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| Hearing-impaired inmate sues for phone |
| By Tribune-Review |
| Published: 08/30/2004 |
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Even a hearing-impaired sexual predator who attacked a retarded teenager has the right to use special telephones at the Allegheny County Jail. That's the gist of a federal lawsuit filed against the jail by George D. Walls, 41, of Ross. He claims his constitutional rights were violated because officers limit his access to Telecommunications Device for the Deaf machines. Allegheny County officials filed a motion to dismiss the suit July 12, arguing that Walls has been granted access to the devices as required. Walls' lawsuit is a tactic intended to delay the start of his new trial, county officials said. The jail has four TDD phones that enable deaf inmates to communicate with the outside via a third-party communications assistant. Inmates are allowed access to the phones when not in lock-up and after scheduling time with jail staff. Walls' sister, Rose Walls-Johnston of Dormont, urged her brother to file the lawsuit. She claimed that during several visits in the past 22 months, jail staff ignored her requests for accommodations so she could communicate with her brother. Walls was convicted of sexual and indecent assault for sodomizing a retarded man, then 18, in Ross. The incident occurred in 2002. At the time of his arrest, Walls had recently been released after serving 13 years in a federal penitentiary for computer fraud and forging a federal judge's signature. Allegheny County Senior Common Pleas Judge Raymond Novak granted Walls a new trial in July because he ruled that Walls' rights were violated because he was not provided with real-time captioning services during his first trial. The Allegheny County District Attorney's Office appealed the decision to the state Superior Court. In the lawsuit, Walls is also demanding the jail provide him with three vegetarian meals a day, because he said he is a Seventh Day-Adventist and normal jail food increases his already-high blood-cholesterol levels. The food is bland, too, he wrote. Walls' attorney, William Brandstetter, did not return calls seeking comment. |
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