Deaf woman awarded $75,000 in suit
By Mitzie Stelte
Published April 3, 2008
A new policy to assist the deaf during emergency situations is in the
works by the City of New Braunfels because of a lawsuit settlement
Tuesday.
Maria Salinas, a deaf woman who uses American Sign Language to
communicate and isn’t fluent in written or spoken English, was
awarded $75,000 in damages after she sued the city for allegedly not
providing an interpreter in a timely manner during a 911 emergency.
The 911 call was made Sept. 23, 2004, after Salinas came home from
work and found her fiancé, Ed Spencer, lying motionless on her couch
and wasn’t able to wake him. Salinas had a neighbor call 911 to
request assistance and ask police for the services of a qualified ASL
interpreter.
According to Salinas, the police knew from the 911 call that she was
deaf and needed interpreter services, but they didn’t attempt to
locate an interpreter and failed to assign this task to another city
employee.
Lucy Wood, Salinas’ attorney, said the woman suffered emotional
distress because she didn’t know what functions the police were
performing and remained unsure about her fiancé’s prognosis because
of the language barrier.
“We’re just really grateful to set up a new policy that will
govern how police interact with the deaf and hope it will serve as a
boilerplate for other communities,†said Wood, who works for
Advocacy Incorporated, a nonprofit organization that assists
individuals with disabilities in civil lawsuits.
Motions made by the city to dismiss the case were denied in February
2006 by the federal court in San Antonio handling the case.
According to Charles Frigerio, the attorney representing the city,
the New Braunfels Police Department’s list of interpreters will be
updated, which he said was the problem in this case.
Frigerio said Wednesday that settling before trial means the city
avoids having to pay for claims and legal fees, which could have
amounted to $300,000.
The money for the settlement comes out of the Texas Municipal League,
which acts as a sort of insurance company for various cities in the
state, he said.
“Overall, the city is happy that this case is finally been decided
and new regulations will be in place,†Frigerio said.
Link:
http://herald-zeitung.com/story.lasso?ewcd=3b69d0f5a392ccf4&-session=HeraldZeitung:40DA3C4E09d10394DAKXw31A06F5
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