In the Media

Wang Hecker LLP’s work advocating for survivors of sexual abuse who used New York’s Child Victims Act to seek justice against schools was highlighted in a new investigative report published jointly by the The74 and Mother Jones.  Wang Hecker partner Daniel Mullkoff is quoted pointing out that students who are targeted for sexual abuse include “kids who are poorer, who are on scholarships, who are the youngest in their class, who don’t live in the same part of town, whose home lives aren’t stable, etc.  Young people who are already fighting to just make their way in the world and get a leg up are the ones who often are subjected to the worst, tragic abuses.”

Wang Hecker LLP, with co-counsel the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Make the Road New York, and the New York Civil Liberties Union Foundation, presented argument at a bench trial before SDNY Judge Lewis A. Kaplan seeking a permanent injunction against ICE on behalf of a class of immigrants who were detained in deplorable conditions at 26 Federal Plaza. A voluminous record now sits before the Court demonstrating that thousands of individuals were held for days in overcrowded cells with no beds to sleep on, inadequate meals, inadequate medical care, no ability to clean their bodies, and no meaningful access to their attorneys, all in violation of their constitutional rights.

Along with co-counsel Housing Works and Brooklyn Legal Services, we have sued New York City under the City’s Human Rights Law for discriminating against Jane Doe, a transgendered woman, who was repeatedly misgendered, assigned to room with cis gender male individuals, and sexually assaulted in multiple shelters within the City’s shelter system.

On behalf of the City of Poughkeepsie and two Black women who live there, Wang Hecker LLP filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Dutchess County and County Executive Sue Serino. The legal action follows the County’s abrupt withdrawal from a joint plan to combat homelessness, at which time the County unilaterally imposed the requirement that an emergency shelter be placed at 26 Oakley Street in the Fifth Ward.  For decades, the City of Poughkeepsie has been targeted with policies and practices that have resulted in harmful, extensive racial segregation, and the City continues to undertake a disproportionate responsibility for hosting shelters and social services within County. This lawsuit seeks an injunction to stop Dutchess County from proceeding with its plan to unilaterally place the emergency shelter at 26 Oakley Street, which would violate federal and state fair housing laws by furthering racial segregation and discriminating against residents of the City.

Wang Hecker LLP, with co-counsel the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, New York Civil Liberties Union Foundation, and Make the Road New York, filed a lawsuit on behalf of an individual detained at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan (“26 Fed”) and a proposed class of thousands of individuals detained there for days without beds to sleep on, adequate meals, the ability to bathe, or access to counsel.  The lawsuit asserts a constitutional challenge to the horrific and unlawful conditions in which ICE is detaining individuals at 26 Fed and seeks an emergency temporary restraining order to prohibit the government from continuing these practices.

On behalf of Plaintiffs Jennifer Welch Demski and Alison Turkos, Wang Hecker LLP obtained extensive injunctive relief and $1.025 million against the City of New York and the NYPD. The lawsuit asserted sex discrimination claims under the NYC Human Rights Law for the discriminatory provision of investigative services by the Special Victims Division (“SVD”) to victims of sexual assault, who are 90% female.  The settlement imposes significant requirements on the SVD, including by instituting specific service and training requirements as well as caseload limits for SVD investigators, ensuring a permanent staff member oversee training of all SVD investigators, and continuing bi-annual substantive review of sample cases by survivor advocates.  You can read press coverage about the settlement here and here.

The firm successfully achieved the dismissal of a retaliatory lawsuit filed by Sean Combs’ former security guard Joseph Sherman against our client – whose underlying lawsuit against Combs and Sherman for sexually assaulting her years earlier is ongoing – and against our co-counsel in that case, Gloria Allred. The judge called Sherman’s claims “patently frivolous” and imposed sanctions on Sherman’s lawyer for having filed the case.

You can read the decision here.

On behalf of an individual cyclist and others similarly situated, the firm recently filed a class action lawsuit against the City for the unlawful ticketing of cyclists who lawfully proceed with the “walk” sign through an intersection. Press coverage of the lawsuit may be found here. 

We recently obtained a $25 million judgment on behalf of a woman who was sexually abused by her brother decades earlier under New York’s Child Victim’s Act. Subsequently, in defending against the defendant’s efforts to nullify the judgment in bankruptcy court, the firm achieved a landmark victory when the Bankruptcy Court held that the “domestic violence” exception to the bankruptcy stay applied to sexual violence that occurred years earlier.