For more than three years, expelled University of Southern California (USC) football player Matt Boermeester – embroiled in a Title IX assault accusation case – has been fighting the state legal system just for the chance to have his side heard on a federal level.

Despite a small and rare legal victory, the one-time National Football League (NFL) hopeful says he has a long way to go in his quest for due process in a life derailed by what he deems an unjust “male bias witch hunt.”

“The truth is important because the consequences for me have been so devastating. The truth is all I am seeking here,” Boermeester told Fox News this week. “You don’t realize, you are a kid at the time, that USC is trying to protect itself and its hundreds of millions of Title IX funding, not you as the student.”

Late last month, the California Court of Appeal reversed the trial court decision and overturned Boermeester’s January 2017 expulsion, ruling that his Title IX proceeding was “unfair.”

This paves the way for Boermeester, now 26, to forge ahead with a seven-count federal lawsuit against the prominent university on the grounds of “breach of contract, infliction of emotional distress, negligence and selective enforcement of Title IX,” the federal legislation that outlaws gender-based discrimination in the education system and obliges institutions to pursue investigations around sexual misconduct.

Andrew Miltenberg, an attorney for Boermeester, said it “is clear that USC used a flawed investigation method which included denying Matt the opportunity of real-time cross-examination of witnesses.”

“The next step is to push forward with the federal lawsuit, which has been filed, but we had to put it on hold while the California State Court gave us the right to move forward, which it just did. That suit will go into a discovery which will allow us to depose various witnesses and get to see what was in their (USC) records, which will help us prove this was unfounded, and expose the larger biases in the system,” he continued. “There is a long way to go; we have fought for four years just to get this far. The ruling was an important beginning, but it is not the end.”

Boermeester, then 22, was a member of the USC football team, who kicked the game-winning field goal for USC at the 2017 Rose Bowl.

But just days after the victory, and his first night off crutches after a post-season surgery, Boermeester’s life unraveled.

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According to court documents, in the early hours of Jan. 21, 2017, two USC students heard some commotion and allegedly observed – from a window – Boermeester put his hand on his then-girlfriend Zoe Katz’s neck and push her against a wall near her apartment. One of the students reported this incident to the USC men’s tennis coach – their father – which sparked an investigation, as required by law.

Five days later, Boermeester was charged with “intimate partner violence” – despite the fact that the alleged victim stated on multiple occasions that such conduct never occurred. The honors student was handed a letter informing him of the charges and immediately escorted off campus, ejected with just two classes to go before graduation, suddenly slapped with F’s for other subjects, dropped from the football team, and instantly deemed persona non grata.

“I wasn’t allowed to go to class, I wasn’t allowed to talk to my coaches or teammates, and my eligibility to play had expired. I was completely cut off from everything,” he said. “The school quickly sent me a bill for the two classes I had left; they had already made up their mind that I was guilty.”

The descriptions of the incident from eyewitnesses painted a picture of a rough physical altercation, yet Boermeester contended that he and his then-girlfriend were merely “playing around” and “roughhousing” by throwing McDonald’s fries at one another.

But those few moments have proven to be life-altering.

As a result of the expulsion, Boermeester was unable to complete the two classes needed to receive his degree from USC and unable to resume his role on the USC football team, resulting in irreparable damage to his academic career and derailing aspirations to play in the NFL.

“Based on nothing more than a third-party report by a non-witness–essentially a rumor that was easily and repeatedly disputed–a star athlete lost his education and his future career in the NFL,” Miltenberg continued. “That window of opportunity is very small for an athlete, and now it is gone. Professional sports is absolutely shut down for anyone with a sexual assault mark on their transcript. It doesn’t matter how good they are.”

Not only could Boermeester not get a look in from other NFL teams, but he was made to forgo a scholarship to another school because of the F grades and the financial hold from the two remaining classes.

“I couldn’t even get a try-out or go to a camp because of the stigma on my name,” the once prominent kicker asserted. “And I couldn’t even graduate.”

Moreover, Katz maintained that she was never abused or mistreated by her partner, but was informed the Title IX office was obligated to investigate and could proceed without her consent. In Boermeester’s words, his then-girlfriend tried to “speak up” on his behalf but was “threatened with tampering with an investigation” and treated as something of a battered victim.

Miltenberg also emphasized that the case against his client was “predicated on unlawful gender stereotypes and motivated by a desire to demonstrate publicly the University’s harsh stance against male perpetrators of sexual misconduct, based on nothing more than a third-party report by a non-witness.”

