Hollingshead & Dudley Trial Lawyers

$137,754

Jail Misconduct / Civil Rights

Young man being held in a northern Missouri county jail on charges that he allegedly “stole the preacher’s truck” is sexually assaulted by a violent inmate because the jail’s guards had made it a routine practice of “forgetting to lock the doors.” It is reported that this jury verdict was the only successful civil rights verdict in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri for the entire year. This case is also largely credited with establishing potential causes of action in Missouri for a governmental entity’s failure to properly train and/or supervise its employees. Following a jury trial in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri...

$422,866

Revenge Porn Statute

A single mother of three children catches her former boyfriend cheating on her, and as a result, breaks things off with the man. The ex-boyfriend threatens that, if the mother does not “get back together with him,” he will send nude pictures of the mother to her children, including distributing flyers depicting the pictures at her younger son’s middle school and her church; and post the pictures on her employer’s publicly accessible social media pages. After the mother refuses to reconcile with the cheating ex-boyfriend, and despite being informed by the Blue Springs Police Department that, if he follows through with his threats, his behavior would constitute a felony under Missouri law, nonetheless, the ex-boyfriend sends the pictures via Facebook Messenger, along with vile descriptions of the mother to both of her adult children and posts the pictures on the publicly accessible Facebook page for the mother’s place of employment. The ex-boyfriend also leaves the mother voicemails saying things like, “you f***** with the wrong guy.” After quitting her job and leaving her church due to the embarrassment of the ex-boyfriend’s sociopathic behavior, the ex-boyfriend is charged with, and ultimately, pleads guilty to the felony of non-consensually distributing nude photographs of the mother to a third-party. Unfortunately, he receives a “slap on the wrist” by the criminal court-only being sentenced to probation. Seeking real justice, the brave mother of three puts her reputation on the line and brings a lawsuit against the ex-boyfriend in the Jackson County Circuit Court seeking money damages under a relatively new Missouri law prohibiting exactly this type of deplorable behavior. In what Hollingshead & Dudley believes to be the first civil jury trial under this new law...

$641,547

Police Misconduct / Civil Rights

Young woman in school to become a police officer is a passenger in a vehicle driven by her husband coming home from a St. Louis Cardinal’s playoff game when they encountered an unlawful St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department “checkpoint.” Despite having committed no crime (not even a traffic violation), the young woman and her husband are drug out of their vehicles by multiple metropolitan police officers at gunpoint. After getting drug out of their vehicle without legal justification, a metro police officer conducts a vaginal body cavity search of the young woman in a dirty semi-truck parking lot in full view of other male police officers, plants cocaine on the young woman, and then proceeds to delete the young woman’s sexual assault complaint from the police department’s computer system. At trial, the officer unbelievably testifies that she conducted the vaginal body cavity search in order to ensure that the young woman had not “hidden a knife or gun in her vagina.” Following a jury trial in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri...

$33,344

Wrongful Termination / FLSA Retaliation

$502,496

Wrongful Termination / Employee Discrimination

A bi-racial head of security for a historically black, public Missouri university is discriminated against and wrongfully terminated because she “isn’t black enough.” The woman uproots her family from Virginia to take the security job in Missouri, and on the university’s word about the woman’s early job performance, she signs a long-term apartment lease close to the school. However, after only 88 days on the job, the university claims that the woman “hasn’t gotten enough done” and terminates her employment effective immediately. The decision to fire the woman is largely based upon the recommendation of the university’s then HR Director who had previously (and subsequently) been convicted of both state and federal embezzlement charges. Following a jury trial in the Circuit Court for the City of St. Louis...

$125,000

Wrongful Termination / Employment Discrimination

A female flight attendant on the private jet of a well-known Texas oil tycoon is required by the jet’s owner (i.e., the oil tycoon) to, not only watch him engage in extramarital sexual activity with woman during flights, but to also clean up afterwards and help the oil tycoon “cover up” his affairs with his college sweetheart, now wife of 30+ years. Following the flight attendant finally complaining about the oil tycoon’s in-flight sexual escapades to the company’s HR Department, she is fired for alleged “insubordination” (i.e., refusing to be forced to watch the company’s CEO have extramarital sexual affairs during flights on a small, private jet).