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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF INDIANA

ANDREW U. D. STRAW, ) 

Plaintiff, )

v. ) Case No.: 3:16-cv-342

CITY OF SOUTH BEND, AND ) Hon.____________________

PETE BUTTIGIEG, MAYOR ) Judge Presiding

OF SOUTH BEND, )

Defendants. ) Jury Trial Demanded

COMPLAINT 

 

I, plaintiff Andrew U. D. Straw, for my Complaint against the 

defendants herein, complain in this ADA Title II and Rehabilitation Act

of 1973, Section 504, lawsuit that the defendants violated my right to be 

free of embarrassment and humiliation, and instead should provide

access as required under law when the defendants refused to make 

downtown South Bend accessible in its handicap parking:

FACTS REGARDING MY DISABILITIES, DISABILITY RIGHTS 

LEGAL WORK, AND SOUTH BEND VIOLATIONS 

 

1. I am an attorney, Active in Good Standing, licensed in the State of 

Indiana, Bar# 23378-53. I also have a license in the Commonwealth of 

Virginia, VSB# 43651, currently in Inactive in Good Standing Status.

2. I am also licensed to practice law before the Northern and 

Southern Districts of Indiana, since 2002.

3. My residence is in Cook County, Illinois. I am an Illinois

registered voter and my residence is 241A Brittany Dr., Streamwood, IL 

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60107. My registered agent and official office mailing address is located 

at 1900 E. Golf Rd., Suite 950A, Schaumburg, IL 60173.

4. I have engaged in reform efforts in St. Joseph County, Indiana, 

both regarding disability discrimination at the Indiana Democratic 

Party headquarters and sexual harassment at the Housing Authority of 

South Bend.

5. I have severe physical and mental disabilities from public service

and I receive SSDI due to these injuries to my person as well as 

discrimination I have experienced, as envisioned per the ADA and 

Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

6. I broke both of my legs and my pelvis was crushed in a car wreck 

on my way to work at the Indiana Supreme Court on 2/22/2001.

7. Due to these severe physical injuries, I have a handicap placard 

issued by the State of Illinois. (Exhibit 1). I have also set up a webpage 

with x-rays and an MRI of my injuries: www.andrewudstraw.com

8. I have scoliosis, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, migraines, 

inter alia, from being poisoned in the womb and as an infant at Camp 

LeJeune, North Carolina, from 1968-1970. The scoliosis also 

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contributes to balance issues that I have with these severe injuries to 

my legs and hip.

9. I am representing myself and 3 family members (one for my 

mother’s wrongful death) due to the poisoning at the base. Straw v. 

USA, 1:11-md-2218-TWT (N.D. Ga.) I was born at the base due to my 

father, Phillip U.D. Straw, a U.S. Marine Corps sergeant, being 

stationed at Camp LeJeune as a U.S. Marine from 1968-1970, prior to 

his service in Vietnam. He served at MCAS New River at the base and 

learned helicopter mechanical and electrical repairs. He was in charge 

of a team that kept 24 helicopters flying during the Vietnam War, 24/7.

10. I have pursued justice for the 200,000 Children of Camp LeJeune

who were poisoned by the federal government over more than three 

decades. My proposed bill for compensation was on TV in 2015:

https://youtu.be/MKojwUm0qwk

11. I have experienced discrimination, retaliation, and interference in 

my work as a disability rights lawyer and civil rights lawyer based on 

the above disabilities, including about 30 instances of discrimination by 

my former employer, the Indiana Supreme Court, and its agencies. See, 

Straw v. Dixon, et. al., 3:16-cv-276-RL-JEM (N.D. Ind.); Straw v. 

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Indiana Supreme Court, 1:15-cv-1015-RLY-DKL (S.D. Ind.); In the 

Matter of Andrew U. D. Straw, 98S00-1601-DI-00012 (Ind.)

