Deaf Man Arrested w/o assistance

DeafBiker4JC

DeafBiker4JC

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A deaf man was arrested May 20th without being informed why he was arrested. He is deaf and illierate (which means he cannot read, write, nor type).

There was no interpreter provided at the arrest nor the processing. At the first court date, the interpreter provided was not an ASL interpreter. Rather, she signed PSE (which is a mix of ASL/English). When this guy tried to inform the judge he didn't understand, the judge whisked him over. He also had a medical exam without an interpreter. When I showed up to observe him, he was hysterical thinking the jail gave him HIV or something. It's now June 8, and he still hasn't been released from the Gwinnett County Detention Center. The jail has broken many of his ADA civil rights. The cops told me he could use a TDD to call the language line. . . if he can't read/write/type what good is this to him?!

I called the clerk of courts to tell them this man would need a certified deaf interpreter because of his low language skills, the lady on the phone told me she thought the guy was lying and he would do just fine with a regular sign language interpreter. I told her he was not native to America and he would require extra assistance in court and the lady had the nerve to hang up on me.

The reason why he was arrested? His wife called him in for breaking a TPO when in actuality the TPO states he cannot be near her house, but he was at the school. His divorce paper states he can contact the ex wife regarding the whereabouts of the children. When he tried to ask his wife why she didn't tell him his daughter was graduating from middle school, she ran over his toes with her car then called him in. You have no idea how angry I am right now. When I informed them of his ADA civil rights, they didn't give a shit.

Does anybody have suggestions on what I can do? His lawyer is excellent, but the DA is dragging its foot so to speak. I am still fighting to get him released from jail so he can go back to work. It's hard enough as it already is for a disabled person to find a job.
 
Texan Guy said:
THEY should have to blame on ex-wife for that. That's just stupid.
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Yep, but still....... I need suggestions what to do. NAD won't do anything until the criminal case is over. GACHI (Georgia Concuil for the Hearing Impaired) won't help. Im frustrated.
 
I'm just curious who you are to that person, how do you know him? If you aren't related or have any responsibility for this man, that may be why they are ignoring your concerns. They may think you're getting involved when you have nothing to do with this.
 
Hmm...You said his ex-wife's car ran over his toes. That'd be prove. I can't do anything but to prove on something.
 
Aww Seem so Struggle! So Hope you find a way help with that man!

Good Luck!
 
I am kind of surprised to hear this. Gwinnett has always been seen as a friendly county for people with different ethnic and disability backgrounds.

Have you tried contacting disABILITY LINK in Decatur?

Maybe contact one of the Catholic churches/organisations in Gwinnett? The Catholic churches/organisations here (not just in Gwinnett) usually help a lot of deaf Hispanics/Latinos, Asians, Sudanese (sp?), Africans, etc.
 
If all is exactly as you say then someone more than dropped the ball on this.
The ADA is not a suggestion, it's the law, Gwinnett Co. should know that.

Shame on NAD and GACHI

My Suggestions for contact:

Governor's Office

Attorney General's Office

as much as I hate to say it - ACLU

and - Any local News Station's Investigation Team

if all this situation is true make a lot of noise(so to speak)
 
That's fucked up.

Have you tried arranging a meeting with the judge or someone?
 
DeafBiker4JC said:
A deaf man was arrested May 20th without being informed why he was arrested. He is deaf and illierate (which means he cannot read, write, nor type).

There was no interpreter provided at the arrest nor the processing. At the first court date, the interpreter provided was not an ASL interpreter. Rather, she signed PSE (which is a mix of ASL/English). When this guy tried to inform the judge he didn't understand, the judge whisked him over. He also had a medical exam without an interpreter. When I showed up to observe him, he was hysterical thinking the jail gave him HIV or something. It's now June 8, and he still hasn't been released from the Gwinnett County Detention Center. The jail has broken many of his ADA civil rights. The cops told me he could use a TDD to call the language line. . . if he can't read/write/type what good is this to him?!

I called the clerk of courts to tell them this man would need a certified deaf interpreter because of his low language skills, the lady on the phone told me she thought the guy was lying and he would do just fine with a regular sign language interpreter. I told her he was not native to America and he would require extra assistance in court and the lady had the nerve to hang up on me.

