Disabled man faces prison

By Linda Silmalis

May 11, 2008

heraldsun.com.au

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23679517-662,00.html

Prison authorities are grappling with the dilemma of how to accommodate a quadriplegic man facing a jail sentence for conspiring to manufacture ecstasy.

Paul Baker, 36, uses a motorised wheelchair to move around and needs daily home help from carers totalling 35 hours a week.

Despite his disability, Baker last year pleaded guilty to a charge of one count of conspiracy to manufacture a prohibited drug.

If Baker receives a custodial sentence, he will be the first quadriplegic to be jailed in NSW.

There are currently three inmates in a wheelchair.

According to facts tendered in court, Baker requires “constant care for day-to-day living”.

A spokesman for State Justice Minister John Hatzistergos said the department made every effort to comply with court orders.

However, prison sources say the cost of accommodating Baker in prison could amount to thousands of dollars.

Baker is alleged to have conspired with three others to manufacture a large commercial quantity of MDMA, or ecstasy.

Police allege one of the co-accused, Michael Salitra, arranged in May, 2005 for the importation of 11 200-litre containers of methylamine, a chemical capable of being converted into MDMA.

Baker, who is the proprietor of several importation companies, was unaware of the plan until some months later. But police allege that after Baker found out he helped his co-offenders research information, acquire the relevant chemicals and necessary equipment and search for properties that would be suitable to set up a secret lab.

It is alleged Baker’s main role was to obtain the glassware and hardware required to conduct the manufacture through his importation companies.

Police say Baker also offered Salitra to help out in storing drums of oleic acid, which is used as a disguise for the importation of methylamine.

In August, 2005, police allege Baker and Salitra met with Cameron Rawsthorne in the home of Ararat Damirdjian, where they spoke of what they would need to manufacture MDMA.

At the meeting, Baker indicated he had a company set up that could import equipment from China or India, police claim.

The profits were to be split four ways, police claim.

The alleged plot was foiled after police searched the properties of the four.

Police allege they found a tablet press and parts, three scientific glass elbow joints, two electric stirrers and various chemicals in Baker’s home.

Baker’s lawyer declined to comment. The matter has been listed for mention in the District Court on July 11.

State settles with disabled Livingston mother

May 9, 2008

Montana’s News Station.com

http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/Global/story.asp?S=8301559&nav=menu227_2

Helena, Mont. (AP) - The state said Friday that it has settled accusations that child protective services workers unfairly discriminated against a disabled Livingston woman.

The settlement will cost the state $330,000. Geri Glass, bound to a wheelchair following a car accident, said the workers put onerous and unfair conditions on her. Glass said that when her son Gage was a newborn, state Child and Family Services workers told her they would take her son if they learned she had been left alone with him.

The Department of Public Health and Human Services agreed to establish a special needs trust of $50,0000 for Glass, contribute $100,000 to future payments that will be paid to her child, and pay her attorney fees and costs totaling $180,000.

The agency will also train employees and correct procedures for dealing with similar situations.

Late last year, a state hearings officer ruled that the workers violated Glass’ rights and retaliated against her when she complained.

That hearings officer found that employees exaggerated Glass’ disability and placed more burdensome restrictions on her than on other parents. The officer found the agency dropped the investigation following news reports of Glass’ case and said the agency seemed more concerned with its image than Glass’ discrimination charge.

Glass later filed for damages, resulting in the settlement.

“We have agreed to this settlement and are prepared to take the necessary steps in order to comply with all the requirements outlined,” DPHHS Director Joan Miles said in a statement. “We Take the issue of discrimination very seriously and we intend to move forward in a positive direction.”

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Family of woman who died after airport arrest sues Phoenix

By Chris Kahn

May 9, 2008

The Associated Press

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jtT6mK0J-jZRgOQhUl8y_McJ-GCwD90HS0OG3

Phoenix (AP) — The family of a New York woman who died in police custody at the Phoenix airport sued the city Thursday, accusing officers of using excessive force and contributing to her death.

Police spokesman Joel Tranter wouldn’t comment on the lawsuit, but the department has previously rejected claims that it was responsible for Carol Anne Gotbaum’s death.