12. There was TV coverage of my efforts in 2011 to make the Indiana 

Democratic Party provide proper handicap parking and handicap

entrances at its South Bend Headquarters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DebpmIA0oc

13. I brought an Indiana Civil Rights Law complaint against the 

Indiana Democratic Party over its inaccessible HQ in South Bend in 

2012, originally with the Cause Number PAHA12111565 at the Indiana 

Civil Rights Commission (ICRC). I failed to get relief from the 

Commission, despite a 6-0 vote in my favor by the Commission on 

2/28/2014. On appeal at the Indiana Supreme Court, the case was 

Straw v. Indiana Democratic Party, 93A02-1406-EX-00399 (Ind. 2015).

14. During Oral Argument before the ICRC, the Democratic Party by 

counsel argued that the Party has a constitutional right not to associate 

with disabled people. That argument appears to have swayed the ICRC. 

This shows the attitude common in South Bend, that my work to open 

up the Democratic HQ to disabled Hoosiers, disabled veterans, disabled 

seniors, disabled Indiana Supreme Court ex-employees, was not 

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welcome and that Democrats opposed it. The Party’s counsel said so, 

making obnoxious constitutional arguments. The Indiana Supreme 

Court failed to protect my rights in the above decision on 2/27/2015.

15. The Democratic Party Headquarters continues not to have any 

handicap spaces in its parking lot in South Bend. (Exhibit 2, photos 

taken Memorial Day, 5/30/2016)

16. I have sought the assistance of the Federal Highway 

Administration’s Office of Civil Rights in 2015, but this appears to have 

resulted in no changes.

17. The attorney for the City of South Bend, Aladean DeRose, has 

stated to me that the handicap parking meets ADA standards even 

when I explained how it does not. (Exhibit 3). The attorney for South 

Bend stated, for instance, that access aisles in fact do exist because the 

City includes bike lanes as being part of the calculation of access aisles. 

The photographs show that the City is in fact including bike lanes.

18. I explained why this is in violation of ADA standards very clearly

to the City Attorney by email on April 19, 2015. (Exhibit 4). 

19. Previously, I had asked for an audit, but the City refused to do an 

audit, instead defending its lack of enforcement under the Building 

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Department by saying I could file a federal lawsuit against private 

business owners. (Exhibit 5). When there is a conspiracy, led by the 

government, the government is most responsible. When there is a lack 

of real handicap spaces and that helps businesses not to have to deal 

with disabled people, the government instigated de facto discrimination 

in those businesses, and it should pay and remediate its violations. 

20. It is critical that the City provide handicap parking around the 

Federal Courthouse in South Bend. Not doing so is per se restricting 

access to the ADA, which is a federal law. It is the height of irony that 

26 years after the ADA was passed, South Bend still has trouble giving 

people access to the federal court where ADA rights are vindicated.

21. In Fortyune v. City of Lomita, 2:11-cv-06644-DDP-JCG (9th Cir. 

2014), it was clearly established by a federal court of appeals that 

handicap parking is required even if regulations do not exist yet.

https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/crt/legacy/2014/09/08/fortyune

opinion.pdf

22. However, the Justice Department does provide technical 

assistance manuals to help local governments comply with the ADA.

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This is one such manual, governing restriping:

http://www.ada.gov/restriping_parking/restriping2015.html

23. Note that in the restriping manual, one out of every six spaces in 

the parking lot serving a public entity must have handicap spaces and a 

minimum of one must be van-accessible, but more may be required. 

24. The Building Department of South Bend (Exhibit 2.4) has a 

parking lot adjacent to it, and there are no handicap spaces at all in 

that parking lot. This is the agency that enforces the ADA standards on 

a local level, and it is absolutely unacceptable that its parking lot has

no handicap spaces serving disabled people. With the inappropriately 

marked and sized handicap spaces on the street, the Building 

Department has NO real handicap parking. 

25. It is no wonder, 26 years after the ADA was passed, that the ADA 

is not being effectively enforced in the City when the Building 

Department itself violates the Act.

26. The restriping Technical Assistance Manual provides that all 

disability parking must have access aisles and that these aisles must be 

clearly marked, like the rest of the handicap space (Features of 

Accessible Parking Spaces, Notes 1-5). 

