Firefighter who alleged attack loses case

• A female firefighter lot lost her appeal against the town of  Kankakee, Ill., and its fire chief after she claimed retaliation for complaining that a male lieutenant physically attacked her at a fire scene.
• The filing of a workers’ comp claim wasn’t Title VII-protected act and retaliation for HR complaint, EEOC charge was also not shown.
• The ruling decided an open issue of law for the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit: whether the filing of a workers’ compensation claim is a protected activity supporting a Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act retaliation suit.
• It typically isn’t, because workplace injuries aren’t related to a worker’s protected traits under Title VII, such as sex or race.
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Man convicted of $54M bribery, kickback scheme

• A federal jury recently convicted a Florida man for his role in a $54 million bribery and kickback scheme involving TRICARE, a federal program that provides health insurance benefits to active duty and retired service members and their families.
• David Byron Copeland, 55, of Tallahassee, was a part-owner and senior sales manager at Florida Pharmacy Solutions, a Florida-based pharmacy that specialized in compounded prescription drugs.
• Copeland, along with his accomplices, engaged in a practice known as “test billing” to develop the most expensive combination of compounded drugs to maximize reimbursement from TRICARE.
• Copeland targeted physicians who treated TRICARE beneficiaries and paid bribes and kickbacks to physicians and salespeople to encourage the referral of prescriptions to FPS.
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Insurance granted to first-responder who died from COVID-19

• The family of a volunteer ambulance driver from Orange County, N.Y, who died after battling COVID-19 tried to obtain life insurance and workers’ compensation settlements.
• Following his death, his life insurance company denied his wife’s claim, stating a lack of evidence as to whether he contracted COVID-19 while volunteering in the ambulance or anywhere else.
• Attorneys understood that this workers’ compensation decision could be binding in a lawsuit against the life insurance company.
• In the end, the life insurance company paid the proceeds of the life insurance policy to the family of the deceased and Feldman delivered the check to them last month.
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Transgender bus driver to sue MTA after alleged attack

• A transgender female city bus driver in New York is suing the MTA after allegedly being assaulted and told to use the men’s room, according to a new legal filing.
• Ernesto “Nana” Mangual, 36, claims another bus driver attacked her inside a women’s locker room at the Eastchester Bus Depot in the Bronx, police said.
• Mangual went out on workers’ compensation in late March.
• Longtime MTA worker Sonia Rivera, 60, was initially charged with yelling an anti-LGBTQ slur at Mangual and striking her in the face; however, a judge later granted an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal in the case.
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