Gotbaum, the step-daughter-in-law of New York City’s public advocate, died Sept. 28 in a police holding cell at Sky Harbor International Airport after being arrested for disorderly conduct. She was on her way by herself from New York to enter an alcohol treatment center in Tucson.

An autopsy report released by the Maricopa County medical examiner’s office concluded that Gotbaum accidentally hanged herself on her shackles while in the holding cell. The report said intoxication from alcohol and prescription drugs were contributing factors.

The lawsuit filed by Gotbaum’s family claims officers failed to follow department policies that would have kept her safe.

“If they followed their policies, Carol would be alive today,” family lawyer Michael Manning said.

The suit cited requirements to ask for medical attention for people believed to be sick or injured, to keep mentally or physically impaired prisoners in sight at all times and to use reasonable force when detaining people.

“They knew she was mentally and physically disabled, yet they took her to the ground, tackled her, handcuffed her, shackled her, and never during this episode did they call for medical input,” Manning said.

The lawsuit didn’t say how much money the family is seeking from the police department, but Manning filed an $8 million wrongful-death claim against the city in March.

A letter from the city’s legal department to Manning criticized Gotbaum’s family for blaming police.

In the March 26 letter, attorney Stephen Craig pointed out that the family knew of Gotbaum’s fragile mental state and her problems with alcohol. Still, Craig said, nobody accompanied her to the treatment program in Arizona.

Besides the city, the lawsuit also names the officers involved and Police Chief Jack Harris. It says the city and the police department have been “deliberately and callously indifferent to the care and safety of citizens” by allowing officers to be indifferent to people with medical conditions.

Hate crimes rise against Hispanics and the disabled

Analysts see link to economy, anger about immigration

By Janell Ross • Staff Writer • May 10, 2008

Tennessean.com

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080510/NEWS03/805100375/1017/NEWS01

Hate crimes against Hispanic and disabled victims rose dramatically in Tennessee last year, leaving advocates for both groups concerned about the trend.

A recent Tennessee Bureau of Investigation report shows hate crimes rose 28 percent overall between 2006 and 2007, but those against Hispanics more than doubled and those against the disabled grew from 1 to 30.

Those who study social conflict say stress over the economy is a contributing force, along with an increase in the Hispanic population and related anger about immigration.

“Since 2003, there’s been a marked increase in hate crime directed at Hispanics,” said Mark Potok, director of the Birmingham, Ala.-based Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project. “But the disabled? … That’s just bizarre. What sort of madness and anger is that?”

Advocates for the disabled in Middle Tennessee say they weren’t aware of the increase or of any effort to encourage the disabled to report crime that might explain it. There was also only one hate crime against that group reported in 2005.

Most of last year’s incidents were thefts, forgeries and burglaries victimizing mentally disabled persons. Donna DeStefano, assistant director of the Tennessee Disability Coalition, said the problem is likely economic, with criminals using one of society’s most vulnerable groups for money.

House, car are targets

Nationally, hate crimes against disabled victims rose incrementally, while hate crimes against Hispanics grew 20 percent, from 2002 and 2006, the most recent five-year period with data available.

In July 2007, Rudolpho Hernandez emerged from his Nashville home to find a set of sliding glass doors bathed in egg and his car spray-painted with an ethnic slur. He called Metro police and pressed charges. A few days later, his house was egged again and his car’s battery was stolen.

Both incidents were declared hate crimes, criminal acts motivated by a victim’s race, ethnicity or national origin, religion, gender, sexuality or disability. In Tennessee and 32 other states, when prosecutors can prove that a form of bias played a motivating role in a crime, perpetrators face additional punishment for their crime.

“We take the reports and classify them the best way that we can….,” said Detective James Lambert, who oversees hate crime investigations and data for the Metro Nashville police. “Of course, the FBI guidance tells us to take the victim’s perception of the crime and any evidence into account.”

Crimes go unreported

For many people, the term “immigrant” or “illegal alien” has become synonymous with a Hispanic person, said Catalina Nieto, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.

Nieto suspects that much of the hate crimes against Hispanic victims goes unreported because of immigrants’ concern about the consequences of contact with police.

