RIP John Wooden, 1911-2010

K-Pop's Wonder Girls Not Being Treated so Wonderfully?

http://www.koreaherald.com/entertainment/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20100511000742

A former English tutor for popular K-pop group Wonder Girls on Tuesday painted a grim and detailed account of the group’s management company JYPE’s “ill-conceived” handling of the band’s venture into the North American market.

Daniel Gauss, who was the group’s New York-based English tutor from October 2009 until this month, said over a series of e-mails to The Korea Herald that the girls had been mismanaged and mistreated by local music mogul Park Jin-young’s entertainment company.

Original members of Wonder Girls (Kim Myung-sub/The Korea Herald)

Gauss’ claim as the group’s private tutor was confirmed over the telephone on May 11 by two current Manhattan-based JYPE employees.

Gauss alleges that all members of the group were housed illegally in the Manhattan offices of JYPE and that they had not been given health insurance coverage during their time stateside.

“I was shocked when one of the girls told me that the girls are not covered by health insurance in America,” he wrote. “I once saw one girl in extreme pain -- due to a pre-existing problem stemming from a previous operation -- who received no professional medical treatment for the pain and I saw others with minor ailments go untreated.”

Gauss further wrote that after the group acquired a sponsorship deal with Sony Ericsson, JYPE had Sun-ye perform in Sanya, China, for Sony Ericsson executives, shortly after her father was rushed to hospital in a coma.

He wrote that Sun-ye had told him “her father had stopped breathing and had to be rushed to the hospital. In the ambulance, (Sun-ye) and her family had to decide whether the father should be given treatment to be kept alive since he had lapsed into a coma. The family chose to keep him alive and I was told by the girl that he was never going to come out of the coma.”

“Very shortly after that trauma, she was performing for Sony Ericsson executives in Sanya,” Gauss wrote. “I did not have the heart to ask her whether it was her idea or JYPE’s idea for her to perform.”

He also claimed JYPE illegally housed the members at the company’s Manhattan office -- for which he said the city of New York slapped the company with a $2,500 fine.

An online link to the New York City Department of Buildings provided by Gauss confirms that the company had not only been issued a class-2 citation (violation No. 34765862, infraction code 208, section of law 28-118.3) on May 28, 2009 and fined for altering and changing an occupied building for residential use without a valid permit, but also defaulted on the violation.

The company was scheduled to appear in court for a hearing last month, but failed to do so, which has resulted in the case being given a default status.

Gauss also said that JYPE had sold the band’s CD at a bargain basement price of $1 at retail clothing chains around the United States, which significantly boosted both its sales and its performance in the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

On Oct. 23, 2009 the group’s single “Nobody” entered the top 100 at No. 76, something widely publicized by the local media.

This was confirmed by Wonder Girls’ former manager and current JYPE marketing department employee David Hyun.

“That was part of our distribution deal and that is definitely one of the reasons why they cracked the top 100,” Hyun said.

When pressed about Gauss’ other allegations, Hyun refused to comment any further.

“I rather not comment on anything that came from (Gauss) other than confirm he used to tutor for the Wonder Girls,” he said.

Jane Kim, the group’s current manager, refused to state why Gauss had quit his job as a private tutor.

“I feel as though I don’t have to comment on anything (Gauss) might have told you,” she said over the phone.

“The girls are confident they can become a success here (the U.S.) and they have refuted (Gauss’) accusations about the company.”

A request for a phone interview with the group was denied. In a telephone interview with The Herald Business, JYPE chief Jung Wook, dismissed the allegations by Gauss.

In his e-mails, Gauss claims he quit his position because he had become disenchanted with JYPE’s management of the band.

He had been contacted by reps from the company after he had posted an ad on Craigslist as an English tutor in New York. But according to him, once he began his job, he became increasingly concerned about the way the group was being managed by the company.

“I cannot profit in any manner by revealing this information,” he wrote. “I believe my motives are genuine. I did not ask for any compensation for any of this information and I do not want any. I saw and heard about some nasty things at JYPE and I think people have a right to know the truth, especially since the girls are under contract for the next three-plus years and might not be able to speak freely about negative aspects of their experience.”

Breaking: More Reports of Sexual Assaults against West Covina PD!!

We've received informal reports of residents and motorists of color (both males and females) being MOLESTED BY THUGS OF THE WEST COVINA POLICE DEPARTMENT.

We're hot on the trail of these stories as they would demonstrate a city police department rife with sexually charged deviants and racist thugs.

WEST COVINA POLICE: GESTAPOS OF THE SAN GABRIEL VALLEY

As we had said in previous posts, the West Covina Police Department is full of white racist pigs and thugs even as the city has gone through quite a demographic shift. When West Covina gestapo officers appear in court -- even in traffic court -- they regularly wear Nazi-style boots and would goose-step into court to intimidate timid judges as well as their victims.

