations that Lannie Haszard sexually assaulted her while she was being transported in an AMR ambulance. Haszard, the former EMT, is currently in prison on sexual assault charges. Greg Kafoury, the plaintiff’s attorney, argued in closing that this case was about “corporate responsibility” and that AMR should have firedd Haszard. (There were three previous sexual-assault accusations against Haszard before he allegedly assaulted Herring.) Paula Price has also filed a report with Portland Police alleging she had been molested by Haszard.

Kafoury told the jury they “set the standard” for the community’s response to how corporations behave. He reminded them that Haszard had three complaints against him in 14 months while working for AMR but kept his job. He also argued that AMR kept information about previous accusations reported to them from the police police. (AMR serves the greater Portland area for 911 calls.) James Dumas represented AMR.
1-27-10: Thanks to spammers. Comments are suspended for a while.
3-24-11: The timing of unwanted touching is always wrong! Especially wrong when the target is underage. Otis Magee, a 54-year-old substitute teacher at a Phoenix high school has been arrested for allegedly inappropriately touching a minor. (He was apparently charged with two counts of assault arising out of an alleged 2008 incident, and one count of sexual abuse and one count of kidnapping arising out of an alleged incident in the 2011.)

While Magee teaches at Pinnacle High, none of the alleged conduct occurred at the school or involved any of its students. However, according to police, Magee was teaching at Precision High School last December when he allegedly inappropriately touched a 15-year-old girl while giving her a ride home from a restaurant. During the investigation, police allegedly learned that Magee may have inappropriately touched a 17-year-old girl and an 18-year-old girl in 2008. Those girls were students of Precision and the alleged occurrences appear to have happened at the high school. If convicted, unwanted touching constitutes an assault.
Like all suspects, Magee is presumed innocent of all allegations unless proven in a court of law.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

If true, I never want to ride alone in the back of an ambulance with just one attendant back there...

Shell

Ms Calabaza said...

Shell,
it sounds a little far-fetched to me ...

Anonymous said...

Timing is every thing!

Anonymous said...

Sexual predators read ad and apply?

Anonymous said...

Timing is every thing. For example, a husband and his wife are sitting next to a drunk. Suddenly, the drunk stands up and yells, “ATTENTION ALL,” and farts loudly.

The wife is extremely annoyed! The husband looks at the drunk and says, “Hey, @ssh#le, you just farted before my wife.”

The drunks replies, “I’m sorry I didn’t know it was her turn.”

Jester

Legal Pub said...

Update 9-11-09: A Multnomah County Circuit Court jury let AMR know their version of justice by awarding Royshekka Herring $2.25 million arising from allegations that Lannie Haszard sexually assaulted her while she was being transported in an AMR ambulance. Haszard, the former EMT, is currently in prison on sexual assault charges. Greg Kafoury, the plaintiff’s attorney, argued in closing that this case was about “corporate responsibility” and that AMR should have firedd Haszard. (There were three previous sexual-assault accusations against Haszard before he allegedly assaulted Herring.) Paula Price has also filed a report with Portland Police alleging she had been molested by Haszard.

Kafoury told the jury they “set the standard” for the community’s response to how corporations behave. He reminded them that Haszard had three complaints against him in 14 months while working for AMR but kept his job. He also argued that AMR kept information about previous accusations reported to them from the police police. (AMR serves the greater Portland area for 911 calls.) James Dumas represented AMR.

Anonymous said...

Nothing new here... Life has always been about timing.

Legal Pub said...

The timing of unwanted touching is always wrong! Especially wrong when the target is underage. Otis Magee, a 54-year-old substitute teacher at a Phoenix high school has been arrested for allegedly inappropriately touching a minor. (He was apparently charged with two counts of assault arising out of an alleged 2008 incident, and one count of sexual abuse and one count of kidnapping arising out of an alleged incident in the 2011.)

While Magee teaches at Pinnacle High, none of the alleged conduct occurred at the school or involved any of its students. However, according to police, Magee was teaching at Precision High School last December when he allegedly inappropriately touched a 15-year-old girl while giving her a ride home from a restaurant. During the investigation, police allegedly learned that Magee may have inappropriately touched a 17-year-old girl and an 18-year-old girl in 2008. Those girls were students of Precision and the alleged occurrences appear to have happened at the high school. If convicted, unwanted touching constitutes an assault.
Like all suspects, Magee is presumed innocent of all allegations unless proven in a court of law.