The plaintiffs, Patti and Ron Saylor, are the parents of Robert Ethan Saylor.
The family is filing suit under the Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act against Regal Cinemas, Frederick County, the Frederick County Sheriff's Office, Hill Management Services and the three deputies who had Saylor in their custody. The family is alleging negligence and violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act by the defendants in Saylor's death.
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50 comments:
It's just a money grab for them. They didn't care enough to send that child to the theater with an attendant that could handle him.
GO GET THEM FAMILY, I AM WITH YOU...
LET THESE COPS KNOW THEY USE FORCE LIKE THIS THEY WILL BE HAD...
2:31 - People like you are pathetic. The attendant was handling it. The theater called the cops, needlessly. The cops handled it wrong and kill a child over $8
And you are clueless to what it takes to manage a disabled child.
Not everything is solved by force and really, who cares if he saw the movie a 2nd time for free.
Good for them, because if they sat back and did nothing, events like this will continue.
It only takes one person to make a change.
And hopefully his death will not be in vain.
My heart goes out to this family, and the situation is tragic, however, they must accept the fact that they allowed this to happen.
If this "special" disabled person did not have the ability to handle going to the theater, he should not have been there in the first place. It MATTERS NOT that the mentally handicapped person did not like to be touched. He was holding up the business. I am empathetic to their loss, but do not feel bad for them about the situation. The responsibility lies with them for their sons death, for putting him in a situation that CLEARLY he couldn't handle, nor could they.
No, he did not deserve to die, nor was it the intention of the officers to kill him. Yes, it is a horrible situation.
@ 3:06
Technically, him staying and seeing the movie again without paying is THEFT. STEALING. The theater is not there to give out free movies. It's a business there to make money.
And just because someones child is disabled, it does NOT give them a pass to disrupt everyone elses lives around them.
Classic case of ongoing neglect and now the parents are crying foul. The parents should be criminally charge with neglect. Not only for allowing this disabled man to become morbidly obese to the point that it contributed to his death but for ever allowing someone with an IQ of 40 to see a movie such as Zero Dark Thirty.
That is beyond absurd in an itself.
I doubt if this will even see a jury. Will get dismissed. Conferring special status on Ethan Saylor due to his disability is a violation of equal rights.
This will be a landmark case one way or the other regardless of the outcome.Special needs has become a gray area nationwide where police intervention becomes necessary,and the 2nd special needs issue posted on this blog in as many months.Both incidents resulted in death.It's truly good that the SN segment of our population will get it's day in court.
If the family wins, YOU the taxpayer, will pay for it.
Ditto to 306, Thank you. What's eight freaking dollars to a death?
Answer: NOTHING!
I guess no one on here really read this. The famiy is not asking for a dime. This is not about money.
Movies 6 did everything they could to give the SN population an enjoyable experience.They even removed entire rows of seats to accommodate wheelchairs and adaptive devices.I'm not sure about Stadium 16,but I've noticed that each theater has handicapped seating,which is good.
I don't see this suit going anywhere. 4:35 hit on it. To claim civil right violation and it would have to be proven he was treated differently due to his disability. As far as an ADA violation there isn't any. That's all about discrimination and accommodation.
Personally I think some "ambulance chaser" is taking the family on a wild ride.
8:11- From the linked article---"The family is asking the court for compensatory and punitive damages, but the filing does not include a specific dollar amount."
Both compensatory and punitive are monetary.
He was 26 Annie Idiot (3:06)! He was not a child.
$8 seriously, think about it for a minute. No one had the smarts to stand back for a minute and think if this childs life was worth more than $8? how would you like to know your child was killed by the people who were supposed to protect and serve the public over $8? damn shame but then we all know the cops aren't very smart!
How ignorant to claim the THEFT theory to justify this unjustifiable death. I can not believe such ignorant statements.
People give away stuff all the time and are you going to tell me that the theater couldn't rationally evaluate the situation and say, ok he's disabled, what the big deal, let him watch it again for free.
NEGLECT and ABUSE?
Where do you morons come up with this crap.
His parents hired caretakers to assist them with their child.
How freaking awful parents they must be!!!
Do you idiots simply spout off to impress yourselves?
