California: Activision targets EA in $400 million lawsuit
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Activision Blizzard Inc., the video game maker behind the smash-hit shooter “Call of Duty: Black Ops,” on Tuesday added a new target in its lawsuit against two former executives: rival Electronic Arts Inc. Activision also put a price tag on its claim for the first time, seeking $400 million.
The amended complaint filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court is the latest salvo in a legal shootout that began when Jason West and Vince Zampella sued Activision for $36 million in March, claiming Activision fired them to avoid paying royalties for their work on the “Call of Duty” franchise.
Activision, owned by France’s Vivendi SA, claims EA lured the men away, starting as early as July 2009, despite their having two years left on their contract, in part by using talent agency Creative Artists Agency as an intermediary. It alleges EA dispatched a private jet to Southern California to shuttle West and Zampella to a secret meeting at the home of EA’s chief executive John Riccitiello near San Francisco in August 2009.
The two later formed Respawn Entertainment, hiring about 40 employees away from Activision. Respawn said in April it will create games exclusively for release by EA.
In the complaint, Activision alleges that EA intentionally interfered with contracts, engaged in unfair competition and aided and abetted breaches of fiduciary duty by the executives.
EA, which is based in Redwood City, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
West and Zampella did not directly work on the “Black Ops” game, which Activision said Tuesday had exceeded $1 billion in global sales. The men’s unit at Activision, Infinity Ward, works on roughly every other game in the “Call of Duty” franchise with Activision subsidiary Treyarch.
Shares of Activision, which is based in Santa Monica, rose 10 cents to $12.33 in after-hours trading on Tuesday, after closing up 2 cents at $12.23.
Electronic Arts shares were unchanged in extended trading after closing up 8 cents at $15.93.
Maine: Reporter sues ski area over accident
AUBURN, Maine (AP) — A newspaper reporter is suing a Maine ski area two years after breaking her back while riding inside a giant ball down a ski trail for a story.
Rebekah Metzler, of Brunswick, worked for the Sun Journal of Lewiston in June 2008 when the Lost Valley ski area in Auburn invited her to write about its newest attraction — a car-sized inflatable sphere in which riders are strapped inside and rolled down a grassy hill.
In her complaint in Androscoggin County Superior Court, Metzler said she suffered painful and permanent injuries after the ball went out of control off the course.
An owner of Lost Valley told the Sun Journal she had no comment on the lawsuit.
Metzler now works as a reporter for Maine Today Media.
Mississippi: Judge sentences man in child porn, snakes case
GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) — A federal judge in Mississippi has sentenced a man to 30 years in prison on charges of coercing an underage girl to pose for child pornography with poisonous snakes.
John Joseph Maillet pleaded guilty in September to one count of production of child pornography. He was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden.
Maillet, of Port Jervis, N.Y., was living in Carriere, Miss., where the alleged crime took place. He was arrested in August.
Prosecutors say the girl was 15 when Maillet first enticed her to pose for pictures in April 2007 and was 16 when he had sex with her.
Pennsylvania: Narcotics mistakenly destroyed in pending cases
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh police say they’re reviewing procedures after narcotics that were retrieved in pending cases were accidentally destroyed.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that it happened in two cases last week when narcotics detectives went to get evidence from the bureau’s property room. The newspaper reports that about 14,000 bags of heroin worth more than $100,000 were burned.
The newspaper says the drugs were destroyed mistakenly due to oversights by the police and the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office. The mistakes seem to happen when the cases aren’t prosecuted locally but moved to state or federal court.
Assistant police Chief Regina McDonald’s office oversees the property room. She says they are working to address the problem.
Louisiana: Budget worries at Orleans public defender office
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Citing budget concerns, the Orleans Public Defenders office plans a general hiring freeze and cutbacks on legal representation for poor defendants in New Orleans traffic and municipal courts.
Orleans Parish Chief Public Defender Derwyn Bunton says in a news release that the office also will refuse to pay for defense attorneys in new capital murder cases assigned to the office and will implement a pay cut for management employees, according to The Times-Picayune.
On Monday, the public defender office and Louisiana Public Defender Board filed a lawsuit in Baton Rouge, saying Orleans Parish judges are routinely failing to assess mandatory fees on convicted defendants. These fees are supposed to support the public defender office.
“Our office is in such a funding crisis that we just couldn’t afford to wait,” Chief Public Defender Derwyn Bunton said after the announcement of a freeze. He estimated the agency’s budget is about $8 million for the 2009-10 fiscal year.
The hiring freeze will mean fewer attorneys to handle cases over the next six months, he said. This in turn will mean higher caseloads for the roughly 55 attorneys on staff, which will slow the process of cases at Criminal District Court, he said.
The public defender office has been asking both the city and state governments for more operating money in recent years, saying it needed financing as grants obtained in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina dried up. In recent years, the state public defender board has helped out, finding extra money at the end of the agency’s fiscal years. But this year, Bunton said he’s been told that can’t happen.
