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Saturday, October 18, 2014

Judge: Lawsuit In Police Death Of Man With Down Syndrome Can Move Forward

A federal judge in Maryland ruled Thursday that a wrongful-death lawsuit against three Frederick County sheriff’s deputies can move forward over claims of gross negligence for forcibly removing a young man with Down syndrome from a movie theater.

Robert Ethan Saylor died, which generated outrage among parents of children with Down syndrome and advocacy groups across the country.

U.S. District Judge William M. Nickerson was just as scathing, writing in his 54-page ruling that “a man died over the cost of a movie ticket.”

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is idiotic.

Some of these "clients" should be institutionalized, not in the general population.

Anonymous said...

Shouldn't the caretaker be held liable in some way?

Anonymous said...

The judge should have been called to respond to the incident in question.That way he would have had the perfect solution and no death would have occurred & hence no lawsuit necessary.

Paladin said...

Fellow readers,

With regard to the posting of 10:05, I offer the following:
(1) institutionalized care is far different today than 20 years ago. While it may be necessary to place an Individual into this setting, implying or stating that the exceptional population should be shuttered away reflects a lack of understanding with regard to the social needs of a person with special needs.
(2) as noted above, it may indeed be necessary to institutionalize a person, part of their managed care reflects the need for the individual to practice appropriate social interaction.
(3) liability for this resides both with the officers and the caretaker, however I would caution that the specific details are not shared with the public beyond what was published in the article. While it is truly a tragedy that this occurred, there is plenty of blame to go around. As a parent of a special needs child, I can tell you first hand that there are many situations that occur in public that cannot be accounted for and this may be one of those times. Do I think the caretaker made a grievous mistake in judgement - yes. Do I think the officers could have responded differently - yes. Should we all refrain from judgement (regarding the caretaker and law enforcement) - absolutely

Respectfully

Paladin


Anonymous said...

I know several of those types living around here who are very volatile. On boy would attack his mom if she got in the shower. The father would have to take him places away from the house. Once he bit a chunk the size of a baseball out of his fathers leg.

They are dangerous. The cop did his job.

Liberals are ruining it for cops and setting this country up for a complete gun take over.