Category: Lawsuits

Singer Courtney Love Pleads Guilty to Drug Offense
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Closing one chapter in a troubled period in her life, rock star Courtney Love pleaded guilty on Tuesday to being under the influence of cocaine and agreed to enter drug treatment.
Under the plea deal reached in Los Angeles Superior Court, the 39-year-old former lead singer for Hole will be spared any jail time and have the conviction removed from her record if she completes the treatment program, prosecutors said.
In exchange for her guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to drop a charge of disorderly conduct stemming from her arrest last October.
If she fails to complete the program or violates the terms of her probation, the singer will be required to serve at least 90 days in jail, prosecutor Jerry Baik said.
The terms of her probation will be outlined at a July 16 sentencing hearing. The singer likely will be required to submit to random drug testing and to report regularly to drug counseling and to a county probation officer, Baik said.
“It’s not an unbearable program. It’s something that can do more benefit to her than hurt her,” Baik said outside court.
Love, who came to court in a flowered dress and high-heeled shoes with her platinum blond hair tousled, had no comment about the case.
She spoke little during the 10-minute hearing, answering Judge Patricia Schnegg’s questions in soft monosyllables. When asked for her plea, she replied: “Guilty.”
The plea agreement resolves one of two criminal cases filed against Love in connection with her Oct. 2 arrest outside a boyfriend’s Los Angeles home, where police found her breaking windows in the middle of the night.
Hours later, Love was treated at a local hospital for what police described as a “medical emergency” — an incident that led to separate charges of illegal possession of the prescription painkiller OxyContin.
She also faces criminal charges in New York, where she was arrested in March after throwing a microphone stand into a nightclub audience and hitting a man in the head.
Love is the widow of late Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain, who committed suicide in 1994. She was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1997 for her role in “The People Vs. Larry Flynt.”

Eminem suit against Apple, MTV a go
DETROIT (AP) — A federal judge says rapper Eminem’s copyright infringement claims over use of his song “Lose Yourself” in a commercial for Apple Computer Inc. can go forward.
Apple featured a 10-year-old boy singing the Oscar-winning theme song to the rapper’s movie “8 Mile” in an ad on MTV for the computer company’s iPod music player and iTunes music service.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled that the suit brought by Eminem’s publishing company can proceed against several companies, including MTV parent company Viacom and advertising agency TBWA/Chiat/Day.
Taylor threw out two state law-based claims of unfair competition and unjust enrichment.
The television ad appeared many times during three months beginning in July 2003 and on Apple’s Web site, despite the fact that the computer company had unsuccessfully sought Eminem’s permission for the campaign.
Herschel Fink, a Detroit lawyer for the defendants, said no viewer would think Eminem was endorsing the iTunes service.
Eminem’s lawyers say he has never nationally endorsed any product.

New Claim Against Michael Jackson Arises
LOS ANGELES – Detectives are investigating a new allegation of child abuse against pop star Michael Jackson involving a person who claims to have been victimized in the late 1980s, a police spokeswoman said Tuesday.
Jackson has pleaded innocent to child molestation charges involving another alleged victim in Santa Barbara County. Jackson attorney Benjamin Brafman said he was unaware of the Los Angeles Police Department investigation.
“We have never been informed by the LAPD of any investigation that they are conducting of Michael Jackson,” he said. “I would point out that since I have been involved in this case I have addressed literally dozens of completely baseless rumors on a daily basis, and this appears to be just another one of them.”
The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office asked the LAPD to investigate the new allegation a month ago, said Mary Grady, commander of the department’s public information office.
“The victim alleges the acts took place in the city of Los Angeles in the late 1980s,” she said.
The allegations are being investigated by the Child Protective Section of the department’s Juvenile Division. Grady declined to elaborate on such details as the age or sex of the alleged victim.
Los Angeles district attorney’s spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons declined comment.
“This is a matter under investigation by the LAPD,” she said. “We are not the investigative agency.”
Santa Barbara County prosecutors did not immediately return calls for comment Tuesday evening.
Steve Cron, a defense attorney who has represented clients accused of molestation, said the new alleged abuse would be within the statute of limitations if it occurred after 1988. He said the accuser could also help prosecutors in the Santa Barbara case show a pattern of abuse, though the amount of time since the alleged acts could hurt the accuser’s credibility.
“The questions are asked: Why didn’t this allegation surface earlier? Why didn’t he report it to someone a long time ago? How accurate is his recollection? How accurate is his ability to relay the events to someone else?” Cron said.
Also Tuesday, an appeals court rejected a request by several news agencies to lift a gag order placed on the parties by the judge in the Santa Barbara case.
An attorney representing news organizations, including The Associated Press, said in a filing last week before the state Court of Appeals that the order imposed unconstitutional “prior restraint” on attorneys and potential witnesses. He asked that it be immediately lifted.
Jackson and his attorneys also oppose the order on grounds that it blocks their ability to address false rumors and news reports.
At a hearing earlier this month, the judge made what he said was a final change to the policy: He said attorneys wishing to respond to news reports could submit to him in writing what they wanted to release, and that he would rule on whether the statements violated the gag order.
Jackson was charged by the Santa Barbara district attorney late last year with committing lewd or lascivious acts upon a child and administering an intoxicating agent to the child. Jackson has pleaded innocent. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for April 30.
The pop singer reportedly reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with a boy who accused him of molestation in 1993. No criminal charges were brought in that case.

