Press Coverage

Washington Post, September 28, 2000

City Settles Second Bias Suit Against Paramedics
Racist Language Alleged By Asthmatic Child's Kin

For the second time in two months, the District government has settled a discrimination lawsuit against the city's paramedics, this time paying the family of an asthmatic child $165,000 after fire department employees allegedly used racist language and stopped for a soda instead of rushing the 6-year-old to the hospital. The settlement was announced last week on the eve of a D.C. Superior Court trial before Judge Herbert B. Dixon Jr., closing a suit filed by Elaine Jefferson after the incident March 6, 1998. Her grandson eventually was treated and released from Children's Hospital that day, but she was furious at the callous treatment she said she received from two white paramedics.

"I'm pleased that D.C. has finally taken responsibility for the actions of their employees," Jefferson said in a statement last Friday.

The settlement comes six weeks after the city paid $1.75 million to the family of a man who died after being ridiculed by medics in the minutes after a 1995 car accident.

In that case, Tyrone M. Hunter, 24, was living as and dressed as a woman at the time of the wreck. Instead of treating Hunter, medics laughed at him, a jury ruled, allowing his injuries to become fatal. The city paid the settlement after contesting it for more than a year.

Mayor Anthony A. Williams said in a statement that "discrimination by officials or employees of any agency of the District of Columbia government based on race, gender or sexual orientation, of the nature alleged in this case, will not be tolerated."

Now, just weeks later, the same department has settled another discrimination lawsuit, although the terms of the Jefferson case do not include an admission of wrongdoing by the city or paramedics.

The case was settled in the best interest of all parties," said Leigh A. Slaughter, spokeswoman for the D.C. corporation counsel.

In the suit, Jefferson, a custodian at the U.S. Department of Energy, said she dialed 911 when her grandson began having a severe asthma attack. Medics responded to her home in the 2000 block of Second Street NE.

But one medic, Walter Gronchala, allegedly refused to come inside and referred to the child with a racial slur, nearly setting off a sidewalk confrontation with bystanders. The suit further charged that once the child was aboard the ambulance, the medics stopped to drink a soda, despite the asthma attack emergency.

"This is just another example of the fire department being sued for violating the city's human rights law," said Richard F. Silber, the lawyer who handled the Jefferson and Hunter cases. "It suggests the city isn't properly training their employees." 

Washington Post, September 28, 2000