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27. Note also that the parking space must be 96 inches wide, which is 

eight feet wide. None of the handicap parallel parking in South Bend 

on the street that I photographed is 8 feet wide and marked, with 

another 60 inches of access aisle. The photos show that there are no 

ground markings, even when these are required to distinguish handicap 

parking from other parking. (Exhibits 2.0, 201, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5)

28. Access aisles for vans have a minimum width of 96 inches and van 

spaces are 132 inches-wide, which is 11 feet. There are no such van 

spaces around the City-County building, or the Building Department, or 

Democratic HQ, or Federal Courthouse, on the street.

29. Some people who are disabled use power wheelchairs. With no 

access aisles, they are being asked to exit with no accessible features at 

all, into a bike lane or directly into active lanes of traffic. On the 

passenger side, there is no ramp for any of these spaces, and an access 

aisle may not be placed on a sidewalk above street level. (Exhibit 4, p. 

2). This is a tragedy waiting to happen, and I will not tolerate it, so I 

am asking relief to prevent the tragedy that will come from ignoring the 

ADA or glossing over its requirements.

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30. I took these photos on Memorial Day as part of my remembering 

veterans who come back disabled from war. We can give them handicap 

parking in downtown South Bend in 2016. The City has had long 

enough and the rules are clear. The Justice Department has provided 

the rules. Now the City must follow them.

31. There are no real van spaces, indeed no real handicap spaces, on 

the street serving the Federal Courthouse in South Bend. This suborns 

the lack of access required under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 

504, which requires federal agencies to be accessible. The Court has an 

accessible entrance and it appears to be marked properly. But the 

Federal Court does not pave the street. South Bend is responsible for 

providing handicap parking to the Court’s employees and citizens 

asking for justice at that location.

32. I have made complaints to the Building Department in South 

Bend about the lack of handicap parking at the Democratic HQ in its 

parking lot, which it shares with the InstyPrint business. (Exhibit 3)

33. I made a complaint (Exhibit 4) on August 14, 2013 regarding the 

long-term inappropriate entrances of the Indiana Democratic Party in 

downtown South Bend. This report included the mayor’s office, the 

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Building Department, the City Attorney, the Indiana Civil Rights 

Commission, and many others.

34. South Bend is a Democratic town and if disabled people cannot 

easily and safely enter the Democratic Party HQ premises when the 

Party invites in the public, that’s discrimination. The City is allowing 

the Democratic Party parking lot (Exhibit 2.1) not to have handicap 

parking, and the handicap parking the City provides is not handicap 

parking because it is not wide enough and not properly marked, under 

either state or federal law.

35. This lawsuit is about the City and its suborning discrimination by 

not enforcing the building code or the ADA, which is not a building code, 

but a civil rights Act. I specifically asked the Building Department to 

help me, but it refused. This is in keeping with the fact that the 

Building Department does not even provide handicap parking—not 

even one space—in its own parking lot adjacent to that building. 

36. The City refused to listen when I asked that the Building 

Department enforce the ADA rather than letting these violations slide. 

(Exhibit 5). 

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37. I aver that the Building Code does include the ADA standards and 

the Building Department is required to enforce those standards. If the 

City does not do so, it violates the ADA, Title II, because disabled 

people deserve enforcement. Enforcement of the Building Code is

something that disabled people can expect. It is a City service.

38. When I drive around downtown South Bend, I see a multitude of 

ADA violations, including at union halls, businesses, law firms, and 

government agencies. It is not acceptable, after the ADA was passed 26 

years ago and the Rehabilitation Act was passed 43 years ago, that such 

intentional refusal to enforce handicap parking standards happens in 

South Bend.

39. I ran for Congress in 2011 as a Democrat in the 2nd District of 

Indiana and pursued disability access as a major part of my campaign. 

I was humiliated by the Democratic Party for doing so when its HQ in 

South Bend had no ramp and excluded both me and disabled people

who supported me. It is now 5 years later and I continue to feel 

humiliated, excluded, and disrespected as a member of the South Bend 

community when I visit when violations continue and the city 

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government refuses—absolutely refuses—to recognize that it did 

anything wrong.

40. Because the City Attorney refuses to see that anything is wrong, 

everything stays the same. All the same violations continue, 5 years 

later.

