Legal Report: California Department of Corrections to Pay Nearly $17 Million for Unfair Firing, Defamation of Psychologist
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 evolving legislation, and regulatory decisions and investigations that impact 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
Retaliation. A California jury awarded a former prison psychologist nearly $17 million in damages after her employer, the Salinas Valley State Prison, ignored her concerns about an inmate and subsequently fired and defamed her.
In 2019, the prison’s psychologist Beth Fischgrund informed her supervisors that an inmate threatened her life after she declined his romantic and sexual advances. Despite her concerns and the inmate’s threat to “cut her head off,” her supervisors failed to take certain steps to ensure Fischgrund’s safety, such as a staff separation that would have prevented the inmate from interacting with her, court records said.
After months of asking prison supervisors to address the issue and ensure a safe working environment, Fischgrund was fired without warning and banned from the facility’s grounds.
Former colleagues who still worked at the prison after Fischgrund was dismissed later told her that her former supervisors and the prison warden were defaming her to others, describing her as someone who was “irrational and erratic,” “unstable, and had mental health issues.”
Officials also claimed Fischgrund had “engaged in inappropriate behavior” and sexual behavior with other prison staff members and appeared or was intoxicated while at work, according to court filings. Fischgrund was also placed on the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s (CDCR) do-not-hire list, preventing her from working at any CDCR facility in the state.
Fischgrund filed suit against her former employer for defamation. A jury found that CDCR used intimidation or coercion to interfere with and intentionally disregard her right to a safe workplace. The jury awarded Fischgrund $13.9 million for past and future damages, including lost earnings. The jury also awarded her damages amounting to $3 million for defamation. (Beth Fischgrund vs. California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation, Superior Court of California County of Sacramento, No. 34-2020-00281411, 2025)
Sandy Hook. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Alex Jones’s emergency appeal to stay a lower court’s ruling requiring him to pay more than $1.4 billion to Sandy Hook shooting victims’ families.
In early October, Jones, a conspiracy theorist and the host of the talk show InfoWars, filed his second request to the Court for the stay. The Court considered the petition and decided it would not hear the appeal, effectively keeping in place the Connecticut Superior Court determination that Jones was liable for defamation and causing emotional distress and must pay $1 billion in compensatory damages and more than $400 million in punitive damages to the victims’ families. (Alex Emric Jones, et al., v. Erica Lafferty, et al., Supreme Court of the United States, No. 25-268, 2025)
Families of the shooting victims and an FBI agent filed lawsuits against Jones in 2018 Connecticut and Texas, where the InfoWars parent company is headquartered. In both states, judges found Jones liable for defamation and causing emotional distress for criticizing media coverage of the school shooting and repeatedly claiming the shooting was staged.
Jones is still appealing the case in Texas, where a jury awarded the parents of one of the victims nearly $50 million in damages. (Neil Heslin v. Alex E. Jones, District Court for Travis County, Texas, No. D-1-GN-18-001835, 2025)
Criminal conspiracy. A federal judge granted the U.S. government’s request to dismiss the criminal conspiracy case against Boeing over two 737 Max jetliner crashes that resulted in the deaths of 346 people.
The U.S. government charged the American aerospace company with conspiracy to commit fraud, allegedly misleading federal regulators about a flight-control system involved in the crashes. The Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashes occurred in 2018 and 2019, respectively.
Boeing and the government entered into a deferred prosecution agreement in January 2021. In May 2024, however, the government notified the court that Boeing breached the agreement by “failing to design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations,” according to court filings. The two parties reached a new plea agreement two months later that would have required Boeing to plead guilty, but it was rejected by the court “because it was against the public interest, in part, because Boeing would have had veto power over the government’s choice of an independent monitor,” District Judge Reed O’Connor wrote.
One year later, Boeing reached a new non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. government that allows it to select its own compliance consultant and to pay or invest an additional $1.1 billion in fines, compensation to victims’ families, and internal quality and safety measures. The U.S. Department of Justice noted that if the judge refused to dismiss the case, its prosecutors would not continue to move forward with the charges.
