Weldeyohannes v. Washington

In short

When our client, a wheelchair-bound prisoner, found out he’d be transferred to a new facility, he had a simple request: Please take me there in a wheelchair van. I can’t climb the steps to board a regular coach-style bus. Instead of accommodating his disability, the State sent a squad of riot cops to carry, drop, and drag him onto the bus. They broke his shoulder and worsened his longstanding knee and back injuries, and the trauma of the ordeal left him with PTSD. The district court dismissed his claims, holding that a “clerical error” in the State’s computer systems absolved the State of liability. That’s not how this works, and we’ve taken his case up on appeal.