Utah city sued by deaf man alleging discrimination over car accident response

By Jim Greene

Published on October 06, 2005

In a suit filed last week in U.S. District Court, Terrence Cantrell claims police violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, by refusing to communicate with him after an Aug. 8, 2004 accident, in which he claims the driver of another car backed into his stopped car. Cantrell said police at the scene issued him a citation without giving him a chance to write down his side of the story.

City officials declined to comment on the allegations.

Cantrell said the police interviewed the teen-aged driver of the other car and her parents, and then wrote him a citation for improper backing. He said they also refused to interview a deaf associate as a witness. He said that, had he been a Spanish speaker, the police would have provided an interpreter.

After Cantrell spent $500 fighting the citation, it was dismissed for lack of evidence.

Dale Boam, Cantrell's attorney, filed a $25,000 suit seeking compensation for legal costs of fighting the citation and for humiliation of his client.

When it was noted that Cantrell was not interviewed at the scene of the accident, a city prosecutor indicated that he thought hearing-impaired drivers were accompanied by a sign language interpreter.

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