Afternoon Briefs: Lawyer threatened jail time for people with unpaid 911 bills; R. Kelly indicted on new charges
R. Kelly in 2003. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.
Lawyer threatened jail to people with unpaid 911 responder bills
After a debt collection attorney allegedly threatened more than 800 people with imprisonment for not paying money owed to Trinity EMS in the Massachusetts, the medical emergency services provider has canceled their debt, which amounts of $1.6 million. The agreement is part of a settlement that the company reached with Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and includes a payment of $50,000 in restitution. Robert White, the attorney, died in 2018. He was hired by Stevens Business Services, and Trinity EMS was unaware of what he was doing, according to John Chemaly, Trinity’s president and co-founder. (The Lowell Sun)
In a new indictment, R. Kelly is accused of infecting a minor with herpes
Singer R. Kelly was indicted on new charges of coercion and enticement involving a minor Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. He is currently being held in Chicago, where he was federally charged with sexual abuse in July 2019. The Eastern District of New York’s U.S. attorney’s office, which is in Brooklyn, also indicted Kelly in 2019, alleging that he engaged in racketeering, including the sexual exploitation of children, kidnapping and forced labor. The new charges allege that Kelly gave a minor herpes and made videos of the sexual encounter. He’s also accused of giving another woman herpes. (The New York Daily News, the Associated Press)
License plate numbers are a point of pride for two senior attorneys
John J. Finan Jr., a Rhode Island lawyer, told his friend Thomas Hetherington, also a Rhode Island lawyer, that his license plate number might be the lowest in the state. Hetherington, who chats with Finan at monthly Pawtucket Bar Association dinners, wasn’t so sure. He was transferred the license plate number of someone who died more than 25 years ago, while Finan inherited his from his father, who was also a lawyer. The two men paired up their vehicles. The license plate number for Finan, who drives an older Cadillac is 3178. Hetherington, who gets around in a late-model Nissan, has a plate number of 3177. “The lesson learned here is do not take much pride in your number plate. It was never meant to be earth-shattering,” Finan wrote to the Providence Journal, which ran a photo of the men and their rides. (The Providence Journal)
