BATON ROUGE – A disabled man alleges his medical needs were not accommodated while incarcerated.
Sherman Mealy filed a complaint on Oct. 25 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana against Sheriff Sid J. Gautreaux III and The Parish of East Baton Rouge alleging violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that he was an inmate at the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison in August 2015 and that he is disabled and uses a wheelchair. The plaintiff holds Sheriff Sid J. Gautreaux III and The Parish of East Baton Rouge responsible because the defendants allegedly denied him the use of an accessible shower, which caused two wheelchairs to rust because of exposure to water, denied his requests for a shower chair and other issues.
The plaintiff seeks an award of monetary damages, attorneys’ fees, costs and litigation expenses and such other relief as the court deems just and proper. He is represented by Andrew D. Bizer, Garret S. DeReus and Marc P. Florman of The Bizer Law Firm in New Orleans.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana Case number 3:16-cv-00716