Rush Guitarist Charged in Hotel Fight
NAPLES, Fla. – The lead guitarist for the rock band Rush was charged Monday with two counts of battery, more than three months after a New Year’s Eve scuffle with sheriff’s deputies at a Naples hotel.
Deputies said the fight started when the guitarist’s son refused to get off the stage at The Ritz-Carlton, where the house band was performing.
Alex Zivojinovich, whose stage name is Alex Lifeson, tried to intervene when deputies escorted his son off the property, deputies said. They accused Rush’s founding member of pushing a female deputy down a stairwell and spitting in another deputy’s face.
Justin Zivojinovich, 33, was charged with one count of resisting with violence, and Alex Zivojinovich’s wife was later charged with resisting arrest.
After his arrest that night, Alex Zivojinovich, 50, left jail with a bloodstained shirt and told reporters his nose was broken in the altercation. The two charges he faces are each punishable by up to five years in prison if he is convicted.
Zivojinovich’s attorney declined to comment Monday.

California Judge Delays Courtney Love Drug Case Again
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (Reuters) – A hearing to determine whether Courtney Love will be tried on drug charges was postponed on Tuesday, but not before the singer-actress had disrupted the proceedings and was admonished by the judge to keep quiet.
It was the fourth time a Beverly Hills judge has put off hearing the felony case stemming from Love’s Oct. 2 trip to a local hospital for what police called “a medical emergency.”
Superior Court Judge Elden Fox reset the hearing for April 15 after Love’s new lawyer said he needed more time to prepare his case and obtain evidence from investigators.
Love, 39, has pleaded innocent to illegally possessing prescription painkillers.
She faces two charges in a separate case stemming from her pre-dawn arrest earlier the same day outside a boyfriend’s home, where police said she was breaking windows.
The frontwoman for the now-defunct rock band Hole arrived in court on Tuesday in a sheer pink-and-red dress and a turquoise sweater with her attorney Michael Rosenstein, who took over the case last month.
She called out: “Hello Judge Fox,” and later blurted out when prosecutors objected to delaying the case: “I’ve got the bottles with me. I’ve got the prescriptions on me.”
Fox admonished her not to interrupt, saying: “Ms. Love, you’re not doing yourself any service.”
At one point, Love handed a book, “A History of Women, Renaissance and Enlightenment Paradoxes,” to a reporter seated behind her, pointing out that the table of contents listed female journalists, witches and prostitutes consecutively.
When asked whether she would be able to make the new court date, Love told the judge: “I’ll be right here.”
She is scheduled to appear Wednesday night on the CBS “Late Show with David Letterman” for an interview and to perform a song from her debut solo album, “America’s Sweetheart,” the first release from Love in six years, the network said.