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As part of a court filing in the initial lawsuit, USC asserted that its investigation found Boermeester put his hands around Katz’s neck, “causing her to cough, and shoved her into a cinder block wall in the alley near her apartment at least twice” in the early hours of Jan. 21, 2017, and has staunchly maintained its position, citing surveillance video, in the case against Boermeester.

A representative for USC told Fox News in a statement that the school “disagree(s) with the appellate court’s decision and plan to appeal the case to the California Supreme Court.”

According to multiple attorneys interviewed by Fox News on the subject nationwide, more and more cases in a similar vein to Boermeester’s are now gaining traction in the justice system at a time when the Education Department is making sweeping changes to the way such investigations take place.

“The procedures at college campuses still stand out. Appeals like those in the recent Matt Boermeester case in California are becoming more common, as disturbingly deficient records reach appeals courts,” observed David Katz, a former assistant U.S. Attorney. “New rules encourage hearings by such standard, not a mere preponderance. New initiatives sent to campuses are a step in the right direction to try to get away from some colleges’ fawning acceptance and knee-jerk pursuit of accusations.”

Enacted in 1972, Title IX was initially designed to ensure that students have fair access to education without being discriminated against on the basis of sex. But decades later, the Department of Education started to clarify the law’s implications for on-campus sexual harassment and in 2011 – under the Obama administration – further defined that it is the responsibility of institutions of higher education “to take immediate and effective steps to end sexual harassment and sexual violence,” and threatened mass fines and the withholding of critical federal funding should schools fail to adequately fulfill Title IX responsibilities.

However, the controversy surrounding Boermeester’s case is just one of many being brought into the public limelight in the era of “Me Too,” contrasted with the notion of due process remains ripe for contentious debate.

Current Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who cited the Boermeester case in her argument for revising federal guidance on campus sexual assault verdicts, recently imposed a number of changes intended to restore due process protections to students accused of wrongdoing. One of the new mandates will also put a stop to the practice of universities launching Title IX investigations without the permission of alleged victims. The department advocated that the changes will “balance the scales of justice on campuses across America.”

“Aside from the increased protections for legitimate victims of sexual misconduct, there were sorely needed protections implemented for those accused to ensure all people are afforded proper access to education,” explained California-based criminal defense attorney, Troy Slaten. “Much like prosecutors around the country, universities understand that students – most of whom are already straddled with staggering debt – don’t have the ability to fight a protracted court battle to vindicate their rights. Universities have nearly limitless resources to take cases through several layers of appeal. As we see in the Boermeester case, he’s been fighting since before 2017 when he was expelled. At that rate, even a win is a loss for him and makes other students feel that they may have rights but with no remedies.”

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While slated to go into effect for the fall semester, the changes have also garnered significant opposition and steep concerns that the reforms will take campuses back to a time when rape and sexual harassment was carried out with impunity, and subsequently, democratic attorneys from 17 states and the District of Columbia have filed a lawsuit against DeVos in a bid to halt regulations passed last month restricting sexual misconduct cases falling under Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination. The state of New York also submitted its own complaint to the Supreme Court earlier this month, and Democratic Presidential hopeful Joe Biden has pledged to reverse the amendments if elected to the top job in November.

“While I may never get those years back, I won’t stop fighting for the truth in the court of law — or for other young men who may find themselves in my circumstances,” Boermeester added.

PUTRAJAYA (June 10): Former Silver Bird Group Bhd managing director Datuk Jackson Tan Han Kook and its former chief executive officer Derec Ching Siew Cheong were today acquitted of all 134 charges of cheating and purportedly using forged documents to cheat Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) of close to RM67.4 million.

A three-member Court of Appeal bench led by Justice Datuk Kamardin Hashim today dismissed the prosecution’s appeal and upheld the decision by the Sessions Court and High Court to acquit them.

“After observing the appeal record, both oral and written, we find no merit in [the prosecution’s] appeal.

“There is no appealable error. The appeal is dismissed. The decision of the lower courts are upheld and both accused remain acquitted,” the judge said.

This is the final appeal by the prosecution as the case originated from the Sessions Court and parties are only allowed a two-tier appeal process.

Sitting with Justice Kamardin were Justice Datuk Zabidin Md Diah and Justice Datuk Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera.

When met, Tan, 66, said the charges had caused him and his family a lot of stress, but he is thankful for the support he had received from his family and friends.

“The truth has set me free,” he added.

He was represented by counsel Datuk K Kumaraendran and Teh See Khoon.

Counsels Datuk N Sivananthan and Jasmine Cheong appeared for Ching while deputy public prosecutors Faiza Mohd Salleh and Tetralina Ahmad Fauzi appeared for the prosecution.

