>Charter was accused of hiring Holden without verifying his employment history and ignoring a series of red flags about his behavior, which included stealing credit cards and checks from elderly female customers.
and
>"Charter knowingly or intentionally committed forgery with the intent to defraud or harm Plaintiffs," Renteria wrote. The family's attorney previously said that "Charter Spectrum attorneys used a forged document to try to force the lawsuit into a closed-door arbitration where the results would have been secret and damages for the murder would have been limited to the amount of Ms. Thomas's final bill."
Isn't forgery like that illegal beyond merely unethical? Couldn't those attorneys be disbarred? It can't be okay for lawyers to forge documents knowingly.
Those lawyers belong in prison. That’s disgusting and unconscionable behavior. I don’t say this often but if that sort of behavior isn’t criminal it ought to be. Their actions were an attempt to defraud this family of the $1.1 billion they’re entitled to receive.
Seems outrageous that the company used a forged document and it seems that there should be some personal consequences to that (in addition to corporate consequences).
The part of this case that raises an interesting question for me is whether Charter's employment of this individual was reasonable. If Charter conducted a background check and saw that the prospective employee had stolen credit cards and checks before, should that have been sufficient reason to not hire him? It's not as if the prospective employee had a prior murder conviction. Even if the prospective employee did have a prior murder conviction: if people feel that the company should not hired the employee, then that seems like it would have a chilling effect on the hiring of felons. From that perspective, it seems excessive to hold the company accountable for this particular action (assuming that this has not been an issue with other employees).
> If Charter conducted a background check and saw that the prospective employee had stolen credit cards and checks before, should that have been sufficient reason to not hire him?
They didn't run a background check. He'd been robbing other charter customers. from the linked article:
> In the days before Thomas' murder, Holden made 'outcries' to supervisors about personal and financial issues related to a divorce that left him without money or a place to stay, and he cried in a meeting with his supervisor during which he said he was 'not OK,' according to attorneys for Thomas' family. They said that immediately after being denied money, he began scamming elderly female Spectrum cable customers by stealing their credit cards and checks."
He then "went on a spending spree with her credit cards" after murdering the woman. I'm a fan of hiring ex-felons and giving people second chances, but it seems they had reason enough to be concerned about this guy.
America's cable companies have succeeded through unethical partnerships with state, local, and federal politicians. The industry is a cartel that has long enjoyed monopoly protection against video competition, and plays the political game extremely well. The result is cable companies have dishonest and anti-consumer corporate cultures. Happily, technological and some regulatory competition are forcing some incumbents to improve (Comcast in particular) but as a group these companies are best understood as the vicious winners of a legalized system of bribery.
They should have upheld the original $7B judgement purely because of this:
"The jury also found that "Charter knowingly or intentionally committed forgery with the intent to defraud or harm Plaintiffs," Renteria wrote. The family's attorney previously said that "Charter Spectrum attorneys used a forged document to try to force the lawsuit into a closed-door arbitration where the results would have been secret and damages for the murder would have been limited to the amount of Ms. Thomas's final bill."
I'm as mercenary and capitalist as one can be, but I still have personal ethics. There is NO EXCUSE for that sort of intentional maliciousness from a company. Corporations are an entity of the state with an intention to serve the public, this should result in the FTC getting involved and stripping their corporate charter and forcing a sale of their assets to their competitors, and the jailing of the executives involved in the process of that forgery.
$7B is a pittance compared to that, the fact it was lowered to less than 2% of their revenue in 2019 (the year the murder happened), is fucking despicable.
Now I'm not in the USA or familiar with this case, but if anybody wants to reply with even a brief explanation of why there appears to be no criminal charges regarding the forged documents, I'd appreciate it.
[+] [-] jobs_throwaway|3 years ago|reply
>Charter was accused of hiring Holden without verifying his employment history and ignoring a series of red flags about his behavior, which included stealing credit cards and checks from elderly female customers.
and
>"Charter knowingly or intentionally committed forgery with the intent to defraud or harm Plaintiffs," Renteria wrote. The family's attorney previously said that "Charter Spectrum attorneys used a forged document to try to force the lawsuit into a closed-door arbitration where the results would have been secret and damages for the murder would have been limited to the amount of Ms. Thomas's final bill."
[+] [-] noobermin|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] elliekelly|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] janlin1999|3 years ago|reply
The part of this case that raises an interesting question for me is whether Charter's employment of this individual was reasonable. If Charter conducted a background check and saw that the prospective employee had stolen credit cards and checks before, should that have been sufficient reason to not hire him? It's not as if the prospective employee had a prior murder conviction. Even if the prospective employee did have a prior murder conviction: if people feel that the company should not hired the employee, then that seems like it would have a chilling effect on the hiring of felons. From that perspective, it seems excessive to hold the company accountable for this particular action (assuming that this has not been an issue with other employees).
[+] [-] autoexec|3 years ago|reply
They didn't run a background check. He'd been robbing other charter customers. from the linked article:
> In the days before Thomas' murder, Holden made 'outcries' to supervisors about personal and financial issues related to a divorce that left him without money or a place to stay, and he cried in a meeting with his supervisor during which he said he was 'not OK,' according to attorneys for Thomas' family. They said that immediately after being denied money, he began scamming elderly female Spectrum cable customers by stealing their credit cards and checks."
He then "went on a spending spree with her credit cards" after murdering the woman. I'm a fan of hiring ex-felons and giving people second chances, but it seems they had reason enough to be concerned about this guy.
[+] [-] silisili|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] timmattison|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pirate787|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tristor|3 years ago|reply
"The jury also found that "Charter knowingly or intentionally committed forgery with the intent to defraud or harm Plaintiffs," Renteria wrote. The family's attorney previously said that "Charter Spectrum attorneys used a forged document to try to force the lawsuit into a closed-door arbitration where the results would have been secret and damages for the murder would have been limited to the amount of Ms. Thomas's final bill."
I'm as mercenary and capitalist as one can be, but I still have personal ethics. There is NO EXCUSE for that sort of intentional maliciousness from a company. Corporations are an entity of the state with an intention to serve the public, this should result in the FTC getting involved and stripping their corporate charter and forcing a sale of their assets to their competitors, and the jailing of the executives involved in the process of that forgery.
$7B is a pittance compared to that, the fact it was lowered to less than 2% of their revenue in 2019 (the year the murder happened), is fucking despicable.
[+] [-] horseAMcharlie|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bakal|3 years ago|reply
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