Above: ACLU/SC's Mark Rosenbaum speaking about the lawsuit with City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo, at left.

In March a shocking video showed a woman in a hospital gown lost on a busy downtown L.A. street. Now the ACLU/SC is suing the hospital that dumped her on Skid Row wearing just two hospital gowns, a diaper and a pair of socks.

"In this city, we don't 'dump patients' as if they were disposable rubbish," said ACLU/SC legal director Mark Rosenbaum.

The lawsuit comes after months of negotiations with Kaiser Permanente to end the practice. The L.A. City Attorney has also filed criminal and civil charges against the hospital chain for its treatment of the 63-year-old homeless woman pictured in the video.

In the video shot from a security camera at the Union Rescue Mission, a taxi pulled up in front of the entrance and out of view. Moments later, a woman wobbled down the street. A few minutes later a representative from the mission met her and escorted her inside.

The woman, who was from Gardena not downtown L.A., had no money, no identification other than a hospital bracelet, and no medication or personal belongings when she was released from a Kaiser hospital in Bellflower. Three days later, she was readmitted to a local hospital.

The lawsuit states that Kaiser "has engaged in this conduct with full knowledge that the persons it transports to Skid Row will not continue to heal or recuperate in that setting."

Last year, several groups were in negotiations with Kaiser to prevent further dumping of patients, but the hospital made no commitment to end the practice.

Public Counsel and law firm Girardi and Keese join the ACLU/SC in the suit.

LOS ANGELES — The operator of a popular Central Valley high school football website will be allowed to cover this Friday's Division IV quarterfinal at Taft Union High School in Taft, California, after the ACLU of Southern California threatened to file a lawsuit on his behalf.

Derek Brown operates CVHSPreps.com, a website devoted to news, analysis, and statistics on high school football in the Central Valley. Brown was denied access to the sidelines of the football game by Taft school officials, who felt his website contained comments that portrayed some Taft coaches in a negative light.

"We're happy Mr. Brown will be able to cover the quarterfinal playoff game at Taft this Friday," said Peter Bibring, a staff attorney for the ACLU/SC. "Government officials cannot selectively exclude a reporter from open press areas just because they don't like the coverage."

School officials apparently objected not to content written by CVHSPrep staff, but to comments posted by the public in the "Community Forums" portion of the website. But in a letter to the ACLU sent this week, the school agreed to restore Brown's access to the Friday game.

"I'd never say anything against the school," Brown said. "But people get passionate when they talk about sports. We make sure everything on the site is family-friendly, but some of the comments still seemed to upset the coaches."

"I'm glad we've gotten our access back, so we can continue to provide the kind of comprehensive coverage our members and readers have come to expect," Brown continued.

Until a few weeks ago, Taft had consistently permitted Brown, along with other local newspaper and television reporters, to report and take pictures from the sidelines of Taft high school games. But on Oct. 20, Brown was escorted off the field and informed that no one from his web site would be allowed on the sidelines at future games due to the coaches' concerns with the website's content. Other media were permitted to remain on the field and cover the game as before.

"It's troubling that Taft wrongly kept Brown off the sidelines for two games," Bibring said. "But by restoring equal access, they've shown that CVHSPreps did nothing wrong in exercising their constitutional right to free speech and a free press."

LOS ANGELES — A Riverside police officer who faced racial discrimination and harassment prevailed in his six-year lawsuit against the city.

Roger Sutton, who is African American, was a 17-year veteran of the Riverside Police Department when he approached the ACLU/SC in 1999. After an incident in his K-9 unit he received unequal treatment, and when he objected, the department launched a campaign of harassment against him. Scott Silverman, a noted labor and employment attorney at Morrison & Foerster, took over the case from co-counsel ACLU/SC in 2000.

'I am relieved this is finally over,' said Sutton. 'Hopefully my case encourages the department to apply equal standards of justice to its officers and to not lash out at officers when they protest unfair treatment.'

'This case sends a message that Riverside police need to take racial discrimination and harassment seriously,' said Silverman. 'The leadership of the department treated him unfairly and then retaliated against him when he objected.'

In October 2005, a jury compensated Sutton for lost wages and medical expenses that totaled more than $140,000 and awarded him $1.5 million for emotional distress over the department's treatment of him. The Riverside Police Department then settled the suit rather than continue to pursue an appeal of the jury award. The settlement awarded Mr. Sutton the full amount of the jury verdict.

The ACLU/SC pursued reforms in the Riverside Police Department after the shooting of 19-year-old Tyisha Miller by four officers in December 1998. Miller, who was African American, apparently suffered a seizure while waiting in a locked car. Police shot her 27 times, killing her. The ACLU/SC and civil rights lawyer Constance L. Rice represented Officer Rene Rodriguez, who reported the Riverside Police Department's mishandling of the shooting.

Morrison & Foerster is one of California's largest law firms and took on this case as part of its long-standing commitment to important social and civil rights issues. For more information, visit www.mofo.com.