BATON ROUGE – Three hearing-impaired men have filed a class-action lawsuit over allegations that they were never provided auxiliary aids and services by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections.
Lawrence Levy, Cedric Hammond and Bradley Casto filed a complaint on behalf of all others similarly situated in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana against the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections and Secretary James LeBlanc alleging that they violated the Rehabilitation Act.
According to the complaint, the plaintiffs are probationers and parolees who are hearing impaired or deaf. They allege that they have not been adequately informed of their probation, have not understood what was communicated to them and have not been able to fully participate in post-release classes because the defendants have not provided auxiliary aids and services.
The plaintiffs holds Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections and Secretary James LeBlanc responsible because the defendants allegedly failed to provide auxiliary aids and services, failed to ensure effective communications and denied the plaintiffs an equal opportunity to successfully complete their probation and to effectively participate in post-release rehabilitative programs.
The plaintiffs request a trial by jury and seek an order certifying this as a class action, an order mandating defendants to establish a remediation program, enjoining defendants from retaliating against them, award for attorneys’ fees, court costs, expert costs and litigation expenses and such other relief as appears reasonable. They are represented by Russell Hirschhorn, Madeline Rea and Robert Sheppard of Proskauer Rose LLP in New Orleans.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana Case number 3:16-cv-00542