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Reaction to Jail Video Is Disgust

Tribune photo by Kelvin Ma

Joe Didomenico, executive director of Self Reliance, Inc., Center for Independent Living, is an advocate for fair treatment of the disabled.

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 13, 2008

TAMPA - The shockwave of reaction has reached a national audience as more people see a jail videotape showing a Hillsborough corrections deputy dumping an inmate from his wheelchair.

"I thought it was a joke when I saw it on television," said Cheri Hofmann, spokeswoman for the Disabilities and Business Technical Assistance Center, a nationwide advocacy group that specializes in training and awareness. "That video was incredible. Not only were his rights violated, his civil rights were violated."

In fact, late Tuesday, the head of the Florida Civil Rights Association called on Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey to order an immediate investigation by into the case.

"The excessive use of force complaint filed today against these sheriff's deputies with the U.S. Attorney General will assure the public, especially people with disabilities, their civil rights will be protected by federal officials at the highest level," said J. Willie David III, president of the advocacy organization, in a news release Tuesday.

"I was stunned," said Joe Didomenico, with Self Reliance, a disability advocacy group in Tampa. "The fact that it happened in this day and age … I'm not surprised. I know there is a tremendous lack of education and training in disability issues out there."

The tape shows 32-year-old Brian Sterner tumble out of his wheelchair while being booked into the Orient Road Jail last month. A corrections deputy yanks up the back of the chair, sending Sterner sprawling onto the tile floor. The deputy moves forward to search Sterner's pockets as he lies in front of the booking desk.

Hillsborough Sheriff David Gee said in a statement Tuesday that lack of training was not the issue. He blamed "aberrant behavior" and pointed to the 230 people booked into the jail last year who came in wheelchairs.

Advocacy groups disagreed.

"Hillsborough County is lacking in training in how to deal with the disabled," said Hofmann, based in Florida's Panhandle, who helps businesses meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements and offers training in how to deal with the disabled.

Sterner, she said, "was a person first. That lack of sensitivity reflects a lack of a training structure in state and local government."

Anyone who deals with the public should learn how to handle those with disabilities whether they are in wheelchairs, are blind or have other disabilities, she said. One in five people in the United States is disabled in one way or another, the U.S. Census Bureau says.

Training is available, Sterner said, and it isn't expensive. Organizations that offer instruction are everywhere.

"Just because you are in jail and you have a disability doesn't mean you are treated any differently," she said. "When he was rolled in there, that wheelchair was an extension of his body."

She has offered training in jails and police departments across the Southeast. In many areas, it's mandatory, she said.

Training and a general insensitivity toward the disabled is the issue, in the view of Didomenico, who has been an advocate for the disabled for 36 years.

He said the problem must be prevalent at the jail, judging from the reactions from other corrections officers in the room. One deputy is smiling as he walks out of range of the video camera.

"If you have an isolated incident," Didomenico said, "you don't have people standing around and not making an issue of it."

He added, "I wasn't privy to what went on just before this happened but regardless of what was said, even if he was a malingerer, that's not a way to treat another human being."

On Monday and Tuesday, the video spread on the Internet and through new reports, including a live appearance by Sterner Tuesday morning on the New York set of NBC-TV's Today Show.

"I had members of my council e-mailing the video to me," said Debra Dowds, executive director of the Florida Developmental Disabilities Council in Tallahassee. "They all were very upset. I just couldn't believe that somebody would do that. I don't understand why somebody could be treated like this. It's inexcusable."

She said reports of mistreatment of disabled people by law enforcement reach the council from time to time, but never "anything as blatant as this."

She said she doubts the matter was an isolated incident.

"There were people standing there," she said. "Somebody was laughing. Nobody around them seemed to think it was a big deal. If it was so isolated, why did everybody else think it was OK?"

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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