Prior to the court’s dismissal, some victims’ families opposed the agreement, asking the judge to appoint a special prosecutor to handle the case moving forward and claiming that the NPA was contrary to public interest.
O’Connor determined that while the opposing victims’ claim was “compelling,” it was insufficient in justifying denying the dismissal of the case.
As part of the NPA, Boeing will invest $455 million in internal compliance and safety programs and pay $444.5 million for compensation to the victims’ families. The company will also pay an additional criminal fine of $243.6 million to the U.S. Treasury Department, adding to a previous fine that the company already paid. (United States v. The Boeing Company, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, No. 21-cr-5-O, 2025)
Legislation
France
Sexual assault. France’s Parliament amended the legal definition of sexual assault and rape, adding consent into its language.
French law did not previously require that consent be given before sex, while the criminal code defined rape or sexual assault as actions involving the use of violence, constraint, surprise, or threats. The revised criminal definition now reads as “any non-consensual sexual act committed” on another person, according to a Google-translated version of the law from French into English. The law also requires that consent be “free and informed, specific, prior, and revocable. …It cannot be inferred solely from the silence or lack of reaction of the victim. There is no consent if the sexual act is committed with violence, coercion, threats, or surprise, whatever their nature.”
The changes to the law gained wide support in the wake of the trial and convictions of more than 50 men who raped Gisèle Pelicot over a nine-year period while she was unconscious due to being severely drugged by her husband, Dominque Pelicot. The Pelicots’ daughter, daughter-in-law, and former daughter-in law were also plaintiffs in the trial against Dominque Pelicot, who was ultimately convicted of aggravated rape and other charges. He was later issued a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
U.S. States
Firearms. During Maine’s general elections this month, 58.7 percent of voters in the state approved a red flag law to allow concerned family members to petition courts to temporarily restrict someone’s access to firearms if the person is considered a danger to themselves or others. The approved ballot measure means that Maine will join 21 other U.S. states that have red flag laws in place.
Maine already had a yellow flag law, which allows law enforcement to remove firearms from someone after a mental health evaluation. The state will maintain its yellow flag law and is the only state to have one.
Unlike most red flag laws across the country, the yellow flag law only allows for someone—such as a family member or a police officer—to report to local law enforcement that a gun owner may be a danger to others or themselves. The police must then decide whether to place the gun owner into protective custody and order a mental health evaluation. After the evaluation, the doctor and police must agree that a temporary removal of any firearms or the temporary suspension of a gun license is necessary before proceeding with the court order process. By comparison, the new red flag law allows family members or roommates to go directly to the court and petition for the temporary removal of any firearms from someone they are concerned about.
Gun safety proponents began advocating for the red flag law after U.S. Army reservist Robert Card III killed 18 people in Lewiston, Maine, in October 2023. The mass shooting ended in a manhunt for Card, who was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A report from a special independent commission determined that law enforcement in Maine and the U.S. Army Reserve failed to intervene while Card was experiencing a psychiatric crisis and did not confiscate his weapons before he could commit the deadliest mass shooting in the state’s history.
Regulations
Canada
Cryptocurrency. The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (FINTRAC), Canada’s national financial intelligence agency, issued a nearly $177 million CAD penalty ($126 million) on Xeltox Enterprises Ltd, a Vancouver-based virtual currency transaction service provider.
The investigation looked into more than 2,500 violations of the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act. Some of the violations included failure to submit suspicious transaction reports when activity or virtual wallets were linked to crimes such as trafficking in child sexual abuse material, ransomware payments, fraudulent proceeds, and sanctions evasions; failure to comply with a government order; failure to assess and record a risk of a money laundering or terrorist financing violation; and more than 1,500 separate instances where the company failed to report a client that received $10,000 or more of virtual currency in a single transaction.