Geffen Records Prevails Over Axl Rose Lawsuit
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A federal judge on Monday cleared the way for Geffen Records to release a greatest-hits album next week from the rock band Guns N’ Roses over the objection of its lead singer, Axl Rose.
Rose sued Geffen, a unit of Universal Music Group under Vivendi Universal, seeking to prevent the best-of collection from being released, claiming he was not consulted on the choice or remixing of material for the album.
He was joined as a plaintiff in the suit, filed last Friday, by two band members from the original lineup — guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan — even though their rights to the Guns N’ Roses name was signed over to Rose years ago when they left the group.
But U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer denied their request for a temporary restraining order, allowing Geffen to issue the album as planned next Tuesday. A hearing on a motion for a preliminary injunction was set for next month.
“Their lawsuit is meritless,” Universal Music spokesman Peter LoFrumento said. “Fortunately, since the court has denied their application for a temporary restraining order, the album will be released as scheduled on March 23.”
According to the lawsuit, Rose objected to the selection of songs for the compilation album, the timing of its release, the album’s artwork and the re-mastering of the original tapes.
The album features 14 tracks in all and eight of Guns N’ Roses’ hit singles, including “Welcome to the Jungle, “Paradise City” and “Sweet Child O’ Mine” from the mega-selling 1987 album “Appetite for Destruction.”
The group’s last studio album, “The Spaghetti Incident?,” was issued in 1993. A 2002 MTV appearance by a reconstituted Guns N’ Roses, with Rose as the lone member from the band’s heyday, helped spark interest in the group’s new lineup, but a subsequent U.S. tour was cut short.
The suit, which accuses Geffen of trademark infringement and breach of contract, says the label is barred under its contract with Guns N’ Roses from altering its master recordings without the band’s permission.
A statement from Rose’s manager added that the greatest-hits set “will hinder the release of the band’s long-awaited new studio album, ‘Chinese Democracy.”‘
Geffen officials had no further comment on the dispute. But a source familiar with the situation said the label has been waiting seven years for Rose to deliver “Chinese Democracy” and has poured $13 million into production of that album after repeated promises that he was about to finish the project.
“Every year there’s been a new reason why Axl is not done with the record,” the source told Reuters, adding that Geffen went ahead with the greatest-hits package only because Rose failed to come through with “Chinese Democracy.” “Had he delivered this record like he promised seven years ago, this would not be happening right now.”
A representative for Rose was not immediately available for comment.

Singer James Brown Arrested on Violence Charge
MIAMI (Reuters) – The “Godfather of Soul,” James Brown, was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of committing domestic violence, South Carolina law enforcement officials said.
Brown, 70, who has had several run-ins with the law and spent time in prison, was due to appear at a bond hearing on Thursday, a spokesman for the Aiken County detention center said.
Neither the Aiken County Sheriff’s office nor the detention center would comment further.
The soul singer, famous for hits including “I Feel Good,” was previously accused of beating his wife, Adrienne, in 1995.
Brown served nearly three years in prison after he was arrested in 1988 for leading police on a car chase between South Carolina and Georgia.
He also received a two-year suspended sentence in 1998 and entered a drug treatment program after pleading no contest to firearms charges.
Despite his turbulent past, last month he was among five stars feted in Washington for his contributions to American culture.
Brown appeared at a White House reception before taking part in a gala performance attended by President Bush at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.
The honor prompted Secretary of State Colin Powell to dub Brown the “Secretary of Soul and the Foreign Minister of Funk.”

George Harrison’s Estate Sues Doctor
NEW YORK – A doctor forced a weakened George Harrison to autograph a guitar for the physician’s teenage son two weeks before the ex-Beatle died of cancer, a lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges.
Filed by Harrison’s estate, the suit alleges that the musician tried to resist the request by saying, “I do not even know if I know how to spell my name anymore.”
The suit alleges that Dr. Gilbert Lederman responded by saying, “Come on, you can do this,” and held Harrison’s hand as the musician wrote his name on the guitar “with great effort and much obvious discomfort.”
The estate seeks possession of the guitar and two cards it says Harrison signed as he was treated by Lederman, a Staten Island-based expert in treating large tumors with high doses of radiation. Harrison died in November 2001 after battling lung cancer and a brain tumor.
“This lawsuit is strictly allegations. Frankly, I think it’s absurd,” Lederman’s attorney, Wayne Roth, said Tuesday. “He didn’t coerce Mr. Harrison.”
Harrison’s wife and son believe a National Enquirer story about Harrison’s death that featured Lederman’s son holding the instrument was orchestrated by Lederman to raise the item’s value, a lawyer for the Harrison estate said Tuesday.
“George was literally lying there dying and the doctor forced George to sign a guitar,” Paul LiCalsi, an attorney for Harrison’s estate, said Tuesday. “The doctor should not be permitted to profit from this behavior.”
Roth said Lederman’s son still plays the guitar and the family has no intention of selling it. The instrument, appraised in connection with a state investigation of Lederman’s treatment of Harrison, is worth less than $10,000, Roth said.
The estate also accuses Lederman of violating Harrison’s privacy by orchestrating invasive media coverage in the interest of promoting his medical practice.
Lederman conducted interviews about Harrison with several news outlets, many within hours of the ex-Beatle’s death, the suit charges.
The state Health Department reprimanded Lederman for talking to the press about Harrison without his consent. Lederman accepted his censure, reprimand and a $5,000 fine, documents show.

