Tony Maldonado

Two men turned away from a women-only karaoke night at the Visalia Wyndham in August have filed a lawsuit alleging gender discrimination. Steve Frye and George St. George filed suit last month, and have made headlines for filing similar suits around the state. Katie Parker — a Visalia resident — and her company Girrlfriends Events, as well as the Visalia Wyndham, are the latest defendants in a series of lawsuits, including a recent suit in San Luis Obispo and other lawsuits in Southern California.

Attorneys for a man arrested in an internet sex sting last October have claimed that the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office discriminated against gay men by making underage male decoys older than female ones and placing male decoys exclusively on gay dating apps. Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux vehemently denies the allegations and stated that each person arrested was aware they were contacting a minor. David Safrazian, a 25-year-old student, was arrested after driving to a Visalia hotel to a

Board members received an earful at a special Visalia Unified School District (VUSD) board meeting on Tuesday night. The meeting was held to discuss two items, both of which related to the concerns of student protesters, and both of which were presented by Brandon Gridiron, the district’s Administrator for Equity and Student Services. The first item, a report on inclusivity in the district, expounded on efforts the district has made to reach out to multiple constituencies on how the district c

The Tulare Local Healthcare District will vote Wednesday on whether to send a complaint against its former attorney, Bruce Greene, to the State Bar of California. Greene is a Los Angeles-based partner at the firm Baker Hostetler. He and the Baker firm simultaneously represented the district and Healthcare Conglomerate Associates (HCCA); HCCA previously managed the district’s hospital, the Tulare Regional Medical Center. The Baker firm and attorneys under its employ also, for most of the same pe

A lawsuit against past members of the Tulare Local Healthcare District board and the district’s former legal counsel has a trial date, nearly two years after the suit was filed. Documents in the case additionally reveal that the Tulare County District Attorney’s office served a warrant on the district seeking documents related to its former counsel in January 2020. The case, filed in Tulare County on April 4, 2019, is set to ultimately be heard by a Kern County jury on March 8, 2021, after multiple defendants in the case stated they didn’t believe an impartial jury could be found in Tulare County.

The Tulare Local Healthcare District has struck three of its former board members — and its prior legal counsel — with a lawsuit. The Baker Hostetler law firm, attorney Bruce Greene, Dr. Parmod Kumar, former board president Linda Wilbourn, and former board member Richard Torrez were all named in the suit, filed Wednesday, April 24 by attorney Michael Lampe.

The Southern Inyo Healthcare District needs a new bankruptcy attorney — and law firm — by May 10, after attorneys for Healthcare Conglomerate Associates (HCCA) successfully moved to disqualify the district’s current counsel. Judge Frederick E. Clement ruled on April 10 that Ashley McDow and the law firm Foley & Lardner, which she works for, would be disqualified in the district’s bankruptcy case after HCCA argued that her prior work on HCCA matters represented a conflict of interest.

The City of Tulare will extend a $9m line of credit to the Tulare Local Healthcare District, after a special Tulare City Council meeting on Tuesday night. Mayor Jose Sigala and council member Terry Sayre voted to extend the line of credit to the hospital, with Vice-Mayor Dennis Mederos abstaining. Council member Greg Nunley recused himself from the vote, due to a pending transaction with the district, while council member Carlton Jones did not attend the meeting. At the same meeting, it was a

For months, Healthcare Conglomerate Associates’ (HCCA) CEO Dr. Benny Benzeevi has mounted a court challenge to see the return of his personal items and bank accounts seized by the Tulare County District Attorney’s (DA) office.

A new round of legal salvos have been unleashed in the bankruptcy case of the Southern Inyo Healthcare District — both from Healthcare Conglomerate Associates (HCCA), the district’s former management partner, and the district itself. HCCA has claimed that the Southern Inyo district’s bankruptcy attorney, who previously represented both HCCA and the district, has an irreparable conflict of interest and should be removed from the case. The company has also hired legal malpractice counsel to purs

Healthcare Conglomerate Associates (HCCA) could receive up to $1.8m from the Tulare Local Healthcare District in an agreement the district’s board will vote on tonight. If approved, the district’s former hospital management partner would release the Deed of Trust placed on Evolutions Fitness & Wellness Center, deem all promissory notes detailing debts to HCCA as paid, and terminate the 2014 option agreement that gave HCCA the option to purchase or lease the district’s hospital or other building