The reason why he was arrested? His wife called him in for breaking a TPO when in actuality the TPO states he cannot be near her house, but he was at the school. His divorce paper states he can contact the ex wife regarding the whereabouts of the children. When he tried to ask his wife why she didn't tell him his daughter was graduating from middle school, she ran over his toes with her car then called him in. You have no idea how angry I am right now. When I informed them of his ADA civil rights, they didn't give a shit.

Does anybody have suggestions on what I can do? His lawyer is excellent, but the DA is dragging its foot so to speak. I am still fighting to get him released from jail so he can go back to work. It's hard enough as it already is for a disabled person to find a job.
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I would suggest filing a complaint with the Dept. of Justice. I would also email the legal dept of the NAD. I know there are those on this forum that disagree with some of the NAD policies, but they were helpful when I was assisting a state prisoner whose rights were being violated. CC all correspondance, and send paper copies to the jail and to the inmate's lawyer. It's amazing how fast the system will start to work when they see that you have already contacted the governing agencies.
 
ASLGAL said:
. . . as much as I hate to say it - ACLU
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I'm going to law school in a couple of years and this is the organization I would love to work for! They are not the devilish organization that the Right Wing Right wing sites I hope to be both a Civil Rights and Criminal Attorney.
 
I'm going to law school in a couple of years and this is the organization I would love to work for! They are not the devilish organization that the Right Wing Right wing sites I hope to be both a Civil Rights and Criminal Attorney.
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Well Pete, as a very liberal person that is where you should aspire to, I guess.

The ACLUless has become just that - clueless.
It may have started as a good group, I was a member before they completely went over the edge of sanity and rationality, but has quickly become an arm of socialism and liberalism - no longer an institution for the protection of all Americans.
You will notice they ignore d/D issues - no big bucks in it.

I notice your Right Wing Sites (laughable) were gleened from a Pagan/Wicca website. Can't you research yourself? I think if you did you may find out you are not as libber as you think you are.

I would prefer to stay on topic - but - if you attack expect response
Peace! Love Ya Still Man :)
 
ASLGAL said:
Well Pete, as a very liberal person that is where you should aspire to, I guess.

The ACLUless has become just that - clueless.
It may have started as a good group, I was a member before they completely went over the edge of sanity and rationality, but has quickly become an arm of socialism and liberalism - no longer an institution for the protection of all Americans.
You will notice they ignore d/D issues - no big bucks in it.

I notice your Right Wing Sites (laughable) were gleened from a Pagan/Wicca website. Can't you research yourself? I think if you did you may find out you are not as libber as you think you are.

I would prefer to stay on topic - but - if you attack expect response
Peace! Love Ya Still Man :)
Click to expand...

That is why I recommended the NAD legal dept. They hold expertise in civil rights violations pertaining specifically to the deaf. I wonder how this guy is doing. Very sad that this can occur in this day and time.
 
But you see GACHI gone from a strong band of advocates into a gang of
lame ducks. And the deaf people are paying the dear prices whenever they
are arrested. You see its either youre going to have to really be able to
make out what the officer is telling you or youre going to be screwed over
every way possible.

Its a major setback for the deaf communities. Theres has been zero effort
to educate the least educated deafs on how to communicate in English.

Over the years major deaf organizations have been padding their own
numbers and sucking millions in grants only to spend it on lavish lifestyles.

Very sad isnt it. Our rights being tossed out because they dont know the
rights to begin with. This is a setback that sends a lot of people back to the
sanitorium years.

Richard
 
ASLGAL said:
Well Pete, as a very liberal person that is where you should aspire to, I guess.

The ACLUless has become just that - clueless.
It may have started as a good group, I was a member before they completely went over the edge of sanity and rationality, but has quickly become an arm of socialism and liberalism - no longer an institution for the protection of all Americans.
You will notice they ignore d/D issues - no big bucks in it.

I notice your Right Wing Sites (laughable) were gleened from a Pagan/Wicca website. Can't you research yourself? I think if you did you may find out you are not as libber as you think you are.

I would prefer to stay on topic - but - if you attack expect response
Peace! Love Ya Still Man :)
Click to expand...

I wasn't aware that the information was coming from a Pagan/Wicca website, as I just put some information on google and took a look at various sites that interested me. I will do a better job at gleening information and thank you for bringing it to my attention. I do apologize to anyone who was misinformed/misled by what I said.
 
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