This week read about Luc Esquivel suing the state of Tennessee over its anti-trans sports law, and Lisa Hoffman pleading guilty to stealing HIV medication in New Jersey.
Teen Sues Over Trans-Exclusionary Sports Law
Luc Esquivel, a 14-year-old freshman at Farragut High School in Knoxville, Tennessee is suing the state over its new law that bans trans students from playing on sports teams corresponding with their gender identities.
“I was really looking forward to trying out for the boys’ golf team and, if I made it, training and competing with and learning from other boys and improving my game,” Esquivel said in a press release. “Then, to have the legislature pass a law that singled out me and kids like me to keep us from being part of a team, that crushed me.”
Esquivel played on the girls’ team and said that though everyone was very nice, he didn’t feel like he fit in, the Advocate reported.
Esquivel is being represented by Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the ACLU of Tennessee.
Supporters of the bill argue that it protects girls in sports, LGBT advocates argue it’s discriminatory.
“A mother wants to see their kid happy, thriving, enjoying being a kid. High school sports are an important part of that,” his mother, Shelley Esquivel, said.
Pharmacy Technician Pleads Guilty to Theft of HIV Medication
Photo via Adobe.
Lisa Hoffman, 49, pleaded guilty to stealing $10 million in life-saving HIV medications from a Veterans Administration hospital in New Jersey.
Hoffman was a pharmacy procurement technician at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center pharmacy in East Orange, New Jersey and was in charge of ordering their medications. Plus reported that from 2015 to 2019, Hoffman would pocket some of the medications she ordered and sell them to another individual. She is no longer working at the hospital.
Federal prosecutors arrested Hoffman for theft of government property. She was seen on security footage stuffing prescription bottles into her personal bags.
Hoffman would sell the medications to Wagner Checonolasco, who would allegedly sell the drugs to other individuals. Cheonolasco has also been arrested. The U.S. Department of Justice wrote that Checonolasco was previously charged with conspiracy to steal government property, though those charges are pending.
The department wrote that charges for theft of medical supplies can result in 20 years in prison in addition to a fine of $1 million or three times the economic loss attributed to the crime.
Hoffman will be sentenced on March 9.
