Sheriff reacts to homeless-deaf woman incident with open mind

[Miss-Delectable]

http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_2791996

Millard County Sheriff Ed Phillips said Wednesday that he will speak to his colleagues to the south about the deaf-mute homeless woman they deposited into his jurisdiction.
But he does not plan to chew them out.
Phillips said he disapproves of Beaver County sheriff's deputies' dropping the woman off at a Millard County gas station in the early morning of May 30. However, the sheriff also expressed some sympathy for Beaver County - and other rural communities that have limited resources for the homeless.
"Certainly, it's a bad situation, a very unfortunate situation," Phillips said of the Beaver County incident. "Why it happened I haven't had a clue. I haven't spoken with the sheriff or anyone else in Beaver County.
Taking transients or troublemakers to the county line is largely a thing of the past, Phillips said.
"Twenty or 30 years ago, it was fairly common. Either that or putting them on a bus. Now that's almost impossible to do."
On the night of the incident, the Beaver County deputies cited 39-year-old Michelle Bradford for trespassing. Bradford - a deaf-mute woman to whom Beaver County had provided assistance in the past - told deputies she wanted to go to Salt Lake City.

Deputies or county corrections officers then drove Bradford north into Millard County and released her about 1 a.m. May 30 at a Cove Fort service station, said Beaver County Sheriff Kenneth Yardley.
At the service station, Bradford said she was having chest pains and was
taken by ambulance to Fillmore Community Medical Center, where she was treated and released later in the morning. Barry Christensen, a Salt Lake City resident traveling from Fillmore that day, told The Salt Lake Tribune that he and his wife encountered Bradford at a gas station in Fillmore and gave her a ride to the Greyhound bus station in Salt Lake City. Bradford, communicating by writing, told the couple she was going to California, he said.

Yardley said he learned of the Bradford incident later and has ordered an investigation into his deputies' actions. Phillips said he believes the Bradford case was an isolated incident.
"I think they're totally embarrassed over it right now," Phillips said.
Phillips said transients are a problem for rural law enforcement. Neither Beaver nor Millard county has a homeless shelter. Phillips said his office gives homeless people vouchers they can redeem for a meal or motel room, but those vouchers are only for a short stay.
"We can't have all the facilities and resources that we'd like to have," Phillips said, "and I don't suppose they do, with the volume they deal with, in the large communities either."

 

[Roadrunner]

Speaking of how they've handled this situation and even having an on-going investigation, hopefully they'll be better equipped to help serve those in need or at least steer them in the right direction for help in the days ahead....now perhaps the Deaf homeless woman is once again out on some open road fighting each day to survive...too bad an agency or church group wasn't contacted in hopes to perhaps help this woman get where she needs to be, getting a job, a place to live temporarily until she is capable of living somewhere on her own rather than being out on the streets....

*praying for this woman so she'll no longer be lingering out in the streets and homeless*

If you can, say a prayer on her behalf--

 

[widesxp]

Only Believe Half of What You Read in the Papers

1. Michelle Bradford isn't homeless. She has an apartment at the new Grand Hotel in Salt Lake City.

2. Michelle Bradford doesn't live in Beaver County, and never has in the past. She tried to move down there last year but was denied because she wouldn't complete the rental application and fully disclose her income.

3. She didn't come from California last year, she came from Salt Lake City. Several SLC social services entities worked to help her get there because of a vacancy in the government subsidized housing in Beaver. They were trying to help her because she was telling the Salt Lake people she was homeless when in fact she was not.

She is a very sympathetic character. However, at best she has some mental issues, but I'm not so sure she isn't more of a con artist. I know for certain she doesn't tell the truth, and will tell a big story to get what she wants. I suggest that before anyone heap criticism on anyone for trying to help her, you ask around the social service networks between Salt Lake City and Cedar City and get all the facts. She has (fraudulently) recieved a lot of assistance, and wasted a lot of resources that could benefit other people who truely are in need.