41. I ask compensation and I ask for an injunction to make South 

Bend simply comply with the law. I am a national leader in disability 

rights legal work. The Indiana Protection & Advocacy Service (IPAS) 

recognized my expertise on disability issues by making me a finalist to 

be IPAS Executive Director in 2014. Further, in 2014 U.S. OPM found 

me to be “qualified” to be the General Counsel of the U.S. Access Board, 

one of the top disability law positions in the federal government, in 

charge of setting standards like handicap parking under the ADA.. The 

U.S. Army Medical Command found me “qualified” to be Attorney 

Advisor at the MEDCOM headquarters, also in 2014.

42. When I say that there are violations of the ADA, I know that there 

are. I can measure. I can read the Act and the technical assistance and 

regulations. But the City and its City Attorney act like I am stupid and 

reject what I measure and explain to them, out of hand. I would like to 

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see the City Attorney apologize to the disabled public after such 

disregard for civil rights. The City Attorney purposefully 

misinterpreted the ADA, Title II, so that disabled people are excluded

from the center of South Bend, including the seat of government and 

the Federal Courthouse.

COUNT I: CITY OF SOUTH BEND VIOLATES ADA TITLE II AND 

REHABILITATION ACT OF 1973, SECTION 504, IN NOT 

PROVIDING PROPER HANDICAP PARKING SURROUNDING THE 

CITY-COUNTY BUILDING, AT THE BUILDING DEPARTMENT, 

AROUND THE FEDERAL COURTHOUSE, AND REFUSES TO 

ENFORCE THE ADA IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY PARKING LOT 

ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE CITY-COUNTY BUILDING, 

INTER ALIA 

43. Reviewing the photos of the downtown area around the CityCounty Building and the Federal Courthouse, it is easy to see the 

violations. The City provides what it calls handicap parking, but it is 

clear than none of the handicap parking signs create a handicap 

parking space unless they meet ADA, Title II standards, which the 

federal government provides on www.ada.gov and in the regulations 

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pertaining thereto. The restriping standards, supra, were issued in 

2015. Current regulations under Title II were issued in 2010. But the 

Fortyune case shows that handicap parking that is reasonably provided 

is a requirement whether there are specific standards in the regulations 

or not. 

44. The violations downtown, which I photographed on Memorial Day, 

05/30/2016, also fall under 29 U.S.C. §794, the Rehabilitation Act of 

1973, Section 504. I will seek discovery or admissions that the City of 

South Bend has taken federal funds making it responsible for Rehab 

Act violations by the City. 

45. I have asked repeatedly over the past 5 years for handicap access 

to meet ADA standards in South Bend, but the city resisted just like the 

Housing Authority when I demanded change for my clients in that 

sexual harassment nightmare of a workplace. 

46. I want compensation for the lack of handicap parking when I 

asked for this last year. This has gone on long enough. The law is on 

my side. The violations are egregious and deliberate. I have been 

humiliated time and again when I was told by the City that I was 

wrong and that disability access is perfect in South Bend. (Exhibit 3) 

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47. This was a slap in the face to me. I am a leader on disability 

issues and to repeatedly hear the same excuses for violations made me 

feel rejected as a human being, attacked as a civil rights leader, and 

embarrassed when I tried to effect change and was rejected due to the 

hostility of people in high places in South Bend. I ask compensatory 

damages for the violation of my rights and emotional damages due to 

the continual discrimination against myself and other disabled people I 

care about in South Bend. 

COUNT II: INJUNCTION 

48. Because the City is suborning discrimination under Title III of the 

ADA by not living up to its own obligations under the ADA, Title II, I 

ask for injunctive relief. Please direct the City of South Bend to do a 

full audit of all public and private parking lots within the City limits to 

ensure that every business that provides parking also provides the 

handicap parking required by law. 

49. Since the City has indicated a willingness to dedicate a certain 

percentage of its parking downtown to handicap parking, I ask this 

Court to direct the City to adjust every handicap parking space that is 

currently marked in any way by a sign so that the handicap space 

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meets all of the requirements of the ADA, including its striping 

technical standards and size standards, mentioned supra. Just because 

the City puts a sign up does not mean a handicap space has been 

created. Without access aisles, disabled people will have to get out into 

open traffic or bike lanes, and the ADA certainly does not allow this. 

