Fight Back and Win: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Injustice--And How You Can Win Your Own Battles

Table of Contents

Foreword   Lisa Bloom     xiii
Introduction     1
To Conquer, You Must First Conquer Yourself: My Life Lessons     5
Don't Be Victimized Twice: Amber Frey's Fight for Justice     25
You Can Fight the Power: Politicians and Other Good Ol' Boys     45
The Schmitz Smear: The day California state senator John Schmitz calls me a "slick butch lawyeress" marks the beginning of the end of his political career     45
Ilene Hill and the Grandstanding Deputy District Attorney: A battered woman who places her child for adoption is persecuted and prosecuted by a California district attorney with an agenda     50
How to Bring Down a Politician Gone Wild: I take on one of the biggest old boys' clubs of all-the U.S. Senate     56
It's Not the Office, It's the Action: My support of women's rights brings me into conflict with President Bill Clinton     61
You Can Catch a Fallen Star: Taking on Celebrity Bad Boys     67
Marv Albert and the Blonde Bombshell Witness: The boys club closes ranks around sportscaster Marv Albert during a sex scandal, and my client breaks the case wide open     67
Tommy Lee's Motley To-Do: Rock star Tommy Lee attacks a photographer and ends up facing the music with me     73
The Pakistani Cricket Star Plays Gaines with Paternity: I teach Imran Khan never to play games when it comes to children     76
MyThree Rounds with Mike Tyson: I take on Mike Tyson in the legal arena     78
Avoiding Fallout from Robert Blake's Media Storm: I protect the only surviving ex-wife of Robert Blake     83
Princess Diana, the Model Kelly Fisher, and the Frog Who Wished to Become Prince Charming: I take on a man who hurt a woman, but the tale of romance and betrayal ends in tragedy     86
Fight Back at Work     93
Debbie Thorne Volkert and the Double Standard: A woman who applies to be a police officer challenges sex questions on a polygraph     93
Not Part of the Job Description: A museum guard is sexually harassed by her boss     95
The Man Who Was Man-Handled: Our male client is sexually harassed by his male boss     98
Fighting for Patients Who Can't Fight for Themselves: Sandra Bardenilla just wants a comatose patient to get food and water, and Robert Herring tries to make Michael Schiavo an offer he can't refuse     101
Fighting an Old Argument: A forty-nine-year-old doctor is told he's too old for the job     105
You Can Knock Down the Boys' Club Door     107
I Get the Last Laugh at the Friars Club: I don't find men-only membership rules very funny     107
Locking Horns with the Elks: You're never too old to fight back. I help a group of women in their sixties and seventies teach some old Elks new tricks-like admitting women     114
Katrina Yeaw and the Boys-Only Boy Scouts of America: My eleven-year-old client fights to join the Boy Scouts     117
Even Stubborn Organizations Can Be Persuaded to Change: Jan Bradshaw fights for equal rights on a country club golf course     121
Little Things Start Big Changes     125
The Case of the Costly Shirt: I get the spots out of Flair Cleaners' discriminatory pricing policy     125
Saks Makes Alterations to an Unfair Policy: Men and women pay different prices for alterations at Saks, until I step in     126
The Clip Joint: My three-year-old client gets an L.A. hair salon to even up their haircut prices for boys and girls     128
A Priceless Case of Menu Bias: I change L'Orangerie's policy of giving women menus without prices when they dine with men     129
Curtains for Papa Choux's Policy: I have reservations about same-sex couples being forbidden to dine in this restaurant's romantic curtained booths     131
A Toy Story: I help a group of pint-sized clients put an end to a California drugstore chain's policy of separating their toys into "girls" and "boys" sections     134
The Case of the Deceptive Pregnancy Counseling Clinic: When Shanti Friend goes to a local clinic for a pregnancy test, she is horrified at the "counseling" she receives     136
Paul Jasperson's Courageous Crusade: My client struggles heroically to end AIDS discrimination at a West Hollywood nail salon     138
You Can Fight High-Profile Killers      143
I fight to keep O. J. Simpson, the courts, and his legal team from creating new victims during the Trial of the Century
You Can Fight Rapists and Other Sexual Predators     165
Lori Brown and the Serial Rapist: We bring her rapist to justice after a battle with a legal system that initially seems unresponsive to victims of this horrible crime     165
A Rapist Is a Rapist, Regardless of the Victim: I take action when an L.A. County Superior Court judge decides to dismiss a rape prosecution because the alleged victim is a prostitute     168
The Pillowcase Rapist and the Hollywood Assault: I fight an attempt by Hollywood producers to pay a rapist for his story     172
Desiray Bartak and the House of Horror: My preteen client takes a courageous courtroom stand against the man who sexually abused her-her godfather     175
Rita Milla and the Seven Priests: Rita Milla fights a twenty-year battle with the Catholic Church to bring the priests who sexually abused her to justice and determine which of them fathered her child     180
Beware of Bigotry     191
Mel Mermelstein Fights the Holocaust Deniers: We help a Holocaust survivor win a ground-breaking judgment against groups who claim Nazi death camps were a hoax     191
"Gwen" Araujo-Transgendered Teen Dead at Seventeen: A young woman trapped in a man's body is brutally murdered because of who she is     195
Our Fight for Equality in Marriage: My same-gender clients want the right to legally marry     198
Motherhood is Powerful     203
Women in Chains: I expose and overturn the L.A. county sheriff's policy of chaining pregnant women inmates to their beds during labor and childbirth     203
Get Creative to Get Child Support: I use creative methods to help moms change restrictive child support policies and laws     204
Stolen Eggs, a Stolen Son: Years after undergoing an egg-harvesting fertility procedure, a woman is shocked to find that, without her consent, doctors have secretly implanted her eggs in another woman who then gives birth to her son     210
Sometimes Moms Need to Move On: I fight to help moms relocate to better their lives and those of their children     213
The Cruelest Kind of Custody: Why should men who are accused of abusing and killing the mothers of their children be allowed to raise them? I fight for Toni Dykstra and her daughter     215
Fight the Boobs Behind The Tube     233
The Scarlet "P": We fight for justice in the case of actress Hunter Tylo after she is fired from Melrose Place because she is pregnant     233
Hooters' Secret Reality Show: Women who want to be waitresses at a Hooters restaurant in West Covina, CA find out they were secretly videotaped while changing into their uniforms during the interview process     238
Dude, Your Reality Show Sucks: My teen-aged clients are excited to be part of the audience at a television show, until they are sprayed with human feces      240
The Interview from Hell: Thea Robinson's potential employer takes her to a restaurant for the worst interview she's ever encountered. It turns out to be a reality TV show     242
Fight for the Children     245
Cheerleading Busted: Teenager Vicki Ann Guest learns there's nothing to cheer about when her female coach tells her she cannot be a cheerleader because of her breast size     245
A Different Kind of Child: St. James and LaDonna Davis fight to protect their chimpanzee, Moe     248
The Mystery of Michael Jackson: I fight to protect children from Michael Jackson     254
Conclusion. What I Have Learned in the Past Thirty Years Can Help You     267
Acknowledgments     275
Index     277