Legal Report: A Michigan Agency Agrees to $13 Million Settlement Concerning Surprise Active Shooter Drill
Security Management’s Legal Report is a monthly column that highlights the instances where legal matters intersect with the security industry. Our team tracks court cases, new and developing legislation, and regulatory decisions or investigations that affect private organizations and security professionals worldwide.
To share a tip or notify Security Management about emerging legal issues, email Associate Editor Sara Mosqueda at [email protected].
Judicial Decisions
United States
Active shooter drill. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) agreed to pay a $13 million settlement for failing to warn patients and staff at a state-run psychiatric hospital about an active shooter drill in December 2022. The facility, the Hawthorn Center, treats children with emotional, mood, and thought disorders.
Although the department conducts regular active shooter drills, it usually notifies both employees and local law enforcement prior to the drill.
But this time, there was no warning prior to an announcement that played through the hospital’s speakers, notifying listeners that two men with guns were on the property.
Upon hearing the message, staff and patients at the facility believed that the alert was not a drill, calling 911 and reaching out to family members in the belief that their lives were at risk. Employees and children tried to hide, barricade rooms, and arm themselves in anticipation of a violent attack.
At least one police department was unaware that the incident was in fact a drill.
In response to the surprise active shooter drill, several patients and employees filed a class-action lawsuit against the department. Plaintiffs claimed that the surprise drill gave them post-traumatic stress and impacted their lives.
While the department did not admit to any wrongdoing, a representative said that a settlement was in the “best interest of all involved parties,” according to The Washington Post. (David Horein et al. v. Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Michigan Court of Claims, No. 23-000063, 2024)
Fraud. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) charged six people for involvement in schemes to rig bids, defraud the government, and bribe federal government purchasers—all in connection with the sale of IT products and services. The schemes allegedly resulted in overcharging the U.S. government, including the Department of Defense, millions of dollars, according to the DOJ.
The people accused of the crimes have been split into two separate cases.
Prosecutors charged Victor Marquez, the owner of two IT companies, with wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, and major fraud for his alleged involvement in rigging bids and inflating the amount of money received from IT contracts. One of Marquez’s employees, Antwann Rawls, and an IT sales executive, Scott Reefe, are also facing charges for their alleged involvement in the conspiracy.
The DOJ accused Marquez, Rawls, and Reefe of using their positions to learn confidential information about large government IT contracts, and then using that inside information to collude and create artificial bids to help Marquez’s company win the contract. (United States of America v. Victor M. Marquez, U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, No. 24-cr-296, 2024)
Meanwhile, Breal Madison, Jr., faces 13 counts of conspiracy, bribing a public official, mail fraud, and money laundering. Madison allegedly defrauded his employer and the United States out of $7 million. His alleged co-conspirators include Brandon Glisson, an IT contractor, and Glisson’s supervisor, Lawrence Eady.
According to the DOJ, Madison, Glisson, and Eady allegedly stole money from Madison’s employer and government agencies. They allegedly conspired to siphon more than $9 million in stolen funds, directing the money into Madison’s shell company, Trident Technology Solutions, as well as another shell company. Besides using the stolen money to pay for luxury items such as a yacht, a Lamborghini, and other vehicles, the DOJ also alleged it was used to pay roughly $630,000 in bribes to Eady. (United States of America v. Breal L. Madison Jr., U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, No. 24-cr-0303, 2024)
Bribery. A federal judge sentenced a former military defense contractor to 15 years in prison for machinating a bribery scheme that lasted at least a decade and involved dozens of U.S. Navy officers.
Leonard “Fat Leonard” Francis was also ordered to pay $20 million in restitutions to the U.S. Navy, plus a $150,000 fine and forfeiture of $35 million in illicit proceeds.
While owning and running Glenn Defense Marine, a ship servicing business based in Singapore, Francis bribed naval officers with expensive cigars, Kobe beef, concert tickets, and sex parties at luxury hotels in Thailand and the Philippines. In return, the officers ignored when Francis overcharged the government for supplying ships or created fake charges for services that were never rendered.
The sentencing was also in response to his failure to appear in court—after Francis was initially arrested, he managed to escape from house arrest while awaiting trial. He was recaptured about two weeks later. (United States of America v. Leonard Glenn Francis, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, No. 3:13-cr-03782-JLS-1, 2024)
Assault. A state court in California sentenced David DePape to life in prison without the chance of parole for his attempted kidnapping of Nancy Pelosi, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and the attack on her husband Paul.
On 28 October 2022, DePape was arrested after breaking into the Pelosis’ home in the hopes of kidnapping Nancy Pelosi. While inside the home, he attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer, fracturing his skull and injuring his right arm and both hands.
DePape had previously been tried and convicted in federal court, and the sentencing concludes his trial.
