LOS ANGELES, CALIF. - More than a year ago, Gabino Olvera, a mentally impaired paraplegic homeless man, was left to drag himself on a downtown Los Angeles street after his discharge without a wheelchair from Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center.

Today, a settlement of his lawsuit against the hospital insures the same will not happen to other Hollywood Presbyterian patients.

The settlement was negotiated by City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, Steven Archer of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLP, and civil rights attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and Public Counsel. It establishes protocols for the proper release of indigent patients, requires training of hospital personnel, and names former U.S. Attorney and retired U.S. District Judge Lourdes Baird as special monitor of the hospital for up to five years.

The agreement also contributes a total $1 million to two non-profit corporations to help with transportation and post-discharge care of the poor, the uninsured and the homeless in the Hollywood area. JWCH Institute, Inc. will receive $600,000 for post-discharge facilities, while Queens Care receives $400,000 for outpatient physician care.

The settlement follows an investigation of Hollywood Presbyterian stemming in part from the discharge of Olvera, 42, who on February 8, 2007 was dumped on Skid Row in his hospital gown, without his wheelchair and trailing a broken urinary catheter.

'The case of Gabino Olvera is one of the most shocking that we have come across,' said Ramona Ripston, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. 'This agreement insures that one more hospital can't leave indigent patients helpless and flailing on Skid Row. We hope that, as with the settlement reached last year in the case of Carol Ann Reyes, hospitals get the message: patients are not to be dumped like rubbish in the streets.'

Last year, the Kaiser Permanente hospital chain reached a settlement in a similar case involving Reyes, an elderly homeless woman who was left on the street wearing only a hospital gown and socks.

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LOS ANGELES, CALIF. - People with disabilities face inhumane treatment and illegal discrimination in the Los Angeles County jail system because it routinely fails to accommodate their needs. Today, civil and disability rights attorneys are filing suit in U.S. District Court to stop the mistreatment.

The suit alleges widespread and pervasive violations related to classification, housing, access to programs and services, medical care, and physical barriers for people with disabilities in L.A. County jails.

'You would expect that in Los Angeles in 2008 any person in the jail would have access to a toilet, a phone and a drink of water,' said Shawna L. Parks, Director of Litigation at the Disability Rights Legal Center (DRLC). 'People with disabilities in Los Angeles County jail are not guaranteed even these basic things.'

In an investigation that included interviews with almost 70 inmates over several months, the civil rights attorneys heard accounts of them having to sit or lie in their own waste for hours because wheelchair-accessible toilets and showers were either non-existent or dangerous, or because guards took away catheter bags that allowed them relief at night. Others had to drag themselves on the floor because they had no access to their wheelchairs or, when they did, bathroom doors weren't wide enough for them.

'There were no grab bars,' said Francis Tribble, an inmate who is in a wheelchair after a car crash shattered his left leg and crushed his feet. 'I had to lower myself out of my wheelchair at the entrance to the toilet and crawl and drag myself along the ground . . . then pull myself up to the seat. The ground was filthy, which made it even worse.'

Other accounts showed some guards' shocking indifference to the plight of their charges.

'I asked a deputy if I could see a doctor,' said Michael Curfman, who is paralyzed on his left side and has a brain injury that impairs his balance. 'I was told that I will see one only if I'm bleeding or dying.'

Curfman requested a wheelchair for his balance problems but was given only a rickety walker after his mother complained to officials. And because toilets and showers have no grab bars, he has often fallen when trying to use them.

"This is the most egregious example of government brutality I have ever witnessed,' said Virginia Keeny, one of the attorneys filing suit. 'These individuals are being treated worse than animals."

The attorneys stressed that many of the plaintiffs, while in jail, have not been prosecuted.

'The victims of the county's inhumane practices include detainees who have never been convicted of a crime,' said Mark Rosenbaum, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. 'It is as if the county is punishing these detainees for their disabilities, inflicting misery and humiliation on that basis alone.'

An expert's review of the jail system in late 2007 said jail inmates with disabilities face a maze of barriers. It also found that the county's ham-handed way of segregating these inmates relegates them to the worst facilities and bars them from participating in more than 100 programs that can help them lead a productive life upon release.

'It appears that inmates with disabilities have no access at all to the vast majority of programs and services of the L.A. County Jail system,' wrote Logan Hopper, the nationally known expert on disabled accessibility who conducted the review and drafted an accompanying report.

The civil rights coalition that brought the lawsuit comprises attorneys with HellerEhrman LLP and Hadsell, Stormer, Keeny, Richardson & Renick LLP, as well as the ACLU/SC and the DRLC.

'As we began investigating, we were horrified to learn the details of the county's systemic discrimination against inmates with disabilities,' said John Ulin, partner at HellerEhrman. 'We knew we had to get involved.'

The suit followed months of dialogue with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department that aimed to improve jail conditions and help the county comply with federal law. The Hopper review was shared with county officials in an effort to resolve the problem without a lawsuit. Attorneys for the inmates proposed a framework for short- and medium-term changes that addressed the worst access barriers, plus a 90-day evaluation of all programs. So far, county representatives have been unwilling to agree to these changes.

'We remain hopeful that this problem can be resolved amicably,' said Melinda Bird, senior counsel for the ACLU/SC. 'The parties continue to meet, and spoke as recently as yesterday afternoon about options for settlement. We are willing to work around the clock to find a mutually agreeable solution that will ensure the security of the jail and still honor and protect the dignity and well-being of inmates and detainees with disabilities.'