50. In addition, I ask the City to be directed to create handicap 

parking on the street at the Federal Courthouse building and built in 

such a way that the Courthouse will have handicap parking that meets 

ADA standards. 

51. Further, I would ask specifically that the City be directed to 

enforce the ADA against any known or apparent violators. One very 

obvious example is the Democratic HQ across the street from the CityCounty building. The mayor actually provided a ramp that is too short 

for ADA standards, with no handrails. The City is responsible for 

violations at Democratic HQ when it did not a single thing in over 20 

years to enforce the ADA under the Building Code. 

52. That’s not acceptable, especially when Democrats run South Bend. 

A one-party system that excludes on the basis of disability is precisely 

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the sort of situation that cries out for judicial remedy, and I respectfully 

ask the Court for that remedy. 

REQUEST FOR RELIEF 

53. I request $250,000 in compensatory damages that I believe after 

South Bend violated a law that is so dear to my heart for 5 years since I 

started asking is now due. Given the fact that the ADA was passed 26 

years ago, I have been violated by the City since my car accident in 

2001. Barnes v. Gordon, 536 U.S. 181 (2002) provides for compensatory 

damages in ADA, Title II, cases and Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 

504, cases and I ask the full amount of available damages due to the 

exclusion and emotional injuries I have sustained. I seek compensation 

because the City of South Bend has violated its obligations under 42 

U.S.C. §12132 not to discriminate or exclude based on disability. If the 

Court and a jury feel that more is warranted, I would accept it and I 

would use that money to help disabled people and make further efforts 

to “eliminate ... discrimination,” which is the purpose of the Act. 42 

U.S.C. § 12101(b)(1).

 

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JURISDICTION AND VENUE 

54. This Court has jurisdiction over this action under 28 U.S.C. § 

1331, as it is a federal question action based on the Americans with 

Disabilities Act, Title II, and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 

504, also known as 29 U.S.C. § 794.

55. Venue properly lies in the Northern District of Indiana under 28 

U.S.C. §1391(b), as a substantial part of the events giving rise to this 

action occurred within this district.

I, Attorney Andrew U. D. Straw, certify that to the best of my 

knowledge, information, and belief, formed after an inquiry reasonable 

under the circumstances, that the above statements and factual 

representations are true.

Respectfully submitted,

/s/ ANDREW U. D. STRAW

1900 E. Golf Rd., Suite 950A

Schaumburg, IL 60173 

Telephone: (312) 985-7333 Fax: (877) 310-9097

andrew@andrewstraw.com 

June 1, 2016

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE 

I, Andrew U. D. Straw, certify that I filed the above COMPLAINT and 

EXHIBITS and CIVIL COVER SHEET along with my IN FORMA 

PAUPERIS PETITION and PROPOSED ORDER with the Clerk of this 

Court via the Court's CM/ECF system on June 1, 2016 and this will be 

served on all attorneys of record as well as permanently available 

through Pacer.gov. Also filed are the proposed Summons forms for the 

City of South Bend and its mayor, Pete Buttigieg. Upon issuance of 

Summons by the Clerk, I will have Complaint, Exhibits, and Summons 

served upon the City of South Bend and Mayor Pete Buttigieg. First, 

however, I will ask for waivers of service and provide all of the above

files via email to City Attorney Aladean DeRose at 

aderose@southbendin.gov and Pete Buttigieg at the following address:

mayorpete@southbendin.gov

Mayor Pete Buttigieg City of South Bend

County-City Building, Room 1400 N C/o Aladean M. DeRose

227 W. Jefferson Blvd. Office of the City Attorney

South Bend, IN 46601 County-City Building 1200

574-233-0311 227 W. Jefferson Blvd.

South Bend, IN 46601

Respectfully submitted,

/s/ ANDREW U. D. STRAW

1900 E. Golf Rd., Suite 950A 

Schaumburg, IL 60173

Telephone: (312) 985-7333 Fax: (877) 310-9097

andrew@andrewstraw.com

Plaintiff, Proceeding Pro Se

June 1, 2016

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