New York, NY —
After an NYPD officer lied about a deaf woman's disability and refused to provide a legally mandated translator before wrongfully arresting her, the woman reached a $750,000 settlement this week. Although the inept cop was responsible for wrongfully arresting the deaf woman and violating the Americans With Disabilities Act, taxpayers will bear the burden of the settlement instead of the incompetent officer.
On September 11, 2011, Diana Williams and her husband, Chris Williams, who are both deaf, attempted to evict tenants who had failed to pay rent. After the tenant's boyfriend allegedly gestured that he had a
gun,
Chris called for the police using a video relay service that should have tipped off the dispatcher to send a translator along with the responding officers. When NYPD arrived at the scene without a translator, they began questioning the people that could talk while
ignoring the deaf people.Instead of judging both sides of the story, Officer Christopher Romano and his partner only spoke to the tenant's hearing roommate and her boyfriend while ignoring Williams and her husband.Even though the cops were on the scene for 45 minutes,
Romano never bothered to request for a translator. Although several deaf tenants in the building offered to translate for Williams, who cannot hear, speak English, or read lips, Romano rejected their help and decided to arrest her based on the false account from the tenant's boyfriend.
After cuffing Williams' hands behind her back, Romano was unable to explain the arrest to her deaf family members before taking her away. Although Williams clearly needed an interpreter,
Romano checked the "No" box on the arrest report asking if an interpreter was required. He also checked "No" on separate paperwork asking if Williams had a disability.In a deposition, Romano falsely insisted that he spoke with Williams - who cannot hear, speak English, or read lips - before arresting her.With Williams detained, her husband arrived at the precinct with a sign language interpreter, but the NYPD threatened to arrest them if they didn't leave. As Williams stood for several hours with her arm shackled to the wall, officers continued to ignore the deaf woman's pleas as she began hyperventilating. While the cops transferred her to another precinct, Williams desperately attempted to write "Hospital" on the dirty window of the patrol car with her finger but only managed to spell out "
HOSP."
Comment: More people need to speak up like Cumberbatch on the dreadful handling of immigrants to the EU.