Posted on 09/28/2011 12:44:55 PM PDT by Hunton Peck
Dwight Darrow tells me he's not related to Clarence Darrow.
Still, I think the attorney for Sheboygan Mayor Bob Ryan has a legal argument lots of folks in this state are, unfortunately, going to love.
He argues Ryan — who has a habit of getting pie-eyed in public and acting loutish and completely embarrassing the city he represents — is disabled.
In fact, the mayor is so disabled by his alcoholism, says Mr. Darrow, that he is covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
As a result, the Sheboygan City Council cannot legally remove the disabled mayor from office, argues Darrow.
And if Ryan is removed, moreover, Mr. Darrow will recommend the mayor file a claim against his own city for violating his rights as a disabled man.
Darrow tells me Ryan has not yet authorized that sort of claim in the event he loses his job. Nor, it seems, has the poor, disabled mayor told his attorney to stop comparing him to somebody with cancer who has gone through chemotherapy.
"Let's assume you have cancer and you have gone through chemotherapy and now your head is bald and you are wearing a scarf and your employer is embarrassed about your looks," Darrow told a Sheboygan reporter who basically asked why Ryan couldn't be removed for embarrassing the city. "Do you separate the embarrassment about one's looks from the cancer? I don't know how you do that."
I thought maybe Darrow would be a little embarrassed about being caught on camera making such a remark.
But no.
When I asked him if folks with cancer might be offended by being compared with a mayor who gets drunk in public and makes a fool of himself, the attorney did not back down a whit.
He told me it's a good analogy.
Anne Brown, a Kiel resident who has had cancer and also is a recovering alcoholic, doesn't think so. Brown says there is "absolutely no comparison."
Alcoholism is a disease, but it is one of will, she said. "The disease of cancer has nothing at all to do with will."
"To suggest that your disease has you doing those things (Ryan allegedly did) would be to excuse every alcoholic and every behavior there is."
Precisely.
But Ryan is far from alone.
Lots of public employees all throughout Wisconsin might argue the same "disability" forced them into bars or behind steering wheels.
Over in Sauk County, for instance, four different law enforcement officers have been arrested and accused of drunken driving in the past year or so while off duty. In Milwaukee not long ago, an officer was convicted of pointing a gun at two people while he was off duty and drunk; and it's not uncommon for other officers to be caught driving drunk.
There are typically on-duty repercussions, such as suspension or even firing.
About a year ago in Sheboygan County, in the meantime, a sheriff's deputy was disciplined by his department after he was shot with his own gun while off duty at a bachelor party in Forest County.
It was never clear if the deputy was drunk, although the guy who shot him originally was charged with operating a firearm while drunk.
A criminal complaint alleged the other guy took the deputy's pistol from a shelf at about 1:30 a.m., struck a cowboy pose and then pulled the trigger and said "bang," not thinking the gun was loaded. It was.
Speaking of loaded, Bob Ryan won't be mayor forever.
But his example could unfortunately inspire lots of other "disabled" folks to contend they can't stop pouring too much alcohol down their all-too-healthy throats.
You just hope the argument his lawyer is making isn't somehow contagious.
I don’t know the current policy but for purposes of Veterans’ Benefits and such alcoholism was long classified as a disability. It was a non-ratable disability, that’s the kind for which you can’t get any compensation or breaks.
The mayor is truly disabled, by his own misconduct.
Isn’t “mayor” usually an elected position?
Another example of a rip off. Must be a damn liberal.
Under that scenario, many employers would lose a wrongful termination suit because the employee is declaring a disability and expressing the intent to remove it. The ADA would protect the employee in this case. However, when Bob shows up drunk again, he can be fired.
I’