Texas sheriff’s office makes changes after man with Huntington’s arrested, hospitalized
Two years after a man with Huntington’s disease ended up in the hospital after he called the Ellis County’s Sheriff’s Office for a ride home, the county issued a new order for sheriff’s deputies on how to accommodate people with disabilities.
In March 2018, Ruben Solis called the sheriff’s office to request a safe ride home, as he had done before. Solis has Huntington’s, which causes tremors and shakiness in the limbs and makes it not possible for him to drive.
Solis called deputies for a ride home from his daughter’s house in Waxahachie. When deputies arrived, he struggled to retrieve his identification from his pocket and told the deputies that he has Huntington’s, according to a lawsuit filed in November 2018.
The deputies thought he was drunk and started to be aggressive with him, Solis’ lawyer, Wayne Krause Yang said. When Solis turned to walk away, one of the deputies grabbed him and threw him to the ground, he said. The deputies jumped on him and “manhandled Mr. Solis while his limbs jerked spasmodically out of his control,” the suit says.
Ellis County Sheriff Chuck Edge said that deputies did not throw Solis to the ground, but they did arrest him because they smelled alcohol on him and “his demeanor was that of somebody who was intoxicated.” While that was probably due to his Huntington’s, Edge said, the deputies took Solis to the ground and arrested him.
Solis hit his face on the concrete, causing bruises and cuts to his face.
Yang said Solis did not receive medical attention until a booking officer at the jail saw his injuries and took him to the hospital. Edge contends that an ambulance treated Solis at the scene.
Edge said both deputies still work for the sheriff’s department and were not disciplined.
“When you take the entire incident into perspective, you’ll see that there wasn’t anything that they should be punished for,” Edge said.
Solis sued Ellis County. Yang said the sheriff’s department had no policies or training for deputies on how to recognize or accommodate people with disabilities.
However, Edge said the department already had policies on accommodating people with disabilities.
“Is it all-inclusive like they want? No,” Edge said.
After more than two years of legal back-and-forth, the sheriff’s department agreed to implement new training so that deputies can better identify, interact with, and accommodate people who have disabilities, according to a press release from Yang.
“I am proud that I stood up for my rights and Ellis County is going to be a better place because of this agreement, especially for people like me who have a disability,” Ruben Solis said in a written statement. “It is not easy having a disability. Police need to understand people who have disabilities and treat them with respect. While I wish this hadn’t happened to me and it took a long time, the Ellis County Sheriff agreed to do the right thing and this is going to make a difference.”
Edge said The Arc of Texas will train deputies on accommodating people with intellectual disabilities, and he issued a general order to more inclusively apply to people with different kinds of disabilities.
“They apparently wanted one sweeping, changing policy that had it all in one section and that was not feasible,” he said. “So I wrote a new general order.”
The new general order says its purpose is to “provide Ellis County Sheriff’s Office staff with information for appropriately interacting and communicating with individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities.” The order includes procedures such as speaking with a calm voice, calling a support person and refraining from touching the person unless necessary. The procedure also says not to interpret odd behavior as aggressive and to avoid overstimulating the person with loud noises and lights.
About 30,000 people with disabilities live in Ellis County, Yang, who works with the Texas Legal Services Center, said.
“I credit Solis with his courage,” Yang said. “How incredible is it that one person with a disability stands up for what he believes in and makes a difference? And good for the Ellis County Sheriff’s Department for making these changes.”
Importance of policies for people with disabilities
Dennis Debbaudt said many sheriff’s and police departments are creating or updating their policies to better serve people with disabilities.
Debbaudt’s son has autism and he has traveled the country for 25 years to talk to police, including the New York and Chicago police departments. Debbaudt was also interviewed by John Oliver for the HBO show, “Last Week Tonight,” where he says his work began over a misunderstanding with police at a shopping center when his son was young.
For officers or deputies who do not have disability training, they might mistake someone’s disability-related behaviors as signs of wrongdoing.
“That might include sights and sounds of disabilities that are surprising,” Debbaudt said. “It can confuse not only a police officer, but anyone. The results are suspicious people calling 911 or officers on patrol making a mistake.”
In Solis’ case, deputies did not seem to know what Huntington’s disease was, and took Solis’ tremors as a sign that he was intoxicated, he said.
Proper training and education for law enforcement in regards to people with disabilities helps everyone in a community, Debbaudt said. When law enforcement officers know how to respond and handle a situation properly, they not only have a better outcome, but they also save time and resources.
In cases of improper training or unethical behavior, departments may face lawsuits and a loss of public confidence.
“I guess my message to most everyone in the country is, if you don’t know somebody right now with a disability, the chances are you will get to know someone in your lifetime who has a cognitive or intellectual or brain disorder,” Debbaudt said. “And it could be you.“
Sometimes, extreme incidents like Solis’ can be the catalyst for change in a department. For example, in 2018, Graham police officers handcuffed and used a stun gun on a 19-year-old man with autism because they incorrectly thought he was under the influence of narcotics.
After the Star-Telegram published several stories about the Graham police incident, the department contacted Debbaudt and asked him to train all their officers on how to identify and accommodate people with autism, Debbaudt said.
This story was originally published August 13, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
