A former baseball player lost his suit against the New York Yankees and now is suing the Cincinnati Reds and a North Carolina training complex.

Garrison Lassiter, a baseball prospect who reportedly never played above High-A ball, sued the Yankees for $34 million, claiming Yankees' legend Derek Jeter derailed his baseball career because he was afraid of the competition. Lassiter alleged that it was “blantanly (sic) obvious” that Jeter controlled the Yankees organization, and he insisted Yankees employees libeled and slandered him to other teams, preventing him from reaching the major leagues. Lassiter's lawsuit, alleging conspiracy between the Yankees and Jeter, was dismissed.

“I cannot get on the field due to the New York Yankees trying to control my career,” he wrote in all caps to several major league teams, looking for deals that never came. “I’m the only Baseball Player that will stand up to the New York Yankees,” he added in the final page of the legal document.

Having lost that suit, Lassiter is now suing the Cincinnati Reds for $1.635 million. In a separate lawsuit, he is also suing Proehlific Park, a North Carolina training complex owned by former NFL wide receiver and Hillsborough, N.J. native Ricky Proehl. Lassiter had signed with the New York Yankees rather than pursue a college football career but now says Proehl’s facility failed to get him an NFL tryout.

According to news reports, Lassiter’s best season arguably was in 2011, when he hit .274 with a home run and 23 RBI in 64 games. After the Yankees released him the next year, he redshirted at quarterback for the University of Miami, never appearing in a game.

“Offensively, he was OK,” said Aaron Ledesma, who managed Lassiter at Low-A Charleston in 2011. “He was below average. Not much power, didn’t really hit for a high average. Speed-wise, he was below average.”

Lassiter, who put himself through law school, is acting as his own attorney.

—Source: nj.com

A New York man is suing Westchester County Airport seeking $5 million in damages after he tripped over a luggage scale.

According to news reports, Ralph Faga was visiting the airport to purchase a plane ticket when, after being told the prices for the trip were higher than what he saw online, he was invited to the agent's side of the counter to view ticket prices on the computer screen. As Faga was coming around the corner, he allegedly tripped over a luggage scale he did not see, suffering a torn rotator cuff and bicep tendon, which reportedly is inoperable.

Faga charges that the airport staff was negligent and the scale was not properly marked for visibility. According to Faga’s attorney, his injuries are permanent and will change his lifestyle significantly, which is why Faga is now seeking such a high settlement.

—Source: travelandleisure.com

A New York man is suing a local animal shelter for $5 million, claiming the shelter wrongly adopted out his dog, Eto, a Belgian Malinois.

Clifton Benjamin, a TSA canine handler, claims he purchased Eto in the Netherlands and brought him to the United States. The day after one-year old Eto went missing, he turned up at the Town of Islip animal shelter, where Benjamin went to pick him up. According to news reports, Benjamin claimed to have all the pedigree information for the dog, including his pet passport, vaccination records and shipping/tracking information.

Belgian Malinois are often trained for use by U.S. Secret Service members and for tracking and security and have been known to be sold for between $20,000 and $40,000.

"This is the equivalent of finding a Ferrari at a used car dealership," Benjamin's attorney, Vesselin Mitev, of Ray, Mitev & Associates, LLP, said. "The outrageous behavior of those sworn to reunite animals with their owners cannot go unpunished. We must find Eto. We know he is out there and we demand him back."

In a statement, a town spokesperson said that several people came to claim the dog but none could prove ownership.

"The plaintiff had no physical paperwork in his name, and what he did have, included inaccurate information including a chip number that did not match the chip number in the dog," the statement reads. "The plaintiff admitted to giving the dog to a third party. The dog was brought in on September 14th, 2018 and adopted on October 5, 2018. We received several inquiries. We did more than our due diligence in looking for a responsible owner. The dog was ultimately adopted out to a retired NYC police officer with no relationship to the Town of Islip. This is a frivolous lawsuit and will be vigorously defended by the Town of Islip."

—Source: patch.com

The state of Louisiana is suing the state of California over its decision to ban the import and sale of alligator products.

In its recent lawsuit, Louisiana is alleging that California's ban will hurt the alligator products market, a vital part of Louisiana's economy, in addition to the marshlands that serve as habitat for the alligators and are preserved for raising them. The state argues that if California's ban goes into effect, “landowners will be forced to greatly reduce or cease their erosion control efforts because they will be unable to economically sustain those efforts, resulting in irreparable harm to their property as well as harm to Louisiana’s sovereign environmental interests in wetland preservation."

According to news reports, California banned alligator skins and meats in the 1970s but repeatedly has issued exceptions that allowed sales; the most recent exemption, scheduled to expire January 1, has not been renewed, prompting the lawsuit. The alligator ban was backed by a coalition of environmental and animal rights groups.

“California has nevertheless attempted to destroy the market for American alligator products notwithstanding the fact that no such alligators live in California," the lawsuit says.

According to Louisiana Wildlife & Fisheries, over 300,000 alligators are harvested every year from both farm and wild sources.

—Source: journalstar.com