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From the Whittier Daily, 5/26/10

False arrest lawsuit filed against West Covina, police chief and police officer

By Thomas Himes, Staff Writer

Posted: 05/26/2010 05:26:52 PM PDT

A man has sued West Covina, its police chief and West Covina police officer Tyler Kennedy, whom he claims falsely arrested him in order to have an intimate relationship with his ex-wife.

The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court and seeks unspecified damages. It also alleges West Covina police officers, with the tacit permission of city government, regularily discriminated against Hispanics and other minorities.

As a result, the lawsuit alleges, Police Department and city officials refrained from disciplining rogue officers.

"Said policies, proceedures, customs and practices called for (city officials) by means of inaction and coverup to encourage (West Covina police officers) to believe that improper

Tyler Kennedy (SGVN/Staff photo by Leo Jarzomb)

use of searches and seizures including searches and seizures against members of minority groups was permissible," the suit filed Friday by Montebello attorney Arnoldo Casillas alleges.

Saku Ethir, attorney for Kennedy, did not return four calls for comment Tuesday and Wednesday. West Covina City Attorney Arnold Alvarez-Glasman also did not return calls for comment.West Covina police Chief Frank Wills said Tuesday he anticipated the filing, which seeks unspecified damages for the plaintiff's lost wages, court costs, and pain and suffering.

"We've expected this lawsuit for many months," said the police chief. "Bringing the conduct of all the parties involved in this matter out into the light of day will serve the public's interest."

Wills, a former Pasadena police officer and former San Marino police chief, said it would be inappropriate for him to comment further.

While Mayor Shelley Sanderson said she stands behind the Police Department, the lawsuit threatens to cripple West Covina's already beleaguered budget, Councilman Mike Touhey said.

The City Council voted last week to cut $1.7 million from the Police Department's budget.

Over the past several months West Covina has racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorneys' fees related to Kennedy's alleged misconduct, Touhey said.

"It's all alleged (misconduct) right now, but it doesn't look good" for the city, Touhey said.

"I believe there are probably more (lawsuits) coming, that's the sad part," Touhey said.

Kennedy, a sex crimes detective, had an intimate relationship with the man's ex-wife while he conducted an investigation into the sexual assault allegations she lodged against the man, according to the lawsuit Casillas filed.

"This was done pursuant to and in accordance with an established custom and practice whereby officers of the West Covina Police Department were permitted to and regularily did pursue and maintain intimate relationships with the victims in the sexual abuse cases they were investigating," attorney Casillas alleges in the suit.

Prosecutors dropped sexual battery charges against the man last year after they found out about the relationship between Kennedy and the man's ex-wife, according to court documents.

But they didn't do so before Kennedy arrested the man and asked a judge to hold him without bail, according to court documents.

It is the policy of the newspaper to refrain from identifying alleged victims of sex crimes.

Kennedy appeared in court on March 20, 2009 and asked Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lesley Green to hold the man without bail.

Kennedy told Green the man had raped his ex-wife and the case was pending. Rape charges were never filed against the man, according to court records.

But based on Kennedy's statement, Green raised the man's bail to $100,000, according to court documents.

Police had previously released the man without bail, court documents show.

The lawsuit goes on to allege Kennedy's misconduct prevented the man from receiving promotions at his job.

The man has worked for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power for 12 years.

The lawsuit also alleges Kennedy's supervisors, including Wills, should have known Kennedy was unfit to be a police officer much less a sex crimes investigator.

In 2006, Kennedy wrote and self-published a sex advice book entitled "The Magic Triangle."

The 180-page book purports to offer advice to men seeking "entrance to the magic triangle" - a woman's vagina.

Kennedy proposes in the book that a woman's sole purpose is to serve as the target of mens' sexual exploits, according to the lawsuit.

Kennedy was suspended from the Police Department and put back on patrol last year after his relationship with the man's ex-wife came to light in court, according to sources inside the Police Department.

The Police Department suspended Kennedy for a second time earlier this year after a different 49-year-old alleged victim of sexual assault reported she was propositioned and sexually harassed by the officer.

He remains on leave.

"I believe the West Covina Police Department did everything within legal parameters," Sanderson said. "If they knew about something they would have definitely taken it into consideration."

You know you live in a Turd World country when...

some wanker steals your garden hose! Seriously. So annoying.

I have heard of stories of people in the Turd World in the 1950s losing their shirts and underwear when they air dried their clothes in the garden.

Shite! California is now a 1950s-era Turd World country.


-- Bibi Wang