{"id":19859,"date":"2012-09-06T12:14:34","date_gmt":"2012-09-06T17:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/?p=19859"},"modified":"2012-09-06T13:05:54","modified_gmt":"2012-09-06T18:05:54","slug":"handcuffed-deaf-couple-wants-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2012\/09\/06\/handcuffed-deaf-couple-wants-answers\/","title":{"rendered":"Handcuffed deaf couple wants answers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Handcuffed deaf couple wants answers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reported by: Lauren Lea Email: LaurenLea@woaitv.com<\/p>\n

September 4, 2012<\/p>\n

SAN ANTONIO- A deaf couple claims two off-duty Bexar County Sheriff’s\u00a0deputies handcuffed them and roughed them up as they were shopping\u00a0inside a west side convenience store. Now the two want to know why it\u00a0happened in the first place.<\/p>\n

Jeffrey Donovan and his girlfriend Mercedes Castellano were shopping\u00a0inside the Express Mart on Ceralvo, off Zarzamora on Aug. 23 and had\u00a0only been inside for about two minutes before deputies approached.Surveillance video shows how quickly the deputies came inside and\u00a0cuffed the couple.<\/p>\n

“They were waving at us to come over there and all of a sudden they\u00a0handcuffed us and were really rough at us,” Donovan said, through an\u00a0interpreter.<\/p>\n

“It really freaked me out because we were trying to tell them, ‘they’re\u00a0deaf! They’re mute! They can’t speak!'” said a person who was inside\u00a0the store, who did not want to be identified. “I think it was uncalled\u00a0for. They were too rough.”<\/p>\n

Employees said the deputies were yelling for the couple to put their\u00a0hands up.<\/p>\n

“I don’t understand why they rushed up on us like that. I couldn’t\u00a0understand what we’d done wrong,” Castellano signed.<\/p>\n

The witness said the couple were very frightened. Donovan says they\u00a0were taken outside where they tried to communicate with the deputies.<\/p>\n

“I was trying to explain to him that I couldn’t hear. I was deaf. I\u00a0tried to explain to him twice. As they uncuffed us, we asked if we
\ncould write back and forth. I guess they didn’t want us to write back\u00a0and forth,” Donovan signed. “As we were standing there, they still\u00a0refused to talk to us through writing back and forth. Again, we asked\u00a0and they said no. So we stood there and waited.”<\/p>\n

Donovan is also blind in one eye and has a pacemaker. His father said\u00a0he suffered a sprained shoulder because of the incident.<\/p>\n

“As we waited, one police officer wrote down, ‘so you went through the\u00a0gate and then after that you were running,'” Donovan signed.<\/p>\n

He lives across the street at the San Juan Square Apartments. He showed\u00a0us how they squeezed through the gate to walk across the street to the\u00a0store. He says they never saw the deputies and after being let go, they\u00a0never got an explanation.<\/p>\n

“I have no reason. We’re deaf. I don’t know,” he signed.<\/p>\n

Employees of the store said many people go through or jump over the\u00a0fence to leave the apartment complex because of locked gates. Donovan’s\u00a0father and the employees also said the deputies were providing security\u00a0for the complex.<\/p>\n

Donovan and Castellano are now sharing their story, hoping someone will\u00a0finally give them answers.<\/p>\n

“I don’t understand why they did that to us. We’re innocent. We didn’t\u00a0do anything wrong,” Castellano signed.<\/p>\n

The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office did not want to comment about the\u00a0incident, but Internal Affairs is investigating.<\/p>\n

Source:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.woai.com\/news\/local\/story\/Handcuffed-deaf-couple-wants-answers\/jsHmZ6psqUi7vg9Ih1kqow.cspx<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Handcuffed deaf couple wants answers Reported by: Lauren Lea Email: LaurenLea@woaitv.com September 4, 2012 SAN ANTONIO- A deaf couple claims two off-duty Bexar County Sheriff’s\u00a0deputies handcuffed them and roughed them up as they were shopping\u00a0inside a west side convenience store.…<\/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":[4621,6925,14925,24,14928,14929,14926,14927,225,14931,14932,871,22,14930,14924],"class_list":["post-19859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deaf-news","tag-article","tag-bexar-county","tag-bexar-county-sheriffs-office","tag-deaf","tag-express-mart","tag-handcuffed","tag-jeffrey-donovan","tag-mercedes-castellano","tag-news","tag-off-duty-deputies","tag-officer","tag-police","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-juan-square-apartments","tag-woai-tv"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p752R-5aj","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":34375,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2016\/10\/06\/san-antonio-vote-bexar-county-elections-dhh-workshop-101016\/","url_meta":{"origin":19859,"position":0},"title":"San Antonio Vote-Bexar County Elections D\/HH Workshop 10\/10\/16","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"October 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"SA Vote-Bexar County Elections Deaf & Hard of Hearing Workshop Bexar County Deaf & Hard of Hearing Workshop Are you registered to vote? 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