James Harden’s restaurant Thirteen named in wrongful death lawsuit
Houston Chronicle via Getty Images, FILE
(HOUSTON, Tex.) — A restaurant owned by NBA player James Harden in Houston, Texas, has been named in a wrongful death lawsuit filed this week.
The lawsuit, filed in Harris County District Court on Monday, alleges that the restaurant, Thirteen by James Harden, caused Christian Daniel Herrera’s intoxication and provided him with alcohol in excess that led to a fatal car accident.
Cassaundra Jackson, the mother of Taylar Jackson, one of the seven victims in the fatal accident in November 2023, filed the lawsuit alleging that the restaurant “had a statutory duty to refrain from providing alcohol to an obnoxiously intoxicated person,” according to court documents. She is seeking more than $1 million in damages, court documents show.
The restaurant allegedly served Herrera alcohol to the point where he became “obnoxiously intoxicated,” and became a danger to himself and others, the lawsuit claims.
According to the lawsuit, Herrera allegedly left the restaurant driving his vehicle, disregarded a red light and T-boned a vehicle, ultimately killing Taylar Jackson, 30, and six other victims, including 25-year-old Herrera.
The victims also include Izuchu Oragwu, 31; Frank Johnson, 31; Zachary McMillian, 32; NFL cornerback Derek Hayden, 33, and Lauren Robinson, 32, according to the Houston Police Department.
ABC News has reached out to lawyers for Cassaundra Jackson and Harden.
In a statement to Houston ABC station KTRK, the restaurant said: “We cannot imagine what the family of Taylar Jackson has gone through this past year and offer our deepest sympathies to them and everyone whose lives were deeply impacted by that tragic accident. We were just made aware of the filing of this lawsuit. We ask for your patience as we gather more information on this filing and will make a more formal statement as soon as possible.”
(CECIL TOWNSHIP, Pa.) — Fracking has been on the national stage this election season and swing state Pennsylvania, with its 19 electoral votes in play, is at the center of the issue with one the largest natural gas deposits in the U.S.
Eight years ago, Michelle Stonemark built her dream home in Cecil Township, Pennsylvania, on the same street as much of her extended family. She was followed by some new neighbors — a fracking operation.
As the Stonemarks’ home was under construction, a natural gas company built a well pad for oil and gas production just a few feet away.
“I was scared to death. I was scared about what harms it would cause us,” she told ABC News’ Stephanie Ramos.
It’s a significant industry in Pennsylvania, but there is precedent for states banning fracking — it’s happened in California, Maryland, New York, Vermont and Washington.
Only Congress has the power to completely ban fracking, but presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris see it as a topic that resonates with voters in the Keystone State.
Former President Trump says Harris is against the practice.
“Starting on Day One of my new administration, I will end Kamala Harris’ war on Pennsylvania energy,” he said at an Oct. 26 rally. “And we will frack, frack, frack.”
In 2019, when Harris was running for the Democratic presidential nomination, she firmly stood for a ban on fracking. During a CNN town hall on climate change in 2019 when she was still a senator, Harris said, “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.”
Now, Vice President Harris has positioned herself as a supporter of fracking. Harris reiterated that she would not ban fracking during the ABC News Presidential Debate.
“I will not ban fracking. I have not banned fracking as vice president of the United States,” she said during September’s ABC News debate. “And, in fact, I was the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which opened new leases for fracking.”
The Stonemarks documented the experience of living so close to an active fracking operation, with video showing flames shooting into the sky in the middle of the night as excess natural gas was burned off.
Their windows and tools in their garage often vibrate with the hum of machinery at the nearby well pad.
“The noise that comes off of that … are low-level sounds, low-level frequencies, more like a bass that cause vibrations, more like a constant hum, the kind of noise you feel in your chest and in your ears and in your head,” Michelle Stonemark told ABC. “We suffered from headaches and nosebleeds during that time.”
In Cecil Township, there’s legislation that would require new fracking operations to be placed at least 5,000 feet away from schools and 2,500 feet away from homes. The current minimum distance is 500 feet. The city council passed the resolution on Monday night.
Stonemark supports the legislation, but it may not change her situation. The family has already upgraded their air filters and installed air quality monitors outside, but she’s angry about it.
“Every day we wake up and we don’t know what we’re going to get. We don’t know how loud it’s going to be, how what it’s going to smell like outside,” she told ABC News. “[Or] If my kids can play outside; we don’t know if we can have people over.”
She’s also concerned that it’s causing health issues for the family.