“I think, in a way, for us it’s no surprise, given the way in general how there is a lot of hateful and dehumanizing rhetoric that’s used to describe immigrants,” she said.

Historically, hate crime has grown most intense in the United States during periods of economic distress and when the social order is in the process of being upset, said Steven Tepper, a Vanderbilt University sociologist who specializes in social conflict.

“As much as I would like to describe the situation differently, hate crime is not something I see improving as the economy worsens,” Tepper said.

Contact Janell Ross at 726-5982 or jross1@tennessean.com.

Disabled iron bar attack victim slams ‘cowardly’ raiders

Rutland & Stamford Mercury

10 May 2008

http://www.stamfordmercury.co.uk/news/Disabled-iron-bar-attack-victim.4067908.jp

A Disabled man smashed over the head with an iron bar during a midnight raid on his home says the thieves responsible are cowards.

At about 12:30am on Thursday last week Leigh Garrod was attacked with a bar after opening the front door of his home, in Little Casterton Road, Stamford, before two men ran off with jewellery and cash.

Leigh, who suffers from post-traumatic dystonia caused by a car crash 14 years ago, was taken to Peterborough District Hospital with head injuries before later being released.

One week later Leigh, whose existing condition causes muscle spasms, says he is still suffering excruciating headaches and dizzy spells.

But the 37-year-old is defiant and says the horrifying incident will not scare him.

He said: “To me the people who did this are nothing but cowards. They aren’t hard men and I’m not frightened of them – they had to pick on a disabled man.”

The incident happened after Leigh was woken up by knocking on his door. Looking through his spyhole he could not see anyone but heard shuffling outside.

He said: “I opened the door and a guy came from the side and whacked me over the head.

“Adrenalin took over and I tried to shut the door on them. But he pushed the door open and hit me over the head again.

“He shouted ‘give me the money!’ I was trying to look for something to fight back with.

“He pushed me on to my bed and tried to whack me again. I blocked my face with my arms.

“That was when I knew I had to give him my money.”

The thieves made off with gold rings and money. Leigh, whose head and elbow were battered in the attack, managed to phone the police before being taken to hospital in an ambulance.

Now he is determined to bring the thieves to justice. He said: “If anyone has information please get in touch with police – you don’t even have to give your name.”

Anyone with information should call police on 01522 532222.

Obituary

Harlan Hahn, 68; USC professor fought for disability rights and sued the university to improve access

The political science teacher, tired of missing meetings due to mobility barriers on campus, succeeded in getting USC to become ‘a model’ for accessibility, an advocate says.

By Elaine Woo, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Los Angeles Times

May 10, 2008

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-hahn10-2008may10,0,2907871.story

Harlan Hahn, a longtime USC professor of political science and champion of disability rights who successfully sued the university to improve access for disabled people campuswide, died April 23 at his Santa Monica home. He was 68.

The cause was a heart attack, said his daughter, Emily.

Hahn was already in the vanguard of the disability rights movement when he joined the USC faculty to teach political science in 1972. He pushed for the U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibited discrimination against the disabled, and the more sweeping Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990.

In 1998 he filed a lawsuit against USC to remove physical barriers that limited the mobility of disabled individuals. Hahn, who had polio as a child and used a wheelchair and crutches, brought the suit after having to miss a number of meetings held in buildings that he had difficulty entering. But instead of demanding that the university address only the architectural deficiencies that affected him, he insisted that it eliminate obstacles throughout the campus.

In 2001 the university settled the lawsuit, agreeing to set aside a substantial amount of money each year for barrier removal, eventually budgeting $1 million annually.

The campus is “quite a model now for accessibility,” Sid Wolinsky, co-founder and legal director of Disability Rights Advocates, the Berkeley-based advocacy group that represented Hahn, said this week.

He remembered Hahn as “a thinker and a fighter” who tackled issues from a practical as well as a theoretical standpoint. “He was one of the early pioneers who really developed the notion of disability as a civil rights movement” rather than a charity issue, Wolinsky said.

Hahn was born in Osage, Iowa, on July 9, 1939. The only child of teachers, he had an identical twin who died at birth. At 5 he contracted polio and spent the next several years in and out of hospitals. He was 11 when he entered school and devoted himself to education.

