Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Thursday 10 augusT 2017
Kentucky man, transgender wife sue Amazon for bias Judge approves

Stein plea deal in
By DAVID CRARY
AP National Writer pipeline protest
A Kentucky man and his By BLAKE NICHOLSON
transgender wife sued Am- Associated Press
azon on Wednesday, alleg-
ing that they endured sus- BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A
North Dakota judge on
tained discrimination and
harassment during a year Wednesday accepted
a plea agreement that
as co-workers at the mam-
moth online retailer’s ware- spares former Green Party
presidential candidate Jill
house in northern Kentucky.
A lawyer working with the Stein any jail time for pro-
testing the Dakota Access
couple said the case is no-
table in part because Am- oil pipeline nearly a year
ago.
azon, one of the nation’s
largest corporations, has a Judge Gail Hagerty ac-
cepted a plea deal in
record of strongly support-
ing gay and transgender which Stein pleaded guilty
to misdemeanor criminal
rights.
The lawsuit , filed in U.S. mischief and prosecutors
dropped a misdemeanor
District Court in Coving-
ton, Kentucky, alleges that criminal trespass charge.
Stein will be on unsuper-
Dane Lane and Allegra
Schawe-Lane were target- vised probation for about
six months and must pay
ed with threats, slurs and
sexual harassment by nu- This Aug. 4, 2017, photo provided by Jillian Weiss shows Dane Lane, left, and his transgender $250 in fees. She had
faced a maximum punish-
merous colleagues at their wife, Allegra Schawe-Lane, outside the federal courthouse in Covington, Ky. The couple is filing
shipping facility. Their com- a lawsuit against Amazon, alleging that they endured sustained discrimination and harassment ment of two months in jail
and $3,000 in fines.
plaints to superiors led to during a year as co-workers at an Amazon warehouse in Kentucky.
retaliation in some cases, (Jillian Weiss via AP) Stein and her attorney did
not respond to phone and
rather than any effective organization. The fund’s zon in part because of Two months before resign-
steps to halt the abuse, the executive director, Jillian the company’s reputation ing, they filed discrimina- email messages seeking
comment.
couple contends. Weiss, noted that Amazon as LGBT-friendly. Its own tion charges with the U.S.
At one point, according to has intervened in other corporate policy prohib- Equal Employment Op- Morton County Assistant
State’s Attorney Brian Gros-
the suit, the brake line of court cases in support of its discrimination based portunity Commission. The
their car was severed while transgender rights, and on sexual orientation and EEOC declared earlier this inger also did not respond
to messages seeking com-
parked in a secure lot at that the company’s Ama- gender identity. “I thought year that evidence sub-
the workplace in Hebron, zon Studios produced the we would be safe and ac- stantiated some of the ment on why prosecutors
chose not to take the case
Kentucky. acclaimed television se- cepted,” Schawe-Lane couple’s allegations and
Amazon declined to re- ries “Transparent” with a said in a telephone inter- said they had grounds for to trial.
Stein was charged for
spond to the allegations, protagonist who transitions view. “Instead it was like a a lawsuit.The lawsuit seeks
saying in an email, “We from male to female. bad dream. Every day, I’d both compensatory pay- spray-painting a bulldozer
at a construction site last
have a practice of not “We have a company that wish it was ‘Candid Cam- ment and punitive damag-
commenting on active liti- touts its transgender friend- era’ and someone would es, with the amount to be September.
She told The Associated
gation.” liness,” Weiss said. “Yet in pop out and say it was all a determined by a jury. It also
The plaintiffs’ case will be Kentucky, when a trans- joke.” The couple was hired seeks a court order requir- Press in March that it was
“very
problematic
to
handled by Kentucky law- gender person comes and by Amazon in October ing Amazon to implement
yers on behalf of the Trans- says, ‘Look, I’m being ha- 2014 and resigned a year workplace programs that have this hanging over my
head” and that she want-
gender Legal Defense & rassed,’ they get no help.” later, saying conditions at would ensure respectful
Education Fund , a na- Schawe-Lane said she their workplace were intol- treatment of transgender ed the case resolved. She
also said that she was will-
tional transgender-rights sought a job with Ama- erable. employees.q
ing to go jail but that’s “not
my preference, obviously.”
Settlement reached in suit over deadly Halloween hayride Stein’s running mate, Aja-
mu Baraka, who faced
similar charges, got the
By DAVID SHARP tion to help children, attor- forts focused on holding Harvest Hill Farm acknowl- same deal Wednesday.
Associated Press ney Jodi Nofsinger said. The farm operators account- edged last year that crimi- The $3.8 billion pipeline
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — amount of the settlement able. nal negligence played a built by Texas-based En-
The family of a teenager was not disclosed. “I certainly hope that role in the brake failure as ergy Transfer Partners on
who died in a hayride The wagon on the “haunt- there’s a message that the hayride rolled down- June 1 began moving
crash has settled a lawsuit ed” hayride at Harvest Hill comes from this,” she told hill, sending passengers fly- North Dakota oil through
against the farm owner Farm in Mechanic Falls The Associated Press. “Any- ing when it crashed and South Dakota and Iowa to
who operated the Hallow- went out of control after one who invites the public flipped. a distribution point in Illinois,
een attraction in 2014, the a brake failure, killing the onto their property for en- The farm pleaded guilty though American Indian
family lawyer said Wednes- Oakland teenager and in- tertainment for profit has to a driving-to-endanger tribes who fear environ-
day. juring more than 20 other a duty and obligation to charge. Under the plea mental harm are still fight-
Money from the settlement people. Prosecutors said make sure the people are agreement, the farm was ing the project in court.
in the wrongful death law- the 1979 Jeep hauling the safe.” fined and prosecutors Protests in North Dakota by
suit brought by the family of wagon on the “Gauntlet” A lawyer who represented dropped a manslaughter tribes and environmental
17-year-old Cassidy Cha- ride had numerous safety the farm didn’t immediate- charge. Most of the fine groups between last Au-
rette will be used to support problems. ly return a message seeking money went to charitable gust and this past February
a family-created founda- Nofsinger said the legal ef- comment Wednesday. causes.q resulted in 761 arrests.q