“We don’t know if the nosebleed my daughter has is from fracking. We don’t know if the nausea and the headaches that we’re feeling are from fracking,” she said. “Every day is undue stress and anxiety on myself, my husband, my kids. So, yeah, it pisses me off.”
In 2023, a taxpayer-funded study conducted by the University of Pittsburgh found that children who live within one mile of unconventional natural gas development — including fracking — were found to be five to seven times more likely to develop lymphoma, a type of cancer. It was also linked to adverse birth outcomes and exacerbating existing asthma symptoms.
In the race for the White House, politicians are hoping a vow to keep fracking will secure them votes. However, the issue is more complex for the people with fracking operations in their backyard. Even pro-fracking Republicans like Scott Byrd are in favor of the proposed changes.
“First of all, I’m very pro fracking,” he told ABC News. “It just has to be done in an industrial rural area.”
However, Byrd noted that neither of the candidates have offered particulars on the issue.
“I’m mainly motivated by responsibilities as a parent,” he said. “You see your two children, you have to do everything you can do to protect them.”
In a statement to ABC News, Range Resources, which runs fracking operations in Cecil Township, noted that it works closely with “municipalities and residents to foster open communication, address community concerns, and proactively minimize any potential impacts.”
However, it said that the township’s ordinance is “a stark outlier from the 50 other municipalities where Range operates, as it seeks to restrict future natural gas development within its borders.”
Byrd emphasized the need to frack safely.
“If the technology is not there to do it without hurting children, everybody else, we need to get more into research and development. We’re not just going to jump the gun,” he said. “They’re running with it and ignoring the risks. We have to do something.”
Stonewall noted that fracking is a polarizing topic, but it shouldn’t be something people are simply for or against.
“I’m neither for it or against it — I believe it has its place. I believe that we need to be an energy independent nation,” she said. “I just don’t believe that we need to be doing it at the expense of people living their everyday lives.”
Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Questions about New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ future in office have begun to swirl as he faces indictment by a federal grand jury amid calls for his resignation.
The indictment, which was announced Wednesday, details five charges, including improper campaign contributions from foreign nationals, wire fraud, and bribery during his time as Brooklyn borough president and NYC mayor.
Adams is the first New York City mayor to be indicted while still in office.
In a recorded speech addressed to New Yorkers on Wednesday night, Adams said he would fight the indictment with “every ounce of my strength and my spirit.” He also said he would not resign as mayor.
But should Adams ultimately heed the growing calls for him to step down, who will take his place?
New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams is next in the line of succession and would become acting mayor. He previously served on the NYC Council representing the 45th District neighborhoods of Flatbush, East Flatbush, Midwood, Flatlands, and Marine Park in Brooklyn from 2010 to 2019.
Williams is a first-generation Brooklyn native of Grenadian heritage, who graduated from the NYC public school system and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Brooklyn College. As public advocate, his duties include serving “as an ombudsman for city government, providing oversight for city agencies, investigating citizens’ complaints about city services and making proposals to address perceived shortcomings or failures of those services,” according to his biography on the city’s official public advocate website.
Williams also previously served as the executive director of NYS Tenants & Neighbors, which describes itself as “a grassroots membership organization working collaboratively with tenants to build and effectively wield power to preserve and protect affordable housing in New York State.”
While serving on the NYC Council, Williams “championed landmark legislation that fundamentally transformed policing in NYC,” according to his official biography, including “ending the abuse of Stop, Question & Frisk in communities of color and creating the NYPD’s Office of Inspector General to investigate unlawful & unethical behavior.”
Additionally, Williams is former co-chair of the NYC Council’s Task Force to Combat Gun Violence and worked with them to reduce gun violence in New York City.
After Williams, the next in the mayoralty line of succession is New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is running against Adams in the 2025 mayoral race.
Lander is already calling on Adams to resign. “Trust in public institutions — especially City Hall — is essential for our local democracy to function and for our city to flourish,” he posted Wednesday on X, in part. “The hardworking people of New York City deserve a city government and leadership they can trust. Right now, they don’t have it.”
Adams “deserves due process, the presumption of innocence, and his day in court,” Lander’s post continued. “However, it is clear that defending himself against serious federal charges will require a significant amount of the time and attention needed to govern this great city. The most appropriate path forward is for him to step down so that New York City can get the full focus its leadership demands.”
As comptroller, Lander is New York City’s chief financial officer. His official biography describes his role as New York City’s “budget watchdog and chief accountability officer,” including serving as “investment advisor and custodian for the City’s public pension funds.”
His biography cites his success in uncovering through audits “nearly a quarter of a billion dollars underreported in NYC Ferry expenditures, inadequate cost controls in Covid-19 emergency procurement, and the ineffectiveness of the City’s homeless sweeps,” in addition to other initiatives and accomplishments.