“We cannot allow political violence to become normalized and must take swift action to ensure there are serious consequences for those who will utilize violence to intimidate or stifle our elected leaders for doing what they have been elected to do,” said district attorney Brooke Jenkins in a statement. (California v. David DePape, San Francisco Superior Court, No. 22012966, 2024)
Legislation
U.S. States
Retail theft. Residents in California recently voted to pass Proposition 36, a ballot initiative that will create stricter penalties for retail theft, drug offenses, and property crimes.
Under the new policy, anyone found guilty of shoplifting will be more likely to face felony charges that were previously identified as misdemeanors.
Judges will be required to notify anyone dealing fentanyl that he or she can be charged with murder if a buyer dies from his or her drugs.
Also under Proposition 36, if someone is arrested for possession of a drug, he or she can be charged with a felony; although, instead of a prison sentence, the felony charge can be resolved by completing a mental health or drug treatment program.
For more information about ballot measures that were either approved or rejected by U.S. voters during the 2024 Election, check out this Today in Security post from 14 November.
United States
Mental health. House legislators introduced a bill that proposes expanding access to mental health resources for officers in the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
Introduced at the beginning of October 2024, HR 9929 would require the DOJ and Bureau of Prisons to create grant programs for mental health screenings of corrections officers employed at federal prisons and detention facilities. If needed, an employee could also be referred to a mental health care provider.
The bill, also known as the Officer Blake Schwarz Suicide Prevention Act of 2024, would create $300 million in grants.
Zimbabwe
Private phones. The government has banned police officers from using privately owned mobile phones while on the job. The ban, which was published in a memo, requires all officers to surrender their phones to supervisors once they arrive at their police station. The phones can only be used during break times.
“No reasons were cited for the ban in the memo, but it is widely believed this could be part of efforts to curb police corruption,” the BBC reported.
Regulations
United States
Discrimination. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) fined American Airlines $50 million for the company’s actions and treatment of passengers with disabilities.
An investigation into the airline uncovered instances of unsafe physical assistance that sometimes injured or humiliated wheelchair users. Along with repeated failures to provide wheelchair users with prompt assistance, the DOT also discovered that American mishandled thousands of wheelchairs, resulting in their damage or a delay in returning them to their owners.
Of the total amount, $25 million is a fine payable to the U.S. Treasury, while the remaining $25 million will be credited to the company, specifically for investing in equipment meant to reduce the likelihood of damage to wheelchairs, a systemwide wheelchair tagging system, and compensation for passengers impacted by the airline’s trouble with wheelchairs between 2019 and 2023.
Allegations of mishandling wheelchairs or inadequate assistance for wheelchair users are not uncommon. The DOT has active investigations looking into other U.S. airlines accused of similar violations.
Also of Interest
Security Management tracks court cases, bills, laws, and regulatory issues that impact the security industry. Here are some of the stories that are of current interest.
Cyberattack. On behalf of the United States, the Canadian Department of Justice arrested Alexander Moucka, who is alleged to be a key figure in the data exfiltration attacks that targeted customers of Snowflake, a data storage firm, which were originally discovered between April and July 2024.
Discrimination. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) fined Lufthansa Airline $4 million for the company’s decision to bar Jewish passengers from a 2022 flight. The passengers, who were traveling from New York to Budapest in May 2022, were male and wearing clothes typically worn by Orthodox Jewish men. The flight’s captain alerted Lufthansa security that some passengers refused to follow crew instructions on the need to wear a face mask, as well as other orders from the crew. The alert resulted in more than 100 passengers being blocked from a connecting flight. All 100 passengers were Jewish, and the DOT alleged that Lufthansa discriminated against the passengers by treating them as if they were all a single group even though they were not travelling together.
Environmental disaster. Mining corporations BHP and Vale agreed to pay a $30 billion settlement as compensation for the 2015 Mariana dam collapse, which caused Brazil’s worst environmental disaster, killed 19 people, and left hundreds of people homeless. The collapse released toxic waste and mud that ended up flooding nearby towns, rivers, and forests. The dam was jointly owned by the two companies. A separate suit involving more than 620,000 people is ongoing, and plaintiffs are seeking roughly $47 billion in damages.
Hacking. The FBI arrested Eric Council, Jr., accusing him of taking unauthorized control of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s account on X (formerly known as Twitter). Council allegedly posted a fake message from the SEC chair that inflated the value of Bitcoin.
Human trafficking. U.S. legislators introduced a bill that would create a public-facing database of human trafficking cases. The platform, which would be launched and maintained by the DOJ, would include county data that reports human trafficking. It would also have a list of anti-trafficking organizations available in the county, and it would include the total number of trafficking prosecutions per state.
