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WHEELCHAIR-BOUND DISABLED VETERAN, 93, ALLEGES

DEPUTY MISTREATED HIM -- Vet is suing the Palm Beach

County Sheriff for false arrest, battery and negligent

training and supervision.

 

 

Story here... http://www.palmbeachpost.
com/localnews/content/local_
news/epaper/2007/06/03/s
1c_OLD_MAN_0603.html

Story below:

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Vet in wheelchair alleges deputy mistreated him

By Larry Keller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Daniel Berloff has survived frostbite as a soldier, bone cancer, hip, knee and femur replacements and fractured spinal vertebrae.

At 93, he lives alone in the massive Kings Point condominium complex west of Delray Beach and gets around in a motorized wheelchair, always wearing a beige pith helmet.

The disabled veteran looks his age and, given his infirmities, hardly seems a threat to anybody. That, however, did not keep a sheriff's deputy from handcuffing Berloff for operating his wheelchair on the shoulder of a road and taking him to a hospital for evaluation under the state's Baker Act.

His treatment "borders on elderly abuse," a Veterans Affairs police officer said at the time.

Now Berloff is suing Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw for false arrest, battery and negligent training and supervision, plus violation of the Baker Act. The law allows authorities to commit individuals for a mental evaluation for up to 72 hours if there is a substantial likelihood that they may harm themselves or others in the near future, based on their recent behavior.

"I want the government to be responsible for what they say and what they do," Berloff said.

Sheriff's deputy James Theel had a legitimate concern for Berloff's safety and that of motorists driving in the area, said James O. Williams Jr., the sheriff's attorney. That's why he had him committed under the Baker Act.

Unhappily for Berloff, he is part of a statewide and county trend.

From 2001 to 2005, there was a 35.2 percent increase statewide in the number of people examined involuntarily under the Baker Act, according to a report prepared for the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. The state's population grew by 9.4 percent in the same period. More than 125,000 people were committed under the Baker Act in 2005 alone.

In Palm Beach County, 8,657 people were examined involuntarily in 2005, a 54.5 increase over 2001. That total included 713 people 65 and older.

"We don't have data to answer why," said Annette Christy, associate professor at the Florida Mental Health Institute at the University of South Florida and author of the report. "I think it's a complex problem. There's not a simple answer."

Training aims to boost care

Part of the increase can be attributed to improved reporting by mental health facilities, said Jeff Lefton, chief operating officer at the South County Mental Health Center in Delray Beach. He thinks a trend toward committing troubled people charged with a minor crime for an evaluation rather than jail is another reason.

His agency has provided a 40-hour crisis intervention training course on identifying mental problems to 500 county law enforcement officers from various agencies since January 2003.

"The goal is to reduce the number of arrests" and get appropriate care to people, Lefton said.

A sheriff's spokesman said he did not know whether Theel had taken the course, but he had "quite a bit of experience dealing with people in crisis" while working at another agency before joining the department.

Sheriff's deputies, including Theel, generally "are briefly familiarized with the standards for dealing with persons who may be mentally ill," Williams said.

'A contest of wills'

Berloff said his ordeal began one day in December 2002 when he was motoring along in his wheelchair on the shoulder of busy Linton Boulevard, as he has done for years. His destination was an Albertsons supermarket.

Theel drove up and ordered Berloff to drive on the sidewalk. He refused. He said he explained to Theel that the uneven surface of the sidewalk could cause an accident that might permanently paralyze him because of his spinal defects.

"His demeanor was OK, but his actions were a little stupid," Berloff said.

Theel's version of events, via Williams: Berloff drove his wheelchair not just on the shoulder but also in the vehicular lanes of traffic on Jog Road. He even got in front of a firetruck with lights flashing and siren wailing, causing the driver to slow for him.

When Theel told Berloff to operate his wheelchair on the sidewalk, the 93-year-old said he was entitled as a taxpayer to use the road, and that cars could go around him if he was in the traffic lanes.

Berloff contends that Theel walked back to his patrol car for about 30 minutes, returned and told him for the first time that he had obstructed traffic. Once again he told Berloff, who was 89 at the time, to move his wheelchair to the sidewalk. Once again, he refused.

"He told me I was under arrest," Berloff said.

"It was a contest of wills," said Steven Samilow, Berloff's attorney.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said Berloff was not arrested. But he was cited for obstructing traffic, Williams said.

When he refused to move to the sidewalk, he also was guilty of resisting an officer without violence, Williams said. Berloff, however, was not charged with that.

"If he was not arrested, how could he be resisting?" Samilow said.

Theel handcuffed him, even though he offered no resistance and was unarmed, Berloff states in the lawsuit. He complained that the restraints were uncomfortable, but Theel did not remove them.

Citing the Baker Act, Theel had Berloff taken by ambulance to South County Mental Health Center, then to the Fair Oaks mental health unit at Delray Medical Center.

While there, Berloff "became combative and attempted to take (another) deputy's gun from his utility belt," Williams said in an e-mail response about the case.

Berloff, who said he once was a military police officer, acknowledged this. He said he wanted to demonstrate how easily a prisoner could grab the deputy's weapon.

"I would have given it back to him and told him what a damned fool he was," Berloff said. "I would never do anything to harm a policeman."

Fair Oaks refused to admit Berloff formally. After several hours, he was driven - still handcuffed and with his legs tied to a stretcher - to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Riviera Beach.

The VA has its own police service, and Sgt. John Burkett, who is now a lieutenant, went to the emergency room when Berloff was admitted. Burkett said he saw red marks and swelling on both of Berloff's wrists consistent with being handcuffed.

"Although it might be PBSO policy to handcuff subjects in custody, I feel that handcuffing a 90-year-old man ... and not checking for weapons is a little obsessive, and it borders on elderly abuse," Burkett wrote in a memo to his boss.

Williams said, "Deputies are encouraged to handcuff all persons taken into custody. They have discretion where the party is elderly, infirm, youthful, etc."

Berloff was handcuffed at Fair Oaks "because of his combative nature" and his attempt to grab a deputy's gun, Williams said.

Suspension, reprimand

Berloff was released after more than two days by VA doctors, who did not find him to be a danger to himself or others, Samilow said.

Theel, 36, has worked for the sheriff's office for 13 years. He was suspended for 30 days in 2001 for calling the sheriff's office when he was off duty to report an open door at Binks Forest Golf Shop, while identifying himself as "Tony," a newspaper deliveryman. That falsehood, plus not informing the sheriff's office that he had security-related jobs at places that included the Binks Forest country club, led to his suspension.

The deputy also got verbal counseling in 2003 after an incident with a motorist who complained about him. And this year, he received a written reprimand after rear-ending a sheriff's office motorcycle with his vehicle.

In 1999, Theel and another deputy jumped into a Wellington canal and rescued the driver of a sinking truck. And he was recognized two years ago for his lifesaving actions in another incident.

The citation he gave Berloff for obstructing traffic was dismissed by a judge nearly three years ago. Berloff said he still drives his wheelchair on of road shoulders.

Now his case is set for trial in the fall. If anybody can hang on until the litigation is resolved, it will be his client, Samilow said.

"He has an incredible will to live and to persevere."

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Larry Scott  --