What ever happened to using your brain, evaluating a situation and coming to an amicable resolution.
You feeble minded dolts are so hung up on your bullcrap that you can not see that unreasonable force was used against a disable child over an $8 ticket to re-see a movie he already paid once to see.
Kindness on the theaters part under the circumstance would have gone a long long way in this situation.
If the theater is anything like the one here, you have children running the show. Children who are not trained to deal with such situations.
And of all people the police showed a true lack of understanding in dealing with the disabled.
Your lame comments are appalling and just go to show what a bunch of narrow minded morons you are.
Not everything situation has to be resolved with force and if everyone involved had stopped and used their brains, I sure the outcome would have been different and there wouldn't be a dead disabled kid.
Listen here Orphan Annie. The theatre was doing its job, the cops were doing theirs, but the caretaker wasn't! But why sue the police? I'll tell you why. Because the caretakers have no money.
I don't believe unreasonable force was used. His mental capacity is a non issue. His physical state is going to be the main focus which according to ME report was a contributing factor in his death.
Restraining someone is not using excessive force. The problem is anytime the poor soul laid his head even with his body he was being asphyxiated due to being obese.
So he didn't pay. He is now not here. But its OK for all the people last week to take advantage of the food stamps. That's stealing. What's their disability?
I would have simply given the cinema $8 and gone back to dunkin donuts.
"The 18-year-old caretaker, whose name is redacted from the documents, wrote that she had been Saylor’s caretaker for three months before he died.
She said Saylor, known to his family as Ethan, had a history of angry outbursts, including one earlier that night. They had already seen the movie once and were outside the Frederick theater when she asked Saylor if he was ready to go home. Saylor began cursing and punched a storefront window, she told police.
Somewhat frightened, the caretaker called Saylor’s mother, Patti Saylor, of New Market.
“Patti told her to just wait him out and his attitude will change,” an investigator wrote in a follow-up interview report.
The caretaker then spoke by phone with another of Saylor’s caretakers. He advised her to leave Saylor in front of the theater while she got the car, giving him a few minutes alone to calm himself. But by the time she returned, Saylor had gone back into the theater and seated himself. As she walked in, a manager was telling Saylor he had to leave the auditorium"
Annie, The real tragedy of this story is the fact that at 5'6" this man weighed close to 300lbs and that contributed majorly to his death.
How could anyone allow that to happen to such a vulnerable person in their care? It is not only cruel but gross neglect.
Downs persons are very food motivated and all these parents did no doubt was to shove food into his mouth so he would be compliant all to the detriment of every single one of his body systems.
9:42 showing us that narrow closed mind again. thank you for validating my point
Putting all emotions aside, this is a case of the parents shirking their responsibility. Their irresponsibility while he was alive contributed to his death and now they are attempting to evade responsibility by blaming others.
Sounds to me like a case of no one knowing how to deal with Saylor including his parents and the caretaker.
If he had already had an "angry outburst" earlier in the evening, you do not take him to a movie. Too loud and too much stimulation.
Due to his extreme obesity there is a high likely hood that he was bribed with food, a common mistake made by families of Down's persons and also care givers who aren't trained in how to handle unpleasant situations without food being involved.
It says he didn't like to be touched. That too is common but not good and can esp become a problem w/visits to health care professionals. There are repetition exercises that you can do with the person to get this bad habit under control.
The shame of it all is that Ethan could have benefitted immensely in a group home situation where the caregivers are not only trained but devote 24/7 to helping these individuals with these problems.
10:54
The stupidity hits just keep coming in!
His weight did not contribute to his death.
The cops killed him.
Full well knowing what they were dealing with... disability, weight, temper, IQ, they fully handled the situation incorrectly, and killed him. It is that simple. Blaming the victim is appalling.
We can not apply the rules of normality as we perceive them to be to the mentally handicapped. You need to adjust your attitude and actions to cope with the situation.
Using force only makes the situation worse, as validated by the dead kid.
Society and the cops need to learn how to use our brains to adjust our thinking and not continue to force our will on others and ultimately kill them.
Fact is, if it were handled differently he would still be alive, fat, aggressive, mentally handicapped and all.
