Jury Rejects Silicon Valley Sex Bias Charge

INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY, MARCH 29, 2015 Jury rejects Silicon Valley sex bias charge SAN FRANCISCO: A California jury deliberations with the freedom to get any money in the form of missed The session in court on Friday indi- chance at an investment role. rejected charges of gender discrimina- change any or all of the verdict. Pao’s compensation or eligible for punitive cated that the jury was favoring KPCB in During several days of testimony at tion against a prominent venture capi- lawyers painted the 45-year-old woman damages. Judge Kahn’s decision to what would be seen as a major victory trial, Pao maintained that women were tal firm Friday in a case seen as a proxy as an innocent victim of sexual discrimi- send jurors back to deliberate means for the firm, which has been criticized shut out of some KPCB networking trial of Silicon Valley sex bias. The state nation common at the esteemed ven- there is no official verdict. Each point at for not settling with Pao to avoid hav- events and that bad behavior by male court jury found Kleiner Perkins ture capital firm. But KPCB attorneys issue in the closely-watched civil case ing embarrassing in-house scenarios colleagues included the gift of a “Book Caufield and Byers (KPCB) did not dis- portrayed Pao as a calculating schemer remains open for debate in the jury publicly exposed. Jurors began deliber- of Longing” poetry tome and a conver- criminate against Ellen Pao, who burning with resentment and with a room. ations late Wednesday morning after sation that included talk of porn stars. claimed she was fired after complaining thirst for a quick buck. rival attorneys finished closing argu- KPCB lawyer Lynne Hermle reminded about bias at the firm that notably Pao asked the jury to order KPCB to Silicon Valley sexism spotlighted ments. Pao’s lawyer sought to convince jurors of a chart Pao made of co-work- backed Amazon, Facebook and Google. pay $16 million in money she would The gender discrimination trial pits the panel that KPCB had a double stan- ers she resented, including a married However the outcome was immediately have made if she wasn’t fired from the an iconic venture capital firm against an dard when it came to gender, and then partner with whom she had an affair called into question however after trial firm in 2012. Pao is now the well-paid employee shown the door not long retaliated against her when she com- and high-profile partner Doerr. Hermle judge Harold Kahn found that the jury interim chief of social news site Reddit. after her affair with a married partner. A plained about it. “They ran Kleiner contended that Pao perpetually clashed verdict did not have enough votes on On each question regarding whether six man, six-woman jury was asked, Perkins like a boys club,” Pao’s attorney with co-workers and put her own agen- one of the claims. Pao’s gender was a “substantial motivat- essentially, to decide whether the suit Alan Exelrod argued. Pao contends that da first. Pao tried to “torpedo” a KPCB The question surrounded whether ing reason” for her being passed over filed by Pao is a stand against a boys she and other women were passed over investigation into her complaint while Pao’s filing of her lawsuit or a memoran- for promotion and eventually fired, a club atmosphere at KPCB or a money for advancement and endured harass- devoting much time and effort to culti- dum regarding her complaint was a requisite two-thirds or more of the jury grab by an employee who lacked the ment in a male-oriented culture. Pao vating email trails and gathering digital “substantial motivating reason” for her voted “No.” Those votes, if they stand, skills to join the rarified ranks of Silicon was hired in 2005 to be an office man- documents to give lawyers handling being fired. Kahn sent the jury back to would mean that Pao is not in line to Valley venture capitalists. ager for Doerr and years later got a her lawsuit, Hermle argued.— AFP Autopsies determine children found in freezer were slain DETROIT: A brother and sister whose bod- neither she nor her siblings had gone to ies were found in a deep freezer in their school in two years. It’s not clear if they Detroit home had been beaten to death, actually were receiving lessons at home. autopsies determined Friday, painting a Under Michigan’s school code, parents can more complete picture of the horrors that take their children from public schools unfolded inside the home for years but and homeschool them without alerting that apparently went unnoticed by the local or education officials. outside world. The Wayne County medical City Councilwoman Mary Sheffield said examiner’s office classified the deaths of Friday that’s not good