From the Tampa Tribune, St. Petersburg Times:

A Florida deputy sheriff and three colleagues have been suspended after a security camera caught her dumping a quadriplegic man from a wheelchair onto the floor. Footage of the incident can be viewed on CNN. Brian Sterner, the former director of the Florida Spinal Cord Injury Resource Center, was being booked on a traffic-related charge. Although he can drive a car fitted with hand controls, he has been using a wheelchair since he injured his spinal cord in a wrestling accident in 1994.

“She said, ‘Stand up.’ I said, ‘I can’t I’m a quadriplegic,’” he told the St. Petersburg Times. “Next thing I know, I don’t see anyone and I feel the wheelchair being pushed up.”

The case has attracted national attention since a local television station aired the tape. Sterner’s lawyer are pushing for criminal charges and Florida’s attorney general has called for a civil rights review. The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office has apologized, labeling the incident “indefensible.”

See related post.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 at 5:48 am and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, abuse, criminal justice, wheelchair. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post