Posted on 01/06/2018 5:03:40 AM PST by dis.kevin
A federal lawsuit filed by Eugene Wright of Meadville claims authorities got the wrong Mr. Wright when they handcuffed him, took him to Meadville Medical Center where he was drugged against his will for making claims to harm himself and others.
The suit claims it was all done without checking his identity to make sure they had the right Mr. Wright.
Wright, 63, and his wife, Carolyn, filed suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court for Western Pennsylvania against Meadville Medical Center, Meadville Police Department and Stairways Behavioral Health for the June 15, 2017, incident that began outside Wright's home.
Wright's suit claims false imprisonment, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault, battery, civil rights violation, invasion of privacy and a loss of consortium with his wife. Carolyn Wright has joined Wright in suing the hospital, police and mental health agency for the loss of consortium.
The suit claims Wright has the same name as a different Eugene Wright, who had been at an orthopedic physician's office around 10 a.m. June 15, 2017, and made threats to hurt himself and others.
The suit alleges on June 15, 2017, at about 1:45 p.m., Wright was walking outside his home to his vehicle when he saw two Meadville Police Department officers and Robin Dowling, executive director of Stairways Behavioral Health, standing beside his vehicle.
The suit claims one of the officers then told Wright of the office incident. Wright said they were mistaken because he had been working his job as a customer service representative at Advance Auto Parts of Meadville at the time of the office incident, according to the suit.
Wright asked the police officers and Dowling to call the auto parts store to verify Wright had been at work that morning, but they refused, the suit says.
Wright then was handcuffed, but Wright repeatedly told police they had the wrong person and repeatedly requested he be able to show his identification and Social Security card to prove it, according to the suit.
The suit claims after arriving at the hospital, the hospital staff didn't check Wright’s identification, even though Wright previously was a patient at Meadville Medical Center. The hospital had medical records with Wright’s correct identification information, according to the suit.
The suit says a doctor then ordered Wright be injected with a chemical sedation of intramuscular Haldol and Ativan.
Wright told the nurse he didn't want to be injected with drugs and repeatedly said the wrong person was at the hospital, the suit claims.
One of the police officers then told Wright if he didn’t agree to receive the shots, officers would hold Wright down so the nurse could inject him, the suit said.
Wright didn't want to be held down by police, but was given no choice in the matter, so he eventually permitted the nurse to administer him the two shots, the suit states. The drugs Wright was given were against his will and ordered for the specifications of the wrong individual, the suit claims.
Hospital staff, police and Dowling later learned they had mistaken Wright's identity because there was another individual named Eugene Wright, the suit claims.
Early retirement to a million dollar mansion complete with servants in exchange for one night of living hell. I wouldn’t order that but if they forced it on me I guess it would have to do.
Pretty strange.
I cannot give blood, or get stitches out even, without giving my name and birth date at each step of the process.
This crap seems to go in waves, or maybe it gets press attention, such as it is, in waves. For a couple of years cops were shooting dogs, sometimes just because they saw dogs and that died down. SWAT against seemingly random housesnyone for little or no reason was big a decade ago. Maybe it all just got so normal that it elicits very little attention any more. Police seem to follow fads as egregiously as psychologists do. Police fads get a lot of innocent people killed, however, Psych fads just mess up some lives without physically killing people.
Just sign the check and Mr. Wright will fill in the amount he feels is fair.
Or would you prefer to head to court and take your chances.
“This crap seems to go in waves, or maybe it gets press attention, such as it is, in waves.”
“It were better did the author employ a proofreader.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.