Ms. Santillan, who has severe rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis and other disabilities, relies on a motorized wheelchair for mobility. According to the complaint, during her arrest and detention, law enforcement officers: abandoned her motorized wheelchair on a sidewalk in Skid Row; failed to provide her with an alternate mobility aid; threw away her prescription medication; and caused her intense pain by handcuffing her legs and dragging her to the police car, handcuffing her to benches for hours, and employing other rough treatment despite her pleas that she was in pain.    

Image from video of Jennie Santillan's arrest captured by LACAN

Ms. Santillan seeks declaratory and injunctive relief as well as damages for discrimination because of the denial of reasonable accommodations and program access during her arrest and detention. The Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department must develop and implement policies to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities, such as the failure to provide mobility aids and other disability accommodations.  

The arrest was caught on video by a member of Los Angeles Community Action Network (LACAN), and is posted on the DRLC's YouTube site at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0czYFUhP2w.

Ms. Santillan was arrested on July 10, 2010, while eating lunch with a friend near Bark Avenue Foundation on 545 S. Main Street. She was unarmed. She was detained for four days, first at Central Division Police Station, then at 77th Street Community Police Station/Regional Jail, and finally at the Sheriff's Department's Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood. When she was released on July 14, she found herself outside the gates of the Lynwood facility, alone, without a wheelchair or accommodations for travel back to Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles.

After Los Angeles Police Department officers abandoned Ms. Santillan's motorized wheelchair on the sidewalk, Business Improvement District officers stored it in a facility in Skid Row. Ms. Santillan spent weeks tracking it down. When she recovered it, she found it was broken and inoperable. She had originally obtained the motorized wheelchair through Medicaid and cannot afford a new one. Ms. Santillan is forced to use a manual wheelchair despite extreme hardship and pain.

"This was a case of kicking a person when down," said Shawna Parks, DRLC Legal Director. "In her daily life, Ms. Santillan lives on the streets while using a wheelchair. By discarding her motorized wheelchair, handcuffing her and dragging her around, law enforcement officers not only caused her intense pain but could have caused her serious injury. They seriously disrupted her mobility, not just that day but for months going forward. This violates not just the law, but all fundamental tenets of human decency."

Ms. Santillan seeks declaratory and injunctive relief as well as damages for discrimination because of the denial of reasonable accommodations and program access during her arrest and detention. The Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department must develop and implement policies to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities such as the failure to provide mobility aids and other disability accommodations.