Dish Network's End Run Fails In Virginia Sex Offender Suit

Dish Network is being sued by a family who say their child was molested by one of the company's installers. The family claims that Dish Network is liable because they knew that the employee was a sex offender but went ahead and hired him anyways for a job that would give him access to people's homes. It looks good for the family because juries don't exactly take kindly to child molesters and those who give them the opportunities to operate.

However, the defendant's lawyer recently tried to challenge the jurisdiction of the case, probably their last resort, by claiming that the case should be in Federal court rather than VA State Courts. Their argument was that there existed a "diversity of citizenship" because the offender had previously resided in Maryland. How long ago did he live in Maryland?

Well he was arrested in 2005, served time in VA, and had been living in Richmond since 2001 at the latest with countless documents listing his residence in Virginia. Needless to say, the court ruled that the man was a citizen of Virginia for all intents and purposes and the case was remanded to VA courts. Talk about a last ditch effort, not even sure what the point was anyways. It's hard to find any court that looks anything close to favorably on sex offenders. Read the entire court opinion on this child molester case here .