“One of the things he believed in was knowledge being powerful and giving a voice. He always was learning,” said Emily Hahn, a Costa Mesa resident who will enter a doctoral program this year.

Harlan Hahn earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at St. Olaf College in Minnesota before going to Harvard for his master’s and doctoral degrees. In 1982 he received a master’s in rehabilitation counseling from Cal State L.A., and in 2004 he finished a master’s in public health at UCLA. In 1994, he was given a joint appointment at USC’s Keck School of Medicine as a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science.

He wrote or co-wrote a dozen books, including “Ghetto Revolts: The Politics of Violence in American Cities” (1973), “Disabled Persons and Earthquake Hazards” (198 and “Urban America and Its Police” (2003). He retired from USC last year and was working on his memoir.

Hahn had been at USC for more than 20 years when he decided to sue the university. He was tired of being effectively barred from many campus events because of design impediments, such as steps without nearby ramps. In one building, he would have had to use a service elevator and ride alongside crates of vegetables. “He thought that was undignified,” recalled Gelya Frank, a USC professor of anthropology and occupational science who had known Hahn since the early 1980s.

Taking on his employer “wasn’t comfortable for him,” Frank added. “USC is a formidable institution . . . and the professoriate doesn’t necessarily have a great deal of power. But he didn’t hesitate to take that on.”

The settlement not only addressed the need for ramps and elevators but also touched on less obvious issues, such as the lack of Braille markings for the visually impaired and tables that were the wrong height for wheelchair users. His insistence on improving access from one end of USC to the other “essentially revamped the campus over a number of years,” Wolinsky said.

No money went to Hahn. “He didn’t care about the money aspect,” his daughter said. “He was more concerned about people having access. He was always thinking, ‘What can I do to make an impact on other peoples’ lives?’ “

Hahn had demonstrated his commitment to transforming society’s view of the disabled when he filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the Elizabeth Bouvia case in 1983. Although paralyzed from cerebral palsy, Bouvia, then 26, had married, gone to college and earned a degree. But after a number of setbacks — including a miscarriage, the collapse of her marriage and a disruption in her career training and the support services that came with it — she grew despondent and petitioned a court to let her starve to death in a Riverside hospital.

The American Civil Liberties Union championed her case, which became a landmark in the right-to-die movement. Bouvia won the right to control her medical treatment but ultimately abandoned her attempt to die by starvation. She is still alive.

Hahn, along with other disability rights activists, abhorred the message they felt her case sent: that disability could make a life unworthy. He argued that what disabled people needed was help to live, not die.

“Ultimately, a disability is not an organic deficiency,” Hahn wrote in the Los Angeles Times in 1983, “it is the product of a disabling environment. . . . To deprive any member of the disabled population of the mental and emotional strength that he or she can contribute to others would be an unforgivable act.”

A memorial for Hahn is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. Thursday in the craft room at Joslyn Park, 633 Kensington Road, Santa Monica. Donations may be sent to Disability Rights Advocates, 2001 Center St., Third Floor, Berkeley, CA 94704.

elaine.woo@latimes.com

Police: Morgan Leppert, 15, Brutally Killed Disabled Man

By Adam Kirk

May 7, 2008

WOKV.com

Local News

From being the focus of an Amber Alert to being called a calculated killer, Putnam County cops are painting a dark portrait of 15-year-old Morgan Leppert.

The girl disappeared at the end of April with her 22-year-old boyfriend, and last week was the subject of a nationwide Amber Alert.  It came the day Putnam County Police found a man dead in his Melrose home.

Sheriff Dean Kelly says Leppert wasn’t just a bystander in the death of 66-year-old James Stewart. “She realized that Mr. Stewart was hard of hearing, was physically challenged, and was an elderly man,” said Kelly. “They thought he would be an easy mark, and they needed his truck to get away.”

Kelly says Leppert acted as the ruse by pretending to be having car trouble, to get into Stewart’s home. That’s after she and Toby Lowry, 22, cased the man’s home and learned he had trouble hearing.

“She’s a victim until we’ve proven otherwise… and we’ve proven otherwise,” said Kelly.

