By Emily Gurnon
The Pioneer Press
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Douglas Bahl, the deaf activist convicted of obstructing legal process after he fought with police during a traffic stop, has filed suit in Ramsey County against the city of St. Paul and the Ramsey County sheriff’s office.
Bahl, 57, of St. Paul, was “seriously beaten, arrested and isolated in jail for three days with no adequate or effective means of communicating with jail staff or of communicating with his family or other people outside the jail,” according to the lawsuit.
His wife and co-plaintiff, Susan Kovacs-Bahl, was in the hospital at the time, recovering from surgery. Bahl was supposed to arrive for a visit that Friday night, Nov. 17, 2006.
“So he was quite worried about her, and she was quite worried waiting for her husband to arrive and having no idea what happened to him,” said one of Bahl’s attorneys, Emily Teplin of the Minnesota Disability Law Center.
He never showed up.
About 5 that night, Bahl, a longtime sign-language trainer at St. Paul College, had been pulled over after he went through a red light at Marshall Avenue and Finn Street in St. Paul.
Bahl gestured a writing motion, but the officer refused to communicate with him that way, his attorney said. Instead, he pepper-sprayed Bahl, struck him and pulled him from his car, according to the lawsuit.
The incident generated an uproar in the deaf community, whose members exchanged e-mails showing Bahl with black eyes and blood on his shirt.
Once he got to jail, things were
no better, Bahl alleges.
He was held for three days without an American Sign Language interpreter to describe the charges against him, jail procedures and how he could be released, the lawsuit says. Likewise, he was given no special aids or devices to help him communicate with his family or attorney, the suit says.
Police and jail officials tell a different story.
According to the criminal complaint, Bahl “would not speak with the officers” at the traffic stop. “He would shake his head and make a negative gesture, as if stating, ‘no.’ All of a sudden, the defendant grabbed the officer’s jacket and pulled the officer to the car.”
Bahl then punched and bit the officer, the complaint said.
At trial last year, Bahl was convicted of misdemeanor obstructing legal process but acquitted of the more serious charge of obstructing legal process with force.
“The officer testified that our client did use force, but clearly the jury didn’t believe that,” Teplin said.
Bahl was sentenced to four days’ time served, a 60-day suspended sentence and one year’s probation. After the incident, police said they would conduct an internal affairs investigation. Information about that investigation wasn’t immediately available from police Thursday.
In the suit, Bahl alleges the city and the sheriff’s office violated the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act and the Minnesota Human Rights Act. He and his wife are seeking more than $50,000, plus punitive damages.
They also want change.
“It’s very important to the Bahls that what happened to them doesn’t happen to any other deaf person,” Teplin said. “They want the police and jail to change the way they interact with deaf and hard-of-hearing people.”
Consider it done, said Sheriff Bob Fletcher. Contrary to the allegations in the suit, Bahl initially was offered use of a TTY, a text-telephone device for the hearing-impaired, but he declined it, Fletcher said.
But officials worked with Bahl and his attorneys on suggested changes. Now, deaf inmates at the Ramsey County jail can use e-mail and text messaging. The jail has installed technology that will allow for video conferencing for those with sign-language skills. And the department has secured contracts to make sure sign-language interpreters are available within four hours of a request, Fletcher said. Beyond that, the Bahls wanted more money than the county was willing to pay to settle, he said.
City Attorney John Choi said most of the allegations in the suit seemed to be directed at the sheriff’s office and what happened at the jail, which the sheriff runs.
“To the extent that any allegations are targeted at the city, it’s our position that it was Mr. Bahl who acted inappropriately and not the St. Paul Police Department,” Choi said.
The city has filed a notice to move the suit to federal court, arguing the federal government has jurisdiction over the Americans with Disabilities Act and Rehabilitation Act.
The Bahls’ attorney said her clients would argue to have the case moved back to Ramsey County District Court.
Copyright 2008 The Pioneer Press