Commission Rules on Rights Complaint

The Maine Human Rights Commission says police in Oxford, Maine violated a deaf man's rights in 2009. David Brown was a witness to a fatal accident involving his daughter. Oxford Police say he never asked for an interpreter and his daughter interpreted for him at the scene. But Brown and his attorney told the commission his daughter was too upset to interpret and she asked officers to provide her father an interpreter, but was never provided one. She was only 17 years old at the time and her insurance for the car she was driving was on her father's policy. A similar complaint against the Oxford County Sheriff’s Department was dismissed by the Rights Commission on a split vote, since deputies of that agency did not interview any witnesses at the scene.