Although Xeltox—also known as Cryptomus and previously known as Certa Payments—is incorporated in British Columbia, its Vancouver address is associated with a mailbox service and FINTRAC determined that none of the company’s employees were working in Canada.
European Union
Sanctions. In late October, the EU approved a new slew of sanctions against Russia—ones that specifically target Russian revenues from energy resources.
Council Decision 2025/2032 included bans on imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) and on a type of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). It also created transaction bans on Rosneft and Gazprom Neft involving oil and gas imports into the EU, prohibited operators enabling Russian energy revenue streams, and expanded the transaction ban on banks in Russia and third-country banks in Central Asia.
The measure also restricts “shadow fleet vessels” and Russia’s payment card Mir and fast payment system SBP, while outright banning use of A5A7 cryptocurrency and certain financial technology services, according to the EU. The decision expanded export restrictions to disrupt and weaken the Russian military-industrial complex. Lastly, the measure created a new system that restricts Russian diplomats’ movements within the EU.
The EU implemented these new sanctions in an attempt to limit Russia’s energy revenue, which it uses to finance its military efforts in Ukraine.
Germany
Money laundering. Germany’s federal financial supervisory authority, Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin), levied a €45 million fine ($52.5 million)—its largest to date—against JP Morgan SE.
The fine was issued after an investigation into the company’s activity reports between October 2021 and September 2022 indicated “shortcomings in the company’s money laundering prevention,” according to a BaFin press release.
The watchdog elaborated that JP Morgan SE had “systematically failed” to file suspicious transaction reports, which a credit institution must submit to the German Financial Intelligence Unit when it believes that a transaction might have ties to money laundering or terrorist financing.
United Kingdom
Online safety and compliance. The Office of Communications (Ofcom), the UK’s communications services regulator, fined the provider of the online message board 4chan £20,000 ($26,670). The fine was in response to a failure to respond to Ofcom’s requests for information about the company’s compliance with the UK Online Safety Act, including a request for a copy of its illegal harms risk assessment and a request related to its qualifying worldwide revenue.
“We will also impose a daily penalty of £100 per day, starting from [14 October 2025], for either 60 days or until 4chan provides us with this information, whichever is sooner,” the watchdog announced in a press release. The investigation into 4chan’s provider is ongoing.
Also of Interest
Security Management follows court cases, bills, laws, and regulatory issues that impact the security industry. Here are some of the developing stories that are of current interest.
Assassination. Tetsuya Yamagami pled guilty to the murder of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Yamagami used a homemade gun to murder the former prime minister while he was giving a campaign speech in July 2022. Yamagami allegedly said he killed Abe for his perceived close ties to the Unification Church, which Yamagami held a grudge against since his mother made large donations to the group, to the point of bankrupting her family. Yamagami still faces charges related to violation of arms control laws and a verdict is expected on 21 January 2026.
Leaked information. David Slater, a retired U.S. Army officer who was working as a civilian in the U.S. Air Force was sentenced to almost six years in prison for conspiring to send classified information about the Russia-Ukraine war through a foreign online dating website’s messaging platform. Slater was also sentenced to a year of supervision after his release from prison and was fined $25,000.
Espionage. A Norwegian court convicted an unnamed former security guard who previously worked at the U.S. Embassy in Norway, finding him guilty of espionage for Russia and Iran. The man was sentenced to three years and seven months in prison. His attorneys are considering appealing the verdict.
Terrorism. A Slovak court sentenced Juraj Cintula to 21 years in prison for shooting and seriously injuring Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico in an act of terrorism in 2024. Cintula’s lawyer said they will likely appeal the verdict. After the shooting, Cintula claimed he was only trying to injure Fico to object to his nationalist government.
Trade secrets. A former defense contractor executive pled guilty to selling trade secrets to a buyer in Russia. Peter Williams, an Australian who resides in the United States, faces a maximum sentence of 20 years, for selling trade secrets for $1.3 million. As part of the plea agreement, Williams will pay a restitution of $1.3 million. He is scheduled to be sentenced in early 2026.
