WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – A nonprofit organization alleges its mandate to protect people with disabilities in the nation's capital is being interfered with because of a failure to comply with records requests.
University Legal Services Inc. filed a complaint on Feb. 9 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the District of Columbia, Mayor Muriel Bowser and Director of the District of Columbia Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services Clinton Lacey citing the Development Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act and the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness Act.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that the defendants violated its right to "obtain from defendants the complete, unredacted records relating to allegations of abuse and neglect of a child with disability, including investigations conducted by the District of Columbia Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services." It alleges this failure to comply interferes with its "federal mandate to act to protect people with disabilities in the District of Columbia."
The plaintiff seeks declaratory judgment that defendants have violated plaintiff’s rights, injunction ordering the defendants to release complete copies of all records, award of attorneys’ fees, expenses, costs, and other relief that the court deems appropriate. It is represented by Sandra Bernstein, Mary Nell McGarity Clark and Lyndsay Niles of Disability Rights DC in Washington, D.C. and Leslie A. Davis and Matthew Cohen of Crowell & Moring LLP in Washington, D.C.
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia case number 1:18-cv-301