Leppert and Lowry are accused of brutally beating, stabbing and suffocating the man, then taking his truck and driving to Cedar Key, Gainesville and Valdosta, before ending up in El Paso, Texas.

Police discovered the crime May 1, and issued the Amber Alert. A motorist saw the pair in Texas and called police, leading to their now being charged with first degree murder.

However, Leppert’s brother, Howard Hunt, told Channel 4 the ordeal has been an emotional roller coaster for the family, but denied the girl had any involvement in the plot.

“Some of the news stories have been portraying her out to be something that she’s not. I mean, she does not have a violent bone in her body. She wouldn’t harm a mouse,” Hunt said.

He said it was around Christmas when his family learned Morgan had been lying about Lowry’s age, telling them that the 22-year-old was only 17.

“My sister is young. She is the type to be easily manipulated. I don’t think that she was there when allegedly the murder took place,” Hunt said.

Police: Disabled woman abused for 13 years

By Rick Yencer / Muncie Star Press

May 8, 2008

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080508/NEWS02/805080521

Muncie — A Muncie couple stand accused of sexually abusing a mentally challenged woman in their care over a 13-year period that began when the alleged victim was in her early teens.

Sgt. Linda Cook, who heads the Muncie Police Department’s sex crimes unit, called it the “most bizarre case” of sexual misconduct she had seen.

Patricia Ann Tackett, 47, 124 1/2 N. Hodson St., was arrested this week on a preliminary charge of sexual misconduct with a minor.

Her husband, Duane Ray Tackett, 48, was taken into custody Wednesday, preliminarily charged with sexual misconduct with a minor, criminal deviate conduct and child solicitation. They were being held without bond in the Delaware County jail late Wednesday.

Cook said Patricia Tackett “was pretty much willing to give up (the alleged victim) to her husband,” and also participated in the sex acts.

The break in the Tackett case came recently after the alleged victim, now 27, told an aunt about how Duane Tackett repeatedly had sex with her over the past 13 years.

Cook said Patricia Tackett was interviewed this week, and admitted to allowing her husband to have sex with the alleged victim. Mrs. Tackett also acknowledged participating in the sex crimes, the officer said.

According to a probable cause affidavit, the sex acts involving the Tacketts and the woman took place many times each month for 13 years, continuing until last month.

The alleged sexual abuse first started when the couple lived in Muncie, and continued when they moved to Kentucky for 11 years, according to police reports.

There were several underlying issues involving the abuse, Cook said. Among them was the couple did not want the woman to date other men, she said. Police believe the victim, although 27, has the mental capacity of a 10-year-old.

Duane Tackett apparently was in Kentucky when the investigation began, but was persuaded to return to Muncie this week by relatives.

A Brooklyn mom’s crusade to cure diseases

May 6, 2008

Denis Hamill

New York Daily News - Brooklyn

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2008/05/06/2008-05-06_a_brooklyn_moms_crusade_to_cure_diseases.html

Whenever Mother’s Day rolls around, I think of Parkinson’s disease.

And my heart aches.

My mother died of Parkinson’s in Brooklyn 10 years ago. I wish she would have died 10 years sooner. Because that final decade of her life, with that insidious disease, was like an agonizing living wake.

When she finally died at 87, in lieu of flowers, we asked people who cared for the tough old Irish immigrant who nicknamed herself “Shaky Annie,” to contribute to a Parkinson’s charity.

In the years since, I’ve always kept up on this incurable disease that reduced the woman who gave me life to a pile of trembles. I think often of Muhammad Ali, a king dethroned by a revolt in his central nervous system, or Michael J. Fox, as brave at 5-foot-zip as Ali, fighting every day for a cure, and the last Pope, who proved that this disease spares no one.

I always wonder what’s being done to find a cure for Parkinson’s.

Then I learned that, right here in New York, a lady named Bonnie Strauss, who lost her mother and grandmother to Parkinson’s, had founded the Bachmann-Strauss Dystonia & Parkinson Foundation, which raises money to find a link, new treatments and cures for both of these disabling maladies.

As Mother’s Day approached, I tracked Strauss down to her foundation in Manhattan.