Tan and Ching were jointly charged in 2012 and claimed trial to charges of cheating Maybank by using false documents in applying for banker’s acceptance facilities for three companies — Asian Food Link Sdn Bhd, Violet Bonanza Sdn Bhd and Stanson Marketing Sdn Bhd.

They were charged under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating and alternatively under Section 471 of the same Code for purportedly using forged documents.

The documents referred to in the charges were invoices totalling RM67.44 million that were purportedly delivery orders made out to Stanson Marketing and Koperasi Permodalan Felda Quality.

They stood trial before Sessions Court Judge Mohd Nasir Nordin, during which the defence were called, but they were later acquitted as the defence had raised reasonable doubt in 2016.

The High Court dismissed the prosecution’s appeal and the decision was upheld today.

Silver Bird was established as a key player in the bakery and confectionery business in the country, via its products under the “High 5” and “Silverbird” brands.

It had also acquired Pastryville, a retail chain of premium pastry selections, with presence in various locations in the Klang Valley.

The group’s substantial shareholders included Berjaya Corp Bhd (16.7%), Lembaga Tabung Haji (5.84%) and Koperasi Permodalan Felda Malaysia Bhd (12.7%).

In 2012, Silver Bird — whose name had then been changed to High-5 Consolidated Bhd — announced that it had a RM112 million hole in its finances, which later turned out to be RM297 million.

The firm fell into Practice Note 17 status, and its securities were eventually delisted from Bursa Malaysia in 2014 after failing to regularise its finances.

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Ralph Vacchiano | Facebook | Twitter | Archive

DeAndre Baker is in a lot of trouble and is facing an uncertain future, to say the least. His NFL career is obviously hanging by a thread. His freedom is in serious jeopardy, too.

The announcement by the Miramar (Fla.) Police Department on Thursday that they had issued an arrest warrant for the Giants cornerback was just the beginning of what could be a long and painful process for the 22-year-old former first-round pick.

Here, with the help of some legal and NFL sources, is a look at what Baker is facing and what comes next:

 

 

What are the charges?

 Baker, according to the arrest warrant issued on Thursday night, is going to be charged with four counts of armed robbery and four counts of aggravated assault with a firearm. With the help of Seattle Seahawks cornerback Quinton Dunbar and an unnamed, masked accomplice, Baker is accused of robbing four men of a total of $12,400 in cash and $61,000 worth of watches. The warrant said he used a semi-automatic weapon in the robberies. One witness said he also told the unnamed accomplice to shoot the victims (though the warrant does not mention any shots being fired or any injuries to the victims).

What is the legal penalty?

According to Florida’s “10-20-Life” law, each count of armed robbery carries a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison, but that is escalated to 15 years if a “semi-automatic weapon” is involved, which is alleged here. So that would be a minimum of 60 years just on those counts. The counts of aggravated assault with a firearm has no mandatory minimum, just a maximum sentence of five years in prison per count.

So if he’s guilty, he’s going to jail for a long time then? Not necessarily. One Florida-based attorney told SNY that a prosecutor has the ability to waive the mandatory minimum and seek a lesser sentence. There is, of course, always the possibility of pleading down to a lesser charge.

When he turns himself in, will he be released on bail?

Not necessarily, but probably — eventually. All eight counts are listed on the warrant as “no bond hold,” which means Baker can’t simply show up, pay his bail, and head back to the Giants’ virtual offseason program. When he is arrested, he will be held by the Miramar Police Department until he can appear before Circuit County Court Judge Carlos Rebollo, the Broward County judge who signed the arrest warrant. Judge Rebollo will then hold a bond hearing and set bail, if he chooses. It’s not clear, though, when that hearing will take place and if there will be any delay related to the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Why hasn’t he turned himself in yet?

Good question, and of course he should have done so already. According to a Miramar Police Department spokesman, they have been in touch with his lawyer. One source said there was an expectation that Baker would turn himself in on Friday. One legal source said the lawyer is likely negotiating the terms of Baker turning himself in – everything from doing it quietly, away from the media, and an expedited bail hearing, if possible.

In the meantime, what are the Giants going to do with him? Probably nothing at the moment. So far they are following the standard playbook for dealing with arrests. They issued a statement that said nothing and then they closed ranks. If they continue to follow that, they will wait for the legal process to play itself out and let the NFL take the lead on any investigation and discipline. There may come a point when they’ll have to decide whether to keep him or cut him, but that’s likely a long ways away.

Would they cut him?

