If you’ve watched the Netflix hit “Orange is the New Black” you’ve seen Taryn Manning in the ensemble cast as Tiffany “Pennsatucky” Doggett. The 37-year-old actress has also had roles in “Crossroads” (opposite Brittany Spears), “8 Mile” and  “Sons of Anarchy.” But she’s also had a less-than-charmed life as well–she has been arrested multiple times on various charges. However, Manning is now fighting back against one of the arrests, suing the city of New York for $10 million and claiming that she was wrongfully arrested.

#OITNB star Taryn Manning sues NYC for $10 million for “false arrest” https://t.co/0tPAzHmhY6 pic.twitter.com/l27ZPA1qzO

— Huffington Post (@HuffingtonPost) February 9, 2016

Manning was arrested in New York City in November 2014 and accused of making threats against a former friend and roommate, named Jeanine Heller. The case is incredibly confusing, but here’s what we know: Manning and Heller had had a turbulent friendship for a while, and Heller has even claimed that they had a romantic relationship at one point. Their feud, although it’s unclear what caused the showdown, eventually led to both women filing restraining orders against each other. Manning had accused Heller of stalking her in the past, and Heller has served prison time after admitting to her contact with Manning.

However, on November 18, 2014 Manning was arrested after Heller accused her of violating the restraining order and threatening Heller. Manning is now claiming that the police did so even after the District Attorney had already decided not to prosecute Manning, and had told her lawyers that fact. Stacey Richman, a lawyer who represented Manning at the time stated:

I had multiple conversations with the DA’s office as well as the Fifth Precinct Detective Squad before appearing at that Nov. 18 meeting. I am certain that the assigned Detective knew in advance … that Ms. Manning would not be prosecuted. Hence, she should NEVER have been arrested.

However, Manning was arrested, handcuffed, marched through the precinct, and put in a holding cell. Eventually she was released after the District Attorney’s office issued a formal declaration that Manning was not to be prosecuted. But by that point, the damage was done–news of Manning’s arrest had already been leaked to the press. At that point, her lawyer released the following:

The District Attorney declined to prosecute Ms. Manning and the arrest was voided. The allegation was false. It is unfortunate that additional false allegations by an individual convicted of violating orders of protection intended to protect Ms. Manning are facilitated by purported news organizations to perpetuate the harassment of Ms. Manning exponentially.

Now, Manning is suing the city of New York for $10 million, saying that she was falsely arrested and that her civil rights were violated in the process. Now, Manning has also run into some other problems with the law lately–most notably she was involved in a violent altercation with friend and makeup artist Holly Hartman; she was arrested in 2012 after assaulting Hartman as well. But regardless of her violent past, Manning’s claim that her rights were violated in the 2014 arrest could hold water, particularly if her narrative is proven true.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post OITNB’s Taryn Manning is Suing New York for 2014 Arrest appeared first on Law Street.

Anyone who has ever been to school or needed a simple explanation of a complicated subject, or just needed any information ever, can appreciate Wikipedia. It’s a great resource for background info. Don’t use it for your papers, kids, but feel free to use it for pretty much everything else. Most of the time Wikipedia can be trusted, as long as you’re using it as a resource and not a legitimate source. But every now and again, people mess with the entries to make them incorrect. Usually they’re corrected pretty quickly. If the edit was particularly bad, Wikipedia has the ability to track the IP address and figure out where the offending edit came from.

Here’s a concrete example: on the Orange is the New Black Wikipedia page, the Advocate, a well known LGBT publication, is quoted saying that OITNB “contains the first ever women-in-prison narrative to be played by a real transgender woman.” This sentence was referring to Laverne Cox. Well last week, there was a disturbing edit made to this entry — the phrase “transgender woman” was changed to “a real man pretending to be a woman.”

Not only is that fundamentally incorrect, it’s ridiculously insensitive, disgusting, and bigoted. So what asshole decided to make that edit?

Someone working in Congress, of course.

This has to be an isolated incident, right? There’s no way that Congressional staffers, funded by our tax dollars, sit around and edit Wikipedia pages, sometimes pretty offensively, instead of working to fix a Congress that has an approval rating that is languishing in the low teens.

Nope. That appears to be a lot of what they do — edits from Congressional IP addresses are pretty common. A Twitter bot called @congressedits collects all of them, and it’s had a kind of busy summer. Here are some of my favorites:

Tranny Wikipedia article edited anonymously from US House of Representatives http://t.co/SkIIKhDxBu

— congress-edits (@congressedits) August 20, 2014

Oh look another case where someone in Congress edited an article to do with transgender people…incorrectly and offensively! In case you were wondering, the edit was to change the phrase “assigned sex” to “biological sex.” That’s incorrect. Great job, random Congressional staffer, that was a worthy use of your tax-funded paycheck.

Chrisley Knows Best Wikipedia article edited anonymously from US House of Representatives http://t.co/39F07XgCoU

— congress-edits (@congressedits) August 19, 2014

This one is benign at least. It’s an edit on a Chrisley Knows Best Wikipedia page, an American TV show. Someone with a Congressional IP address thought it was essential that we know exactly what suburb of Atlanta is the setting for the show. Which is at least correct, I presume, but again, not a good use of time or money.

UFO sightings in Russia Wikipedia article edited anonymously from US House of Representatives http://t.co/IsWVBxNqVC

— congress-edits (@congressedits) August 4, 2014

Oh, look, here’s one where the article UFO Sightings in Russia was edited anonymously from a Congressional IP address. A particular incident where a UFO sighting was reported in Russia was added to the article. Why does someone who works in the Capitol Building have such an encyclopedic knowledge of UFO sightings in Russia? I’m not sure, but that seems healthy.

There’s also more edits than can be counted on members’ pages, bills, etc…many of which are incorrect, argumentative, or biased. Wikipedia administrators have blocked anonymous edits from Congressional IP addresses multiple times because of these issues. The IP address used to make the Laverne Cox edits, and many of the edits to do with transphobia, has been blocked three times this summer. While it’s probably the same incredibly immature staffer/intern, there’s no way to actually know.

So real talk, guys. I know that work can be kind of boring in Congress, especially during recess. But seriously, stop with the edits. Play 2048, or prank your coworkers, or take a nap, I don’t care! But this whole editing-Wikipedia thing looks really bad. Just stop.

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Anneliese Mahoney (@AMahoney8672) is Lead Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

Featured image courtesy of [Johann Dréo via Flickr]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Good News! Your Tax Dollars Go to Bad Wikipedia Edits appeared first on Law Street.