enough. “There is Stoni Ann Blair and Stephen Gage Berry as no accountability whatsoever,” Sheffield homicides, saying both were killed by told The Associated Press. “You can pull multiple blows and that the young boy your student out (of school), but there is also had “thermal injuries.” no way to monitor the care and well-being Their older sister, who is 17, told child of that child. That’s a huge concern.” welfare officials that their mother, Sheffield, who held a prayer vigil Friday Mitchelle Blair, tortured Stephen “for night at the family’s apartment complex, approximately two weeks prior to his said she will be working with legislators to death by tying a belt around his neck, take a closer look at the law. The issue throwing hot water on him while in the gained some attention briefly in 2013, shower and putting a plastic bag over his when a bill was introduced in the state head.” The girl and Blair’s other surviving House that would have required parents child, an 8-year-old boy, have been placed to register their homeschool with the in the care of a relative. Blair, 35, is jailed state. on first-degree child abuse charges, but prosecutors said Thursday that she could Physical abuse face murder charges depending on what “But it didn’t go anywhere,” said Bill the autopsies found. The prosecutor’s DiSessa, state Education spokesman. Gilda office said Friday that there would be no Jacobs, CEO of the Michigan League for changes in the charges over the weekend. Public Policy, said it’s too easy for children Investigators believe Stoni was 13 to fall through the cracks. “Nobody knows when she died and Stephen was 9. They what goes on inside certain homes, and NEW HAMPSHIRE: In this Jan. 3, 2012 file photo, votes are tallied during a caucus of precinct 42 near Smithland, Iowa. Few states have shaped think Stephen died in August 2012 and there is literally no accountability built presidential politics like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. By hosting the nation’s first presidential primary contests, the states have that Stoni died the following May. In a into the homeschooling process,” said reaped political and financial rewards for decades on successful candidates and hastened the end for underachievers. Yet their loutc may be court filing Thursday to end Blair’s Jacobs, whose Lansing-based organiza- declining in 2016. — AP parental rights, the state Department of tion is an advocacy group for the poor. Human Services quoted her surviving Angela Gordon, an aunt who is caring for daughter as saying that after Blair killed the two surviving children, said her first Early states in US presidential Stephen, his body was wrapped in a bed priority is enrolling them in school. She linen and put in the freezer. She said in said she had no indication anything was May 2013, Stoni incensed their mother by wrong at the apartment and questioned saying she didn’t like either of the surviv- whether home checks were completed by primary may be losing clout ing siblings, and that their mother stran- the state. gled Stoni with a T-shirt and placed a plas- The state said in its court filing that tic bag over her mouth. The older girl said Child Protective Services had contacts Republican primary ‘shaping up in political marathon’ her mother forced her to put her sister’s with the family in 2002 and 2005, and that body in the freezer, the agency wrote. investigations substantiated allegations of NASHUA: Few states have shaped presidential Gov Scott Walker spent much of this month House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Conservative physical abuse. Neither of the fathers were politics like Iowa, New Hampshire and South trekking through all three states, as did other pre- donor Foster Friess, who almost singlehandedly Homeschooled involved in the four children’s lives, and Carolina. By hosting the nation’s first presidential sumed candidates who are aggressively hiring bankrolled Santorum’s super PAC in 2012, predict- Court officers carrying out an eviction both owe more than $10,000 in child sup- primaries and caucuses, the states have heaped state-based political operatives. Bush told South ed an extended campaign this time because of notice at the family’s home in an apart- port, the agency noted. Blair also collect- political and financial rewards for decades on suc- Carolina Republicans their state is critical because the quality of the candidates. “I don’t expect a ment complex near downtown Detroit on ed government food assistance and cessful candidates and hastened the end for it holds “the first big primary,” a nod to a projected clear leader to emerge until after South Carolina,” Tuesday found the bodies in the freezer.

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