YOUR 15 MINUTES: Responsi - what? Nobody ever learned me that word.

I know this might be hard to believe, but I can’t talk about celebrity gossip all day. That is why we created YOUR 15 MINUTES. Normally it's used to give a non-famous citizen their 15 minutes of fame. Today I'm using it as my 15 minutes to talk about something other than celebrity gossip so I can maintain my normal level of insanity that keeps me fun. I have two interesting court cases. If you don't want to read a lot, just skip to my abridged versions below "Short Story":

Mother vs. Wal Mart

A 10-year-old girl who was molested by a convicted sex offender and Wal-Mart employee described the lewd touch as a "tap" and said she did not realize it was sexual in nature but that she suffered nightmares and considered suicide after the incident. What should have been a fun night of shopping turned into an unforgettable nightmare for a 10-year-old South Carolinian after she was molested in the electronics aisle of Wal-Mart by a registered sex offender, who also happened to be a store employee. In describing the event at Wal-Mart, the victim said she decided to "tag along" on a trip to buy materials for her sister's school project on Sept. 25, 2000. While her mom and sister shopped for supplies, the 10-year-old hunted for an Aaliyah CD in the electronics department where Bobby Randall touched her twice and then touched himself. The act was caught on surveillance video and shown to the jury. Randall was fired after the incident was reported to the store and convicted of performing a lewd act on a minor. Maria Hollins, the victim's mother, is suing Wal-Mart for gross negligence for an unspecified amount of damages. The mother of two claims the retailer was negligent in not performing employee background checks and in not keeping a convicted sex offender away from her daughter. Throughout the four-hour deposition, the victim maintained her composure but said she had dreams about men touching her and that she was now fearful of strangers. The girl also admitted to other difficulties in her life: her father's absence and changing schools. Attorneys representing Wal-Mart offered other possible explanations for why the victim may have had trouble adjusting and developing after the 2000 incident. The counselor agreed with defense attorney Bill Simpson that puberty, relocating and having an incarcerated father could affect a child. In a second attempt to discredit the plaintiff, Simpson reminded the jury that Hollins visited a lawyer before taking her daughter to a physician. In response, the plaintiff's attorney, David Massey, tried to bolster the child's credibility. "During those visits when you were helping her cope," Massey asked, "did you ever think she was giving you false answers to help her mom out with a lawsuit?" Southworth said she did not get that impression from the approximately 41 times she visited with the victim. She testified, however, that the plaintiff was a no-show for her final appointment after her grant money to pay for treatment ran out. two of Randall's former managers took the stand praising the sex offender, who died while serving a 10-year sentence, as a strong and reliable worker. Both said they were surprised upon learning of his sex-related crimes. "He was a good employee ... never late, would work overtime, would do anything for you," said Ken Stanley, a Wal-Mart manager who worked with Randall at Food Lion.

Short Story: A mother let her 10 year old wander around a store alone. A sex offender who happened to be a Wal-Mart employee “tapped” the girl in a sexual manner. The girl was about to go through puberty, just relocated and had a father in jail. The mother took the daughter to a lawyer, then a doctor and in complete concern for her daughter, only took her to therapy while it was free. Now she’s suing Wal-Mart for gross negligence (unspecified amount). You can bet it's an amount that has more zeros than the mother would ever see working her whole life.

Mother vs. Myspace

The social networking Web site MySpace.com, which has become a lightning rod for warnings about online sexual predators, was sued Monday for $30 million by a 14-year-old girl who says she was sexually assaulted by another MySpace user. The lawsuit filed in Travis County District Court accuses the Web site, which has more than 72 million registered users, of having "absolutely no meaningful protections or security measures to protect underage users." In a statement, the Web site said it is "committed" to the safety of its members. The suit was brought by an Austin girl who alleges that Pete Solis, 19, lied in his MySpace profile about being a senior on the football team to gain her trust and phone number. Solis, who lives in the Austin suburb of Buda, was arrested on May 19 on a charge of sexual assault of a child. "(MySpace) has got to take this seriously," said attorney Carl Barry, who's representing the girl and her mother. Solis is also named in the suit along with News Corp., which owns MySpace. Solis could not be immediately reached by The Associated Press late Monday. "We take aggressive measures to protect our members," said Hemanshu Nigam, chief security officer for MySpace.com. "Ultimately, Internet safety is a shared responsibility. We encourage everyone on the Internet to engage in smart Web practices and have open family dialogue about how to apply offline lessons in the online world." Barry said he believed the lawsuit was the first of its kind against the cult phenomenon, which has seen rapid growth since being bought by News Corp. last year for $580 million. The suit alleges that MySpace has "no financial incentive to institute any meaningful security measures" because it might block access to the young demographic the site largely attracts. MySpace.com is a social networking Web site that lets users post photos, blogs and journals. There have been scattered accounts of sexual predators targeting minors they met through the site.

Short Story: After the countless shows on the “dangers of myspace” and “To Catch A Prediator: 423” a 14 year-old girl is allowed on MySpace without adequate supervision, gives her phone number to a guy she thinks is only 1 year younger then his real age (high school seniors are 18, this guy is 19) and she obviously has some sort of contact with him to the extent that she was “sexually assaulted.” Now the girl and the mother want $30 million.

Commentary: When did we start transferring parental responsibility to corporations/websites/etc? Apparently it was sometime shortly after people realized they can make big bucks by suing. WalMart should've been more careful with their hiring process, as they have done since this incident. MySpace has enacted a number of safety precautions for younger users. There are sex offenders everywhere; it's not some secret that has been kept from parents until recently. If they're not working at Wal-Mart or lurking on MySpace, they're shopping at Wal Mart and walking down your street. I already know I'm cold and heartless so I don't feel guilty saying a majority of the blame of these incidents should be placed on the parents; the rest on the offenders. Had that mother not let her 10 year old wander around a huge store alone, she would not have been sexually "tapped." Had the mother been more aware of what her daughter was doing online and educated her on the dangers of giving out phone numbers, etc, she would not have been "assaulted." I knew these things when I was playing on the internet as a teenager 14 years ago, and that was back when the internet was rather “new.” I'm sure these offenders would have victimized someone else, and it is fortunate they were caught before affecting another child, but to sue a corporation for millions when a majority of the gross negligence is with the mother is, well, frivolous. There's my 15 minutes. Back to celebrity shit: Didn't we like go through this whole argument with Michael Jackson and the mother of his accuser ? [source and source]