Maybe eventually, especially if the details get out and are even uglier than what is known so far. Obviously, the Giants don’t want to dump a talented young player, especially a year after they traded into the first round to draft him. But they might eventually feel they have no choice. It just probably won’t happen until the legal system runs its course and the NFL takes the initial shot at discipline.

What are the cap ramifications of cutting him?

Baker is entering the second year of a $10.5 million rookie contract. He already got a $5.67 million signing bonus and he’s due $973,442 in salary this season, all of which is guaranteed. At minimum, cutting Baker would cost the Giants an extra $2.3 million against the cap this season, and he’d leave a lot of dead money on their books over the next two years. However, they’d likely try to negotiate all that down and possibly try to recoup some of his signing bonus.

Video: FNNY: Breaking down Baker, what to do with DeAndre?

What is the NFL going to do?

At the very least, it seems certain that the NFL will place Baker on the “Commissioner’s exempt list,” which is basically paid leave and it’s used to prevent players accused of violent crimes from being active while their cases are pending. It also conveniently takes such decisions out of teams’ hands. Baker eventually would be subject to discipline under the NFL’s Personal Conduct policy, even if he pleads down to a lesser charge or if charges are dropped. Under the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, that would be decided by a neutral third party jointly appointed by the NFL and NFL Players Association. Commissioner Roger Goodell is no longer the judge and jury for that.

Has Baker said anything yet?

No. Multiple calls to his agent were not returned to SNY either. And it’s not clear at this point which lawyer is representing him. You can bet that lawyer will issue some kind of statement after Baker’s arrest.

Have the Giants said anything yet?

Just a bland statement through their PR department that said “We are aware of the situation. We have been in contact with DeAndre. We have no further comment at this time.”

Should they say anything more?

They are probably right not to say anything now, since we likely don’t have anywhere near all the facts yet. But eventually, yes, they need to say something. And they all do – John Mara, Dave Gettleman and Joe Judge.

Hopefully they learned something from how they mishandled the Josh Brown affair – when they re-signed their kicker despite a domestic violence arrest, only to cut him once the media unearthed all the sordid details. They let Ben McAdoo, their young coach, take the lead publicly and he ended up praising Brown’s character though he clearly didn’t know all the details of what happened. Then, when the details came out, Mara and then-GM Jerry Reese refused to say anything for more than a week.

Now’s not the time, but they can’t wait forever. If they decide to stand by a player who is accused of using a gun to rob people and ordering the victims to be shot, they owe it to everyone to explain why. Hiding behind statements will make them look terrible, again.

The bottom line

Will Baker ever play for the Giants again? It’s hard to predict, and he is of course innocent until proven guilty. But if the accusations in that warrant hold up – and there are multiple witnesses, including someone who has known Baker since he was a child – it’s hard to imagine that he will, even if he escapes jail time. Sports teams are often tolerant of criminal behavior – especially for players with talent — and the Giants have been no exception over the years. It’s certainly possible that, if he’s granted his freedom, they’d welcome him back and sell it as a chance for redemption. But you’d have to think that some of these allegations cross a line they just won’t want to cross, even for a player with Baker’s potential.

More than 60 current and former NFL players and coaches signed their names to a letter to Attorney General William Barr last week asking he use the full force of federal law to investigate the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man followed and fatally shot by white men in his Georgia community on Feb. 23.

That letter from the Players Coalition, a social justice group formed in 2017 in the wake of player protests during the national anthem, said the Department of Justice and FBI are needed to ensure Arbery’s case wasn’t mishandled by local authorities and that the men charged with murder are held accountable.

NFL star Malcolm Jenkins, who co-founded the coalition with retired wide receiver Anquan Boldin, told NBC News that the request for federal intervention also carries a greater purpose.

“The sad truth is that Ahmaud’s case isn’t unique at all,” Jenkins said. “He is a representation of the ongoing level of distrust that a large part of our communities have in law enforcement and elected officials and the importance of placing reform like-minded people in office who will uphold the highest standards of the law for everyone, regardless of color.”

“It also reinforces that we need hate crime laws in Georgia as well as Arkansas, South Carolina and Wyoming,” Jenkins said of the four states lacking such legislation. “These ‘loopholes’ to justify these kinds of acts will continue to hold us back from justice for everyone.”

Among those who support the Players Coalition’s letter are former NFL player and now-league executive Troy Vincent, Miami Dolphins linebacker Kyle Van Noy, New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman and former Patriot and new Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady.

On Friday, Jenkins joined people across the country who jogged for 2.23 miles to remember Arbery.