Rush Guitarist in New Year’s Eve Fight
NAPLES, Fla. – The lead guitarist for the rock band Rush faces criminal charges after a New Year’s Eve fight with sheriff’s deputies.
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Alex Zivojinovich, better known by his stage name Alex Lifeson, was arrested for what deputies described as drunken, violent behavior at the Naples Ritz-Carlton hotel.
Deputies said they used a stun gun on Zivojinovich, 50, who faces six charges that include aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer with violence, and disorderly intoxication.
Also arrested were his 33-year-old son Justin Zivojinovich and wife Michelle Zivojinovich, 30.
Justin Zivojinovich said his father, who was still in Collier County jail late Thursday, had his nose broken by deputies.
He also said his father did not throw a female deputy down the stairs, as stated in arrest reports. She tumbled down the stairs as she pushed the guitarist down the stairwell, his son said.
The scuffle began when Justin Zivojinovich refused to leave a stage, according to the arrest report.
Rush’s hits include “Tom Sawyer,” from the 1981 album “Moving Pictures,” “Limelight” and “Spirit of the Radio.”

Michael Jackson Denies Sex Charges in TV Interview
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – In his first interview since being charged with child molestation, pop star Michael Jackson vehemently denies the allegations but insists there is nothing wrong in sleeping with children, according to excerpts released on Friday by CBS News.
“Before I would hurt a child, I would slit my wrists,” Jackson told correspondent Ed Bradley in an interview scheduled to be shown Sunday on “60 Minutes.”
Bradley asked Jackson whether he thought that under the circumstances, it was still acceptable to sleep with children and Jackson answered, “Of course. Why not? If you’re going to be a pedophile, if you’re going to be Jack the Ripper, if you’re going to be a murderer, it’s not a good idea. That I am not.”
Jackson also said the police search of his Neverland Valley Ranch in central California last month so violated his privacy that “I won’t live there ever again. It’s a house now. It’s not a home anymore. I’ll only visit.”
During the 30-minute interview, conducted Thursday at a Los Angeles hotel, Jackson also discussed his brief time in police custody, including an injury he said he suffered from the handcuffs, and other details about his arrest, CBS said.
In addition to the “60 Minutes” interview, CBS said that an hourlong Jackson music special that was canceled the day after authorities raided his Neverland Ranch has been rescheduled for Friday, Jan. 2.
CBS spokesman Chris Ender said Jackson’s “60 Minutes” interview cleared the way for the network to resurrect the music special. “The timing is better,” Ender told Reuters. “We wouldn’t have rescheduled the entertainment special if he hadn’t addressed the situation in the Ed Bradley interview.”
The reclusive entertainer was arrested on suspicion of child molestation in November and released on $3 million bail. He was formally charged Dec. 18 with seven counts of committing a lewd act on a minor and two counts of administering an “intoxicating agent” for the purposes of molesting a child.
The charges stem from allegations that he molested a boy under the age of 14 at his Neverland ranch earlier this year.
Jackson, who has three children of his own, has issued a statement through his publicist calling the allegations a “big lie,” and his lawyer, Mark Geragos, has said the case is a “shakedown” motivated by greed and revenge. But Jackson’s upcoming appearance on “60 Minutes” will mark his first interview since the case broke.
Jackson’s last television interview was in a controversial documentary by British journalist Martin Bashir that ran on ABC and British television in February.
In it, the singer appeared on camera holding hands with a 12-year-old boy with whom Jackson admitted sharing his bedroom. Jackson said he had spent the night with numerous children but denied there was anything sexual about such sleepovers.
The documentary renewed questions about Jackson’s relationship with children and sparked calls for an investigation by child welfare authorities.