SAGA OF ROYROMER.COM CYBER WAR ENDS WITH $360,000 PAYOFF BY LAUSD.Byline: Naush Boghossian Staff Writer It was April 28, 1995, and David Grant David Grant may refer to:
The tire exploded and the 22-year-old suffered such serious injuries that his left leg had to be amputated above the knee and his right leg sustained severe and permanent damage. That was the beginning of what spiraled into a 10-year saga with the nation's second-largest school district fighting him all the way except for paying his current medical bills. But Grant took his case public in a unique way. He used the Internet. He bought the domain name of LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) Superintendent Roy Romer Roy R. Romer (born October 31, 1928 in Garden City, Kansas, United States) was the 39th governor of Colorado and served as the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District from 2001 to 2006. - royromer.com - and domain names of the workers' compensation workers' compensation, payment by employers for some part of the cost of injuries, or in some cases of occupational diseases, received by employees in the course of their work. attorney retained by the district, his own workers' comp attorney, and even Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslovsky to whom Grant had turned for help. It was war, complete with pictures of the LAUSD superintendent under the title ``Roy Romer's House of Ill Repute n. 1. Bad reputation; notoriety. house of ill repute A brothel; bordello. ,'' diatribes about the case and even pornographic images. Last Tuesday Last Tuesday is a Christian melodic punk rock band hailing from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They played their final show on March 10th, 2007. Last Tuesday was formed in 1999 in Harrisburg, P.A. , Grant won the war - a $360,000 payoff contingent on Adj. 1. contingent on - determined by conditions or circumstances that follow; "arms sales contingent on the approval of congress" contingent upon, dependant on, dependant upon, dependent on, dependent upon, depending on, contingent his ending his Internet rampage. The Los Angeles school The Los Angeles School of Urbanism is an academic movement emerged during the mid-1980s, loosely based at the University of Southern California and UCLA, that poses a challenge to the dominant Chicago School of Urbanism. board agreed to the deal behind closed doors without any public discussion or clear public notice. ``At first blush Adv. 1. at first blush - as a first impression; "at first blush the offer seemed attractive" when first seen , one would hope that the amount that was paid had nothing to do with returning royromer.com because there seems to be the potential for a conflict of interest there,'' said prominent criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos Mark John Geragos (born October 5 1957) is an American criminal defense attorney best known for defending pop-star Michael Jackson, actress Winona Ryder, Gary Condit, and Susan McDougal, who was involved in the Whitewater scandal. . ``The perception is the improper use of funds. Those two issues (workers comp' and the domain name) should not have been linked.'' ``It's very unusual and obviously he's quite ingenious. Sometimes that's the toughest kind of person to fight. Sometimes a person who's improper can be a formidable foe. It kind of sounds like the reason he was so successful is because he used such unconventional tactics.'' Grant, who is believed to now live in Queensland, Australia, could not be reached for comment. Romer declined to comment. LAUSD general counsel Kevin Reed defended the deal, insisting the district did not pay off Grant just to shut him up. ``We're not paying any additional money for the purchase of the domain name. The monetary settlement is to compensate Mr. Grant for the injuries under the workers' comp rule,'' Reed said. ``We reached an agreement with Grant on the basic principles that we want nothing more to do with him and he wants nothing more to do with us.'' Reed said a workers' comp expert estimated the cost of Grant's medical care for the rest of his life to come up with the settlement number. The costs included replacing prosthetics, support hose and deburring the bone in his leg. Grant's former attorney, Jeffrey Linnetz, a certified specialist in workers' compensation, said the accident and his legal fight tormented the young man. ``He had this horrendous accident where he was filling a tire with air without instruction and the expert described it as filling a cocktail glass with a fire hose,'' he said. ``He was very young when it happened, a very bright young man with great potential, and very good-looking, and the legal process took a toll on him. I know he became very frustrated with the limitation of the workers' comp recovery ... and they were manifested through what he did through the Web site.'' Grant felt from the beginning that he had a right to be adequately compensated for the pain and suffering of the loss. But an obscure labor law labor law, legislation dealing with human beings in their capacity as workers or wage earners. The Industrial Revolution, by introducing the machine and factory production, greatly expanded the class of workers dependent on wages as their source of income. , not familiar to most lawyers but picked up on by a few LAUSD attorneys, made Grant, a tuition-paying student at the North Valley Occupational Center Aircraft Mechanics Program at Van Nuys Airport Van Nuys Airport (IATA: VNY, ICAO: KVNY, FAA LID: VNY) is a public airport located in Van Nuys, California in the San Fernando Valley, within the Los Angeles city limits. - which was run by LAUSD - technically a district employee. As an employee, he could not file a civil suit against the district and receive the damages that would be available to a litigant litigant n. any party to a lawsuit. This means plaintiff, defendant, petitioner, respondent, cross-complainant, and cross-defendant, but not a witness or attorney. LITIGANT. One engaged in a suit; one fond of litigation. outside of workers' comp, in spite of the tremendous negligence, Linnetz said. ``Fed up with delays and ignorance,'' Grant wrote on the royromer.com site that he bought in 2002. His intent was to write his ``story for the world to see in the hopes that the media will put this story to the public and demand action.'' He also wrote: ``Mr. Grant, after losing a leg to incompetence, watching seven years of legal absurdities, negotiating with a painfully slow insurance carrier ... has had enough.'' While disconcerted dis·con·cert tr.v. dis·con·cert·ed, dis·con·cert·ing, dis·con·certs 1. To upset the self-possession of; ruffle. See Synonyms at embarrass. 2. , LAUSD officials did not take action until 2004, when Grant put up a picture of the former governor of Colorado with the title ``Roy Romer's House of Ill Repute'' and included pornographic images on the site. A court ordered the material be removed, but Grant kept the site to air his frustrations about the legal proceedings All actions that are authorized or sanctioned by law and instituted in a court or a tribunal for the acquisition of rights or the enforcement of remedies. , citing in detail the progress and timeline of his lawsuit. Under the agreement, Grant will surrender the domain name to the district. ``We believe we reached a fair value to allow Mr. Grant to cover his future medical needs arising out of the terrible injuries he suffered as a student in a vocational program, and he is agreeing to return the royromer.com domain name to the district and refraining from trying to acquire and use other domain names of other district officials,'' Reed said. Bob Stern, president of the center for governmental studies, said he sees no ethical conflict in the settlement. ``Roy Romer is a public official and he (Grant) has done some things with the site that shouldn't have been done. I don't have any problems with the settlement - it's just an indication of what he's (Grant) has done in the past,'' Stern said. ``The question really is the district is basically saying we don't want you saying negative things on a site that says royromer.com.'' The district's many critics see the case in a different light. ``It's a horrible tragedy, but what I find so fabulous is the fact that he wouldn't be taken down, he found a way to be creative to keep up the fight. He found ways to do it,'' said former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, whose mayoral campaign last year turned breaking up the district a major public issue. ``He's the hero of the story ... It's David versus Goliath, but sometimes you can win if you fight long and hard enough.'' Naush Boghossian, (818) 713-3722 naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) Ownership of royromer.com will return to the LAUSD. |
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