“Rest in peace, king,” said Jenkins, a veteran safety who won two Super Bowl championships, one with the New Orleans Saints and the other with the Philadelphia Eagles and re-signed with the Saints earlier this year, in an online video. “Doing my jog for you.”

On Monday, the DOJ said it is weighing the possibility of federal hate crime charges, giving Jenkins hope.

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“The FBI and DOJ have an army of resources, and their goal never changes: to protect the vulnerable and intervene where powerful people have caused grave harm,” he said. “They obtained a guilty verdict in the Rodney King case. They held the perpetrators of the Danziger Bridge shootings accountable. They have prosecuted guards at Parchman prisons. And they have led investigations all over the country that have proved critical in restoring trust between law enforcement and people of color.”

Arbrey’s death has resonated with Jenkins and others who say they see themselves in his shoes. He said that as a black man — regardless of personal his status as a pro athlete — he understands the burden of being scrutinized and the implicit bias of others when he’s out in public.

“Everyday. Walking the dog, taking out the trash, just walking through my own neighborhood, you always must be conscious of what you look like,” he said. “People should not have to worry about the color of their skin or gender to go out for a run in their own neighborhood.”

According to his family, Arbery, 25, was out for a jog on the February day he was killed, an activity the former high school football player did regularly. White men in a pickup truck with guns chased him in their Georgia neighborhood in Brunswick, a small working-class port city, and told police they suspected him of burglarizing a nearby home.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son, Travis McMichael, 34, on charges of felony murder and aggravated assault. The men have been jailed since Thursday, and it was unclear if they have a lawyer.

The lag in an arrest — which came more than two months after the incident and following the release of a leaked video of the shooting — frustrated many community members who believe that the McMichaels’ ties with local authorities and racial bias played a role.

Gregory McMichael was a Glynn County police officer in the 1980s and worked as an investigator in the prosecutor’s office in Brunswick until his retirement in May 2019. The prosecutor, Jackie Johnson, had to recuse herself in the case, and then a replacement prosecutor, George Barnhill of the Waycross Judicial District, also stepped aside after Arbery’s family learned that Barnhill’s son had worked alongside Gregory McMichael in Johnson’s office.

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The case was transferred to yet another outside prosecutor. Meanwhile, Barnhill also wrote a letter in April detailing why he didn’t believe the McMichaels should have been arrested, and that they, along with a third man who recorded the video, had “solid first hand probable cause” to pursue Arbery, a “burglary suspect,” and stop him under Georgia’s citizen’s arrest law.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, who this week asked the Department of Justice to help investigate the case, told NBC News on Monday that part of an investigation needs to determine why those previous district attorneys in the case never told his office that they had conflicts that should have precluded their involvement in the first place. Carr has since appointed a new outside prosecutor — the fourth — to handle the case.

But the earliest a grand jury is expected to be convened is mid-June, when juries in Georgia may resume activity following coronavirus-related restrictions.

Meanwhile, new surveillance videos being reviewed by investigators appear to show Arbery entering a construction site of an unoccupied home on the McMichaels’ block just before he was chased and killed. Attorneys for his family say the videos only show he was “trespassing at most,” and not engaged in other criminal activity.

Jenkins said the video apparently showing Arbery locked in a physical struggle with Travis McMichael was hard to watch.

“Any human being who has seen the video should connect to Ahmaud,” he said. “That said, it is an extremely hard pill to swallow as a black person to watch yet another black body be shot down in the middle of the street. But the most infuriating thing is, as you mourn the loss of a life, is to have their murder justified by white fear and self-defense.”

An autopsy report released Monday shows that Arbery died from two shotgun blasts to the chest and suffered a shotgun graze to his right wrist.

Jenkins said Arbery’s death should be another call to action for people to reexamine the need for citizen’s arrest laws and to hold elected officials and district attorneys accountable for their decisions.

Jenkins, a three-time Pro Bowl safety, has become one of the NFL’s most outspoken players on issues of racial justice. He began using his platform when he formed The Malcolm Jenkins Foundation, a nonprofit charity he started with his mother during his first stint on the Saints’ roster a decade ago. His latest project with his production company, Listen Up Media, includes a documentary called, “Black Boys,” about the black male identity in America.

As for whether this one case would lead to renewed player protests should the NFL kick off a new season later this year, Jenkins said it would be a “disservice” to narrow any activity for a single cause because the larger struggle reaches back far longer.

“The anger and frustration being expressed by professional athletes and people of color all over the country stems from a centuries-long thread of violence against the black body that goes without consequence or justice,” he added. “This has been going on since emancipation.”