Well then Annie dear you better tell the ME who performed the autopsy that his weight didn't contribute to his death because the report stated that it did. From an earlier report on this subject-
"The autopsy found that Saylor's developmental disability, obesity, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and a heart abnormality contributed to this death. His left main coronary artery was 50 percent blocked by plaque"
1:33-"Fact is" you have no idea if he would still be alive or not. It's a absurd statement. With his many medical problems including obesity he was a time bomb. Anything including fun excited or a bit of exertion could have killed him.
The blame lies with the parents. You don't allow a vulnerable person to become morbidly obese for one.
Secondly caregiver stated he had an "angry outburst" earlier in the day. You do not send an agitated low IQ prone to anger to a violent, loud movie anymore than you would ever send a 3 year old.
Thirdly the mother, who by earlier reporting was like oh whatever, he'll get over it. Nice!
I don't place any blame on him. The blame lies directly on the back of irresponsible parents who by the mother's own admission didn't have time for him in life but now in death have all the time in the world because the payoff is more lucrative.
Your turn Annie.Lets keep it moving.
I have grown weary dealing with morons and dolts.
50% blocked artery is not a death sentence.
You don't keel over and die simply because you have a mental disability.
If he had not been manhandled by the cops he would still be alive.
Just because he threw a tantrum doesn't mean you stay home and never leave the house, I am sure they were frequent with a wide rage of intensity.
If you had a clue..... fact is if you leave them be, to quiet themselves they usually do, which is what you want to teach them to do.
It is more than obvious that you morons don't know a thing about people with disabilities or how to work with them.
The caretaker was not well equipped either but she did the right thing by reaching out to the family for help.
If you had a clue.... you would know just how difficult it is for families to get the help they need AND that would include having an educated and qualified care taker.
The family can only, to some degree hope and assume that the person assigned to your child is educated, just like child protective services, when they don't to their job and you find out they are clueless it is often too late.
I would love to continue to banter with you arm chair psychologists, but it is obvious none of you have a disabled child, nor have a clue, what it's like, on a day by day basis.
So carry on with your bla bla bla, you simply do not know what you are talking about.
Oh and once they start growing into adulthood, it is more and more difficulty to watch every bite they take. If in fact you had a clue and were observant, you would notice that most children, like him, are chubby and have belly's on them.
It's simply part of the disease.
As hillbilly clinton would say, "what difference does it make!!!!!".
Oh 1:33 Annie, you really are a clueless moron. A 300 lbs violent, combative heart diseased man died due to his fighting the police. He is responsible for his death.
Wow. You can tell that many of you have not dealt with an individual with developmental disabilities. First of all, just because he was 26 doesn't mean he has the mind of a 26 year old. In fact he has the mentality of a child. Secondly, was he overweight?? Yes. However, you guys don't know the medications he was on at the time. Some of these medications increases your weight (i.e. prednisone, blood pressure medications). I'm not saying that the medications caused him to be morbidly obese alone; however, it contributed to his obesity. Finally, until you have behavior modification training you have no right to judge how the caregiver or the parents handled the situation. The parents knew if he had time to "cool off" that he would be ok. The bottom line is this individual died because the cops didn't know how to deal with the situation.
11:01.. how stupid are you? You can only train to deal with so many situations in life. Get real!!!
10:55 and 12:18 must be the same narrow minded rube showing off his mental disability for all of us to see. Maybe if we ignore him he will figure out how to calm himself and move on.
I'm with Annie on this. "Special Needs" means just that. Police need to learn that this is not your normal thug to trounce.
Had he been supervised by a competent caregiver, the Police would have never been called in the first place.
He wasn't killed over a $8 movie ticket. He fought back against the Police Officers that were trying to remove him from the theatre. When you fight the Police, the Police fight back. We don't fight back to hurt or maim, its for the purpose of taking a suspect into custody. The harder you fight, the harder the cops are gonna fight to get you into custody and out of the theatre.
I agree that some consideration has to be given when dealing with person who has Downs Syndrome, but please consider one thing. It is a theatre, maybe it was dark and they didn't see he had Downs. Secondly, when it turns into a fight, its a fight. You don't think about his mental capacity. You don't think about what you should of or could have done differently. Get him subdued and into custody as soon and as quickly as possible. Prevent injury to you your partner and people close by and get him out of there asap. That's what the cops were thinking.
