Opinion ID: 169751
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Mr. Robertson's Incarceration

Text: Mr. Robertson is deaf. His adult-onset hearing loss was gradual, beginning in 1965 and continuing until 1988, when the Veterans Administration determined he is one-hundred-percent disabled. Although he now has a cochlear implant [2] that permits him to hear human voices when the person speaking is facing him and standing only two-to-three feet away, he cannot hear voices emanating from a mechanical device (such as a radio or a television), and he cannot hear the voice of anyone who is not facing him and who is not standing within a few feet of him. Because his hearing loss began later in his life, he has no trouble speaking. When Deputy Emery first arrested Mr. Robertson at his house on November 4, Mr. Robertson asked to call his attorney. Rather than using a traditional telephone, Mr. Robertson initiated a call to his attorney (with the help of his niece) through a relay device installed on his home computer. Deputy Emery then escorted Mr. Robertson to the detention facility, where Deputy Emery told the booking officer that Mr. Robertson has difficulty hearing. During the booking process, when the booking officer asked Mr. Robertson if he had any physical or health problems, Mr. Robertson responded that he did not. Mr. Robertson does not recall telling anyone at the detention facility that he is deaf, but he stated in an affidavit that the officers there simply acted as if they knew I was deaf. He completed the booking process without any form of hearing assistance. The officers then inventoried hearing-aid batteries that Mr. Robertson was carrying in his pocket. After completing the booking process, a detention officer placed Mr. Robertson in a pod, a large jail cell containing several individual cells. The next morning, Mr. Robertson wished to contact his attorney. The pod contained a telephone, which other inmates could use to place outgoing calls anytime between the hours of 6:30 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. The phone was of no use to Mr. Robertson, however, because it was not equipped with a teletypewriter (TTY) or a telecommunication device for the deaf (TDD). A sign affixed to the wall of his cell advised that, if an inmate wanted to contact someone, he or she should leave a note in a slot in the cell. Because the cell did not contain paper or a writing implement Mr. Robertson borrowed some paper and a pencil from another inmate. He wrote a message stating that he wanted to talk with his attorney and left it in the slot. The note did not indicate that he could not use the phone, nor did it contain a request for a TTY or a TDD. No one responded to his note. The cell also contained an intercom system, which permitted an inmate to contact a detention officer in Master Control. Mr. Robertson did not attempt to contact anyone through the intercom system, explaining that [i]f a detention officer spoke back, I wouldn't have heard him, and that detention officer would[,] more likely than not, have ignored the call the same way my note went ignored. Several hours after Mr. Robertson left the note in the slot, a detention officer escorted him from his cell to a room in the detention facility where he was to observe and participate in his probable cause hearing by closed-circuit television. The officer did not tell Mr. Robertson where they were going and Mr. Robertson did not ask. Though Mr. Robertson had not spoken with his attorney that day, his attorney was present in the courtroom during the probable cause hearing. Because Mr. Robertson cannot hear voices projected through mechanical devices, he did not know that he was attending his probable cause hearing, and he could not hear what the judge and his attorney were saying. He told the detention officer that he could not hear what was going on, but she did nothing about it. Other inmates, who were also present in the room for their probable cause hearings, were able to hear the judge and respond to questions posed to them. Mr. Robertson does not know whether the judge asked him any questions. Following the hearing, the court entered an order dismissing the case against Mr. Robertson for lack of probable cause. No one at the facility told him that his case was dismissed. He learned of this disposition from his attorney later that day when he was released from custody.