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Home / Thoughts / What was she thinking???

What was she thinking???

Written by Sean on Friday, May 12, 2006

A woman who is a wheelchair user jumped out of her chair and ran when the cops arrested her! She claimed to have been paralysed after a car accident several years ago. She sued several times under the ADA and "won" a few thousand dollars. But it looks like she wasn’t quite what she appeared to be!

Since there are copyright issues, I can’t reprint the article, but you can do a Google on "Laura Lee Medley" in recent news. Or read it on one of the following five pages:

• http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=129142&region=7
• http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/63618.htm
• http://today.reuters.com/investing/…/…/…
• http://www.ketv.com/news/9204092/detail.html
• http://edition.cnn.com/2006/US/05/11/wheelchair.runner.reut/

So, one can’t help wondering, is this woman transabled? What was she thinking? Suing for gain, just for fraud, or for any other reasons? And why, oh why, did she run away from the cops, of all dumb things to do?

Ok, so, suing for discrimination is one thing. Suing, saying you got injured because of some sidewalk being damaged and you getting injured falling out of your chair is quite another thing. I don’t know what she did. I would think that under the ADA, you are protected from discrimination if you are "perceived as having a disability" (it’s one of three "prongs" of protection). Which is fine if you’re claiming discrimination, but it’s quite another if you are setting out to get money out of a city by claiming false injury. Perhaps it’s a thin line, but I definitely see the difference.

And really, you know the cops are gonna get you. If you run and make them work harder for it, they’ll just be that much nastier, so why bother running? It always fascinates me to see those folks taking off in car chase, thinking they’ll be able to avoid the cops, but… The Dukes of Hazard no one is ;)

Ok, so, I wish I’d seen the face on the cops. But as amusing as that would have been, in the end, it’s just more bad press for transabled folks, because we can’t help being tarred from the same bucket. This is where we get blamed for making life harder for people with "real" disabilities. And in a case like this, justifiably so. Burden of proof of disability is going to go sky high. And perhaps that third prong of protection under the ADA will erode even more. Because a woman who used a wheelchair without "needing it" got caught doing something incredibly stupid and harmful.

What the hell was she thinking?!?