He wasn't "trounced" or even punched or kicked. Simply restrained.
FACT - They turn on the lights when the movie is over, and while people are getting seated before the movie starts.
When he spoke I am sure it was obvious he had downs.
I fail to see how you are saying he wasn't killed over an $8 ticket when in fact that was the issue.
Everyone mishandled it and the end result due to the cops, who were the last ones to touch him, killed him.
And you, cop, need to think about their mental capacity, because your wrong actions, only escalate the situations and then people needlessly die, it happens all day long.
Quit making excuses.
You can not apply what you perceive to be normality to a special needs person, so instead of making excuses, LE needs to get educated and learn how to deal and quit killing people.
Obviously they did not "restrain" him properly for his condition, which resulted in his death.
excuses, excuses.
Such excuses as you yourself seem to be coming up with Annieidiot. Last I read they didn't have you listed as a witness so you might want to go back under your rock!
"Condition"? How the hell would they know anyones condition Annie? And if you knew anything about mongoloids you would know that they are very strong. So strong that they can do more harm to themselves by simply being restrained. They don't know their own strength.
Saylor was already screaming, yelling and destroying property BEFORE deputies arrived. They can't just stand there and do nothing. Saylor FOUGHT, deputies used minimum restraint to protect themselves and bystanders according to 21 civilian witnesses. Saylor experienced EXCITED DELERIUM and died do to a combination of heart disease, obesity and stress.
Annie - since you consider yourselve such an expert and you know so much, why dont you volunteer your time and expertise and teach law enforcement everywhere how to properly identify and deal with people with special needs. If you did your part imagine all the lives you will save and civil suits that you will prevent. Put together a lesson plan, document all of your expertise, contact the local law enforcement academy and do a presentation for them and convince them that you can do so much to save so many. I'm sure if you really know as much as you think you do the law enforcement academies would like to hear from you.
And no he wasn't killed because of a $8 movie ticket. They were trying to make him leave the theatre because of a movie ticket. He changed the rules by resisting or fighting. I realize that he probably didn't know any better, and I'm sure he panicked and made things even worse. Cops do not get any special training when it comes to dealing with special needs people. Ethan died because he resisted and fought the police. He died because the harder you fight us, the harder we fight you. No cop, trooper, or deputy that I've ever worked with would want to harm or kill a Downs Syndrome person. Believe whatever you want about us and stay ignorant about who we really are. Its not going to make a difference how I do my job. You and most of the commenters on here are wrong about your anti-cop BS prejudices. But you are too busy telling everybody how smart you are and how dumb weare to do something about it - like the suggestion that I made above.
@12am
Its good to see a few intelligent comments in here.
Someone that large with the mental capacity of a child can and will cause harm to others if not restrained when throwing a temper tantrum. The cops were in the right.
The caregiver initially told the SN individual "you better straighten up or he'll call the Po lice",referring to the usher.Think about that for a moment.
@ 1:50 Standing ovation headed in your general direction, sir.
Annie seems to live in a delusional world where everyone must acquiesce to everyone else no matter what. Where "personal responsibility" does not exist. Where theft is o.k. if the dollar amount is what she deems negligible. Where holding up business operations should be the standard if someone is being disruptive and selfish.
Evidently a several people used bad judgement to manage this 18 year old adult.WOW how this could have been different if emotions and good choices were in check. Cops do get special training to De-escalate a situation. Example suicide. Clearly, you could see he was special needs. His heart is weak, he is mentally challenged often most have defective hearts. Medications often make these clients want to eat 24/7. Of course he has no self control. Then as an experienced caregiver myself who worked at Dove Point I would not take a person with explosive behavior out if he uses his temper to get what he wants.I am sure he had a history of that, by the actions he displayed.
I have empathy for the family. It is not easy and often no one uses good judgement. A residential setting in a controlled environment is what this adult needed. Another case of a disabled person not properly served. Sad.
Did anyone ever consider that this was the "out" the family was looking for? Think about for a minute. What was going to become of the man was the family passed on. Now they have no worries and they're probably going to get some money as well. All this after having utilized taxpayer money throughout his life.
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