Before he was elected as city comptroller in 2021, Lander was a 12-year veteran of the NYC Council, serving the 39th district, representing parts of Brooklyn.
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Rick Singer, the man convicted of orchestrating the so-called “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal, has continued to advise prospective undergraduates on their college applications while serving his sentence in federal prison in Florida, and now from a California halfway house.
Singer, 64, a one-time college admissions consultant who pleaded guilty in 2019 to facilitating bribes between wealthy parents and elite universities in exchange for their children’s enrollment, told ABC News that he began to counsel students — pro bono — after he was sentenced last year.
Then, this past admissions season, while he was at a federal prison camp in Pensacola, Florida, Singer said, “The coolest thing ever happened.”
“I had a young man send me an email saying, ‘Could you help me with my applications and tell me if I could get into these schools?'” Singer told ABC News during a sit-down interview.
The applicant sent Singer his high school transcript and a list of his credentials. Singer, whose advice was once sought by higher-powered executives and Hollywood actors, wrote back, offering a few pointers. The student was accepted to his top school in March, Singer said.
This summer, Singer launched a new venture called ID Future Stars, a consulting business that boasts an 80% to 96% acceptance rate into first-choice schools. According to the site, “Our success speaks for itself.”
But his return to the college admissions world could be a challenge. Singer’s reputation unraveled after he pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, money laundering and obstruction of justice charges in the decades-long scheme that federal investigators dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues.”
Federal prosecutors in Boston said Singer facilitated $25 million changing hands from families to college administrators and athletic coaches, who would dole out spots on their rosters to fulfill their fundraising goals. Singer transferred, spent or otherwise used more than $15 million for his own benefit, they said.
“Everything that the U.S. attorney said, and the FBI said, and everybody else said that I did do, I did it,” Singer told ABC.
Yet even four years later, Singer said the conspiracy amounted to a “victimless crime.”
News of the admissions scandal broke in 2019, when Andrew Lelling, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, announced the charges against Singer and over 50 others, including college coaches, testing administrators and actors Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman.
The charges led to about 50 convictions and became the subject of at least four books, a Lifetime movie and a Netflix documentary.
In January 2023, a judge sentenced Singer to 42 months in federal prison. This August, he was released to a halfway house near Los Angeles.
For years, Singer said, he had operated a lucrative and legitimate college consulting business. But that changed around 2011, when he realized he could not push some clients through what he called the “front door.” He had become close with the students and their families, and wanted to do whatever he could to help them, so he developed a new admissions scheme: the “side door.”
While Singer said that a majority of his consulting has always been legitimate, he explained that the new scheme began with one student and soon expanded.
“There was a young man who was super talented, worked his tail off,” Singer said. But the student would always perform poorly on practice SAT or ACT exams.
So he found a way to get the student’s application to the top of the pile: He began to bribe standardized testing proctors to turn a blind eye to permit cheating on the exams, prosecutors said.
I knew “it was wrong, and I did it anyways,” Singer said. “What’s 10, 12, 13 kids who are good students, quality people, and this one score may screw them out of an opportunity to go to a decent school? I rationalized that to myself.”
Soon after, the stakes grew. Singer was well-known in the world of higher education, and he said presidents of several prestigious universities had contacted him, hoping his clients would donate millions of dollars to their schools.
He said that he began to set up meetings between the presidents and parents to discuss their children enrolling in the university. “The negotiations would go from whether the school was a good fit for the student to, ‘What does the president need? What does the family need? Would there be a chit involved?'” he said, referring to a monetary favor.
Singer, a former basketball coach, said he was sympathetic to coaches and the pressure they faced to fundraise ahead of their sports seasons. So he said that he began to set up similar meetings between them and his clients. At times, he faked the students’ athletic credentials to push their applications through.
“First I went to three, four coaches. Then the word got out to all the coaches, and coaches started calling me every year,” Singer said.
“If they needed to raise $250,000 or $500,000 for the program, they would call me and say, ‘Hey, I have a spot. Do you have a family that would like to come here?'” he said.
When asked if he thought his scheme may have prevented legitimate recruits from earning their way on a collegiate team, Singer said: “All I’m doing is being the facilitator and providing the coach this choice.”
On March 12, 2019, the day he was charged, Singer said he left John Joseph Moakley Courthouse in Boston and looked down at his phone.
He said he had received 93 text messages in less than an hour. Most, Singer said, were from clients looking for above-board advice and wondering whether he would still be able to meet with them for a consultation.
