Bizarre, Criminal law

Colorado Sheriff Sued After Holding Deaf Man For 25 Days Due To Lack of Interpreter After Unfounded Arrest

A lawsuit has been filed against Adams County Sheriff Doug Darr that alleges a shocking mistreatment of a deaf prisoner, Timothy Siaki, who was held in jail for 25 days due to a lack of an interpreter. Siaki is deaf.

The ordeal began with someone calling police about hearing weird noises at a local motel on May 14, 2010. It was the sound of the deaf couple verbalizing sounds. Not uncommon among deaf people but the two deputies broke down the door and Siaki’s fiancé could not explain it to the officer because she is also deaf and there was not interpreter.

His lawyer, Kevin Williams, says that Siaki just sat there without knowing what he was being charged with or what was going to happen to him. Saiki cannot read or write. It is shocking that a police department could not secure an interpreter for such a common disability.

Darr is being charged with violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

According to various websites, about 2 to 4 of every 1,000 people in the United States are “functionally deaf.”

Source: MSNBC

35 thoughts on “Colorado Sheriff Sued After Holding Deaf Man For 25 Days Due To Lack of Interpreter After Unfounded Arrest”

  1. Blouise
    1, November 29, 2011 at 3:04 pm
    SwM,

    Newt will be very easy to beat … embarrassingly so. I still think the Republicans will go for Romney thinking he won’t lose as badly … nobody wants to be Cartered.
    ———————

    (following is a sarcastic mock proposal, and is not literally intended to be a proposal to bribe a government official. After all, I am not a registered lobbyist, so I don’t know how to bribe officials legally.)

    Newt has been described as “the classic rental politician” by George Will.

    So, hypothetically, let’s say that Newt is the Republican candidate AND wins the presidential election. It could actually be great for America.

    Let’s say that 10 million Americans all got together and contributed $100 to a fund – that’s $1 billion dollars. Then the fund “contracts” with President Newt to provide “consulting historian” services on how great the following topics are:
    1) Getting the government out of religious marriage
    2) Punishing government officials who ordered torture and war crimes
    3) The value of civil rights
    4) The importance of carbon cap-and-trade
    etc.

    Part of the “consulting fee” gets trickled out to him during his term, with the rest held for a “performance bonus” when his term is complete.

    With a little cash pooled together, we could probably get President Newt to do the things that President Obama is too politically weak to do.

  2. SwM,

    P.S. Google contemplating following Yahoo and resigning from the Chamber … hope they do.

  3. What I am gobsmacked by is the “cannot … read, write, read lips” but DOES know AmSLan! Where’s the Victorian poorhouse this guy was raised in anyway? If he learned AmSLan, why can’t he read & write? And the girlfriend claims SHE couldn’t communicate because of no interpreter either… does that mean that she ALSO can’t read or write? Can someone familiar with the deaf community tell us if this is a normal condition for some deaf folks? I doubt the deaf who attend Gaullaudet College in DC can’t read or write!

  4. SwM,

    Newt will be very easy to beat … embarrassingly so. I still think the Republicans will go for Romney thinking he won’t lose as badly … nobody wants to be Cartered.

    Here’s part of what forms my opinion:
    1. Romney is upper-class (remember his dad was Chairman of American Motors and Gov of Mich and ran for the republican nomination for President in ’68 but was defeated by Nixon) … Republicans love political upper-class

    2. Most Evangelicals don’t understand their own doctrine let alone the real doctrine of Mormonism … they’re really more social conservative than religious and they’ll view Romney as one of them … the news media will continue to cooperate in minimizing the religion angle

    3. Romney is far more acceptable to the business community (large donors) than any other contender other than, perhaps, Huntsman.

    Clinton is pushing for Newt, which ultimately hurts Newt. Remember that after a few visits to the Oval Office in the 90’s, Newt was never allowed to go alone again … he always gave to much away to Clinton and thus needed a “minder”. Clinton is pushing for Newt ’cause he knows how easily Newt can be controlled … so do the Republicans in charge of the field.

  5. Mike S.,
    You are correct. This sheriff and his staff need to be replaced. Who in the world would not obtain an interpreter for a prisoner? What is becoming of the world?
    Jill,
    I saw that story and was not surprised that the government is stonewalling the defense attorney. Mr. Manning is a man without rights.

  9. Bette Noir,

    re the link you posted

    It would appear that tasers have now become tiny electric chairs and cops can skip arrests and trials and go straight to executions

  12. While on the subject of heinous abuse towards others, this story is revelatory. It is from Wired magazine: “Manning’s defense attorney, David E. Coombs, is attempting to get evidence from the government to defend Manning in his upcoming pre-trial hearing on Dec. 16, but says the government is stonewalling him.

    “The defense has repeatedly requested the below discovery in this case, but the government has consistently responded with a blanket denial of the defense request,” Coombs wrote in the partially redacted filing…”

    It seems that law enforcement from the top down realizes they can do what they want to whomever they want. That is what comes of a citizenry who will tolerate the abuse of others as long as it is done by the president/party of their choice. It will only be when citizens get a moral compass and decide abuse of power is wrong, period, that we have any chance of changing course in this nation.

  13. Are you all so blind as not to be able to understand that making sounds in a motel room is a crime and a danger. Why who knows they may have been polluting the other guests lives by moaning in orgasm. For shame! The very idea and in such a pristine place as a motel. Human depravity needs to be punished and this Sheriff knows how to do it. We don’t need no stinking civil rights.

  16. So opinion is briefly trending to suggest that either Darr is too stupid to use a computer or so ignorant and abusive of the law that he thinks he should be able to get away with judiciary functions as well. Mmmmmmmmm! I love the smell of self-inflicted PR disaster in the morning! Smells just like . . . waffles.

  17. mespo – that goes back to my assertion that his detention was punitive. That sheriff wanted to get even for some real or perceived wrong. If he was not on good terms with the local DA the ADA would be the least of his worries.

  20. I’d be willing to bet the sheriff wanted to punish Siaki for something & knew the charges wouldn’t stick. Probably started with him assuming the guy was just not cooperating. I bet if they got the guy a lawyer there would have been an interpreter there in short order.

    BTW – I think you wanted “deaf’ not “dead” in that first sentence.

Comments are closed.