{"id":19740,"date":"2012-08-26T02:07:38","date_gmt":"2012-08-26T07:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/?p=19740"},"modified":"2012-08-26T03:23:22","modified_gmt":"2012-08-26T08:23:22","slug":"apd-settles-with-deaf-woman-over-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2012\/08\/26\/apd-settles-with-deaf-woman-over-arrest\/","title":{"rendered":"APD Settles With Deaf Woman Over Arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"

APD Settles With Deaf Woman Over Arrest<\/strong><\/p>\n

August 22 2012<\/p>\n

A lawsuit against the Austin Police Department is leading to some
\nchanges in how the department deals with the hearing-impaired and deaf
\ncommunity.<\/p>\n

In 2009, Ester Valdez was walking down a North Austin sidewalk talking
\nintensely to someone else in sign language. An Austin Police officer
\nmisinterpreted Valdez\u2019s hand gestures and tried to intervene. Valdez is
\nhearing impaired so she didn\u2019t hear when the officer ask her to stop.
\nValdez was eventually arrested for resisting arrest. She was booked in
\nthe city jail and brought before a magistrate the next day.<\/p>\n

The charges were eventually dropped. Through the Texas Civil Rights
\nProject, Valdez filed a lawsuit against the Austin Police Department
\nand Travis County, which was just settled.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good news is that the case settled fairly soon after we filed it,\u201d
\nsaid Joe Berra, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project.<\/p>\n

For Joe Berra, the lawsuit had the intended effect.<\/p>\n

“Both the city and the county were very responsive and, without
\nadmitting any liability, they simply wanted to ensure things would be
\nbetter in the future,” said Berra.<\/p>\n

Berra represented Ester Valdez in the lawsuit. He says her arrest
\nhighlighted problems with the Austin police department; specifically
\nthe fact that no interpreter was ever provided to Valdez, not at the
\ntime of her arrest, nor at a hearing before a magistrate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever there’s an incident between the department and the citizens
\nin the community and there’s anything we can learn from it for how to
\nbetter serve, we do,\u201d said senior officer Michael Burgeson with APD and
\nan instructor with the APD police academy.<\/p>\n

As part of the lawsuit settlement, all cadets will get a full day
\ntraining on how to handle situations involving people with
\ndisabilities. And current officers will be required to take a refresher
\ncourse every two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the world changes and the community changes, we’ll try to change
\nwith it and provide better training to our cadets and officers,\u201d said
\nBurgeson.<\/p>\n

Travis County has agreed, as part of the settlement, to provide
\ninterpreters to every court appearance where it\u2019s needed. The county
\nhas also installed video-phones in the jails to allow hearing-impaired
\nprisoners to communicate with family members or interpreters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hopeful that we’re making progress. No doubt,\u201d said Berra.
\nHopeful that by standing up for Valdez’s rights, more people will be
\nprotected.<\/p>\n

The city paid Valdez $500 and lawyer fees in the settlement.<\/p>\n

By Karen Kiley<\/p>\n

Source:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/weareaustin.com\/news\/top-stories\/stories\/apd-settles-deaf-woman-over-arrest-3641.shtml?wap=0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

APD Settles With Deaf Woman Over Arrest August 22 2012 A lawsuit against the Austin Police Department is leading to some changes in how the department deals with the hearing-impaired and deaf community. In 2009, Ester Valdez was walking down…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[6084,4621,21,6085,2987,35,14758,2750,14493,14756,9719,3556,14757,7880,7500,884,562],"class_list":["post-19740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deaf-news","tag-apd","tag-article","tag-austin","tag-austin-police-department","tag-city-of-austin","tag-community","tag-ester-valdez","tag-hearing-impaired","tag-joe-berra","tag-karen-kiley","tag-lawsuit","tag-lawyer","tag-michael-burgeson","tag-settlement","tag-texas-civil-rights-project","tag-training","tag-travis-county"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p752R-58o","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19475,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2012\/08\/02\/city-settles-suit-brought-by-deaf-resident\/","url_meta":{"origin":19740,"position":0},"title":"City settles suit brought by deaf resident","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"August 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Not So Tone Deaf? City settles suit brought by deaf resident BY JORDAN SMITH JULY 31, 2012 For the second time in a decade the city of Austin has settled a federal civil rights suit, reaffirming its agreement to provide training for Austin Police officers on how to effectively communicate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/category\/deaf-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19476,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2012\/08\/02\/city-settles-suit-with-deaf-citizen\/","url_meta":{"origin":19740,"position":1},"title":"City Settles Suit With Deaf Citizen","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"August 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"City Settles Suit With Deaf Citizen Jail and several courtrooms will get videophones BY JORDAN SMITH AUGUST 3, 2012 For the second time in a decade, the city of Austin has settled a federal civil rights suit, reaffirming its agreement to provide training for Austin Police officers on how to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/category\/deaf-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12516,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2010\/12\/03\/deaf-austinites-say-police-cant-seem-to-listen-to-reason\/","url_meta":{"origin":19740,"position":2},"title":"Deaf Austinites say police can’t seem to listen to reason","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"December 3, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Tone Deaf Deaf Austinites say police can't seem to listen to reason Note: To view pictures and videos, please click website link below. BY JORDAN SMITH Esther Valdez is deaf. That explains some, but not all, of what happened to her on June 16, 2009. In the simplest terms, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/category\/deaf-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12691,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2010\/12\/24\/apd-detective-disputes-chronicle-story\/","url_meta":{"origin":19740,"position":3},"title":"APD Detective Disputes ‘Chronicle’ Story","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"December 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"APD Detective Disputes 'Chronicle' Story BY JORDAN SMITH AND MICHAEL KING According to Austin Police Department Detective Daniel Arizpe, the Chronicle's description of the June 30, 2000, incident at the Catfish Parlour \u2013 in our Dec. 3 story \"Tone Deaf,\" about communication problems between APD and deaf residents \u2013 was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/category\/deaf-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11498,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2010\/08\/23\/austin-cops-bullied-a-90-lb-deaf-girl\/","url_meta":{"origin":19740,"position":4},"title":"Austin Cops Bullied A 90 lb Deaf Girl","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"August 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Austin Cops Bullied A 90 lb Deaf Girl Press Release - Austin, TX - 08\/23\/2010 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE --------------------- Of interest to editors and journalists covering: Courts, Police Brutality, Lawyer, Law, Defense Attorney, Deaf, American Sign Language, ASL Interpreters, Austin, Texas. Austin Cops Bullied A 90 lb Deaf Girl Austin,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/category\/deaf-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17556,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2012\/02\/07\/updated-apd-training-academy-austin\/","url_meta":{"origin":19740,"position":5},"title":"UPDATED: APD Training Academy – Austin","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"February 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"UPDATED: APD Training Academy - Austin Note: APD = Austin Police Department On Feb 21-22, I need COMMITTED participants to come to The APD Training Academy. On Feb 21, we will be working from 6pm until approximately 1am. Before that night ends we will announce start time for the 22nd,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/category\/deaf-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19740"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19748,"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19740\/revisions\/19748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}