A paraplegic man has sued the hospital that dumped him in a Skid Row gutter without his wheelchair.

Gabino Olvera, a 42-year-old man with a history of mental illness, was treated and discharged from Hollywood Presbyterian in February 2007, transported by van across town, and deposited on the side of a street with no wheelchair and wearing a soiled hospital gown. Witnesses at the scene observed Mr. Olvera dragging himself on the ground with his papers clenched in his teeth.

Attorneys for Public Counsel, the ACLU of Southern California, and the law firm of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L.L.P. have filed a lawsuit against Hollywood Presbyterian on behalf of Olvera.

The lawsuit is the second against a major hospital for dumping patients in downtown L.A. In 2006, the ACLU/SC and Public Counsel filed a lawsuit against Kaiser Foundation Hospitals for the unlawful dumping of Carol Reyes, a 64-year-old, mentally ill woman captured on videotape in her Kaiser hospital gown and socks wandering along the streets of Skid Row after being dropped off by taxi. That case led Kaiser to change its policies to address the issue of homeless patient discharge.

"Hospitals have an obligation to treat all their patients with dignity and respect," said ACLU/SC Legal Director Mark Rosenbaum. "In this case, Hollywood Presbyterian left a paraplegic man literally in the gutter without his wheelchair to drag himself to safety as best he could. It was like they lit a match to the Hippocratic oath."

The ACLU of Southern California's board of directors has elected actor and activist Alan Toy as its next president. He is the first disabled person to lead the ACLU/SC's board of directors, and he has been a strong advocate for disability rights within the ACLU as a member of its national board of directors.
Toy, who contracted polio when he was three, is a longtime leader in changing media images of people with disabilities. As an activist in the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and as the president of the Media Access Office in Hollywood from 1984 to 1989, he pushed entertainment industry leaders to create characters, storylines and images that resisted age-old negative stereotypes of people with disabilities.
"Alan has faced great challenges in his life, and he shares the ACLU's vision of fair play and equal rights for all," said ACLU of Southern California Executive Director Ramona Ripston. "His creativity, energy, and vision display the best of what Southern California represents to the world, and he is a fantastic choice to lead our board of directors."
As an actor, Alan has worked in dozens television shows and major motion pictures, including "In the Line of Fire," "Born on the Fourth of July," Martin Scorsese's "The Aviator," "Beverly Hills: 90210" and most recently a small role on the ABC hit "Brothers and Sisters."
His advocacy in mass media not only paved the way for many other disabled performers to have successful careers, but also gave viewers around the world a new way of seeing people with disabilities on television and in films. Toy is currently associate director of the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge.
Toy, a member of the ACLU's board of directors since 1995, takes over for Isabelle Gunning, a professor at Southwestern Law School who has been president of the board of directors since 2005. Gunning will remain on the board of directors.
"Isabelle has championed our constitutional values through an extremely difficult period for our nation and region, and we have been lucky to have her leadership," said Ripston.
Also elected at the board of directors' Jan. 16 meeting:
- Shelan Joseph, a Los Angeles County Public Defender for more than 10 years, will be Vice President.
- Anne Richardson, a partner at the law firm of Hadsell & Stormer focusing on civil rights litigation, will be Secretary.
- Carrie Hempel, a clinical professor at USC Law School's Post Conviction Project, will be Treasurer.
- James Gilliam, Jr., a longtime activist for gay and lesbian rights and an associate at Paul, Hastings, Janofskly & Walker, will be affirmative action officer.
- David Cruz, a USC Law School professor who teaches constitutional law, will be the affiliate representative on the ACLU's national board of directors.
The ACLU of Southern California is one of the nation's largest ACLU affiliates, with more than 50,000 members. The ACLU board of directors guides the ACLU's work to safeguard civil liberties and civil rights for residents in the seven-county Southern California area.

The U.S. says it will stop forcibly drugging immigrants during deportations, nearly seven months after the ACLU of Southern California and the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP revealed shocking details about two immigrants who were given powerful anti-psychotic drugs against their will.

Raymond Soeoth and Amadou Diouf were drugged against their will and without proper medical oversight during attempts to deport them. Neither man had any history of mental illness, yet Soeoth was forcibly injected with the antipsychotic drug Haldol in 2004, causing him to lose consciousness. The drug with which Diouf was forcibly injected in 2006 is unknown.

In a Jan. 9 memo, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency that oversees deportation and detention of immigrants, announced it will require a federal court order before agents may drug immigrants during deportation. Unlike ICE's earlier policy, this one contains no exceptions that would allow the government to circumvent court oversight.

The ACLU/SC and Munger, Tolles said the decision to end drugging was long overdue.

"Drugging immigrants against their will is a shameful practice that has no place in this country," said ACLU/SC staff attorney Ahilan Arulanantham.

Soeoth, a Christian minister from Indonesia, is seeking asylum based on religious persecution. Diouf, a native of Senegal who is married to a U.S. citizen, had a court order preventing his deportation at the time he was drugged. Both men remain in the country while they seek to become legal residents.

This is the second time in the last year ICE has changed course on the drugging of immigrants. ICE first changed its policy two days after the ACLU/SC and Munger, Tolles filed Mr. Soeoth and Mr. Diouf's lawsuit last June. That revised policy continued to authorize forcible drugging without a court order under certain circumstances.

"We are gratified that the government has finally recognized that forcibly drugging immigrants is both inhumane and illegal," said Munger, Tolles attorney Brad Phillips. "We will continue to pursue Mr. Soeoth's and Mr. Diouf's claims for compensation for their mistreatment, and we will monitor ICE's compliance with its new policy."

Last September, ICE chief Julie Myers told a U.S. Senate committee that "I am aware of, and deeply concerned about reports that past practices may not have conformed to ICE detention standards." She admitted that 56 people had been forcibly drugged during a seven-month period from October 2006 to April 2007. Based on data she provided, it appears that hundreds of illegal drugging have taken place over the past five years.

Photos: Raymond Soeoth, an asylum-seeker from Indonesia (top), and Amadou Diouf of Senegal, who is married to a U.S. citizen. Both were forcibly drugged by U.S. immigration officials.