“After the birth of my second daughter 29 years ago, I knew there was something wrong with my neck,” Strauss says. “I had an epidural and after she was born, my head was tilted way over to the side. The doctor told me there was nothing physically wrong with me. He recommended a psychiatrist. I told him it had nothing to do with my head, but my neck.”

Over five years, Strauss saw other doctors who were also baffled. She thought about her mother and grandmother dying of Parkinson’s and feared she had inherited a bad gene. Then, one day, Strauss was hiking up a mountain at a California spa with a woman who had two sisters suffering from dystonia. “She told me I should check to see if I had dystonia,” Strauss says. “She gave me the name of a Dr. Mitchell Brin, then at the movement disorder program at Mount Sinai, who specialized in dystonia.”

Strauss went to see Dr. Brin. And after almost six years of suffering, Strauss was diagnosed with dystonia.

“I learned that dystonia is not a country,” Strauss says. “It is a neurological disorder that causes uncontrollable, painful spasms in one or many parts of the body. It can lay dormant in the body and be triggered by drugs or trauma. In my case, it could have come from the trauma of childbirth, or from the epidural, or a combination of both.”

My mother’s Parkinson’s was triggered by the trauma of a violent mugging in her early 70s. Afterward, she never stopped shaking.

The diagnosis made dystonia and Parkinson’s sound like evil kissing cousins to Strauss.

A highly successful businesswoman, Strauss made her own disorder and the one that killed her mother and grandmother her life’s work in 1995. She started a foundation that raised money for research into the treatment and cure of Parkinson’s and dystonia, and which also tries to confirm her suspected link.

“Our biggest goal is to make people aware of dystonia and to help people learn if they have it,” she says. “Our Web site can help direct them to the right doctors. Also, there is far too little research in this area. So, our foundation often provides seed money to help explore the most promising hypotheses. This often leads to larger grants and helps leverage new ideas and advances in the fields. So far, we’ve allocated about $8 million to 146 grants around the world. These grants bring us closer to the causes and, we hope, the cure for dystonia and Parkinson’s.”

To raise money, her foundation gets lots of corporate and private donations. They also run an annual golf tournament - this year on June 16 - and they also enter runners in the New York City Marathon. “We’re very excited that Christian Hoff, Tony award-winning actor of ‘The Jersey Boys,’ has signed on as our national spokesman,” Strauss says.

I can’t encourage strongly enough those people who suffer from one of these maladies, or who know people also suffering, to visit www.dystonia-parkinsons.org.

Talk about a mother’s work never being done.

Here’s a lady who developed dystonia after mothering a daughter, now dedicating her life to unraveling the mystery of her own disorder and the killer disease that took her mother and her mother’s mother from her.

Makes me feel better on Mother’s Day that there are better people than me out there doing something about the disease that killed my mother.

dhamill@nydailynews.com

Burglars Steal Computers, Cameras From Disabled Woman

Tom Murray

TMJ4 Milwaukee

http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/18667564.html

Milwaukee - A lowly crime caught on tape. Police are looking for a pair of burglars who preyed on a disabled woman and her roommate.

“We went to the mall, came back home and found our laptops and our camera’s gone,” one victim recounted. Both roommates asked us to hide their identities because the suspects are still at-large.

Surveillance cameras in a downtown high-rise captured the thieves leaving the apartment of the two young women with armfuls of electronics. One of the victims has cerebral palsy and relies on a wheelchair to get around.

“They took all of our pictures and files that we use for school,” one of the women told TODAY’S TMJ4 reporter Tom Murray.

With no sign of forced entry, the victims believe they were targeted. These burglars took more than electronics, they stole peace of mind.

“I feel like I’m constantly having to watch every move I make and I’m constantly looking to see who’s around me.”

These two young women are hoping someone will recognize and turn in the suspects. At a point in the video released by police, it appears one suspect looks directly at the camera. You can see his accomplice wearing a sweatshirt with a distinctive image of a skull. The suspects are disguised by hoods of their baggy sweatshirts, caps and bandanas.

“Stealing is wrong,” a victim said. “Invading someone’s privacy is wrong and I’d just like to know why.”

The burglary happened Saturday, April 26. Tips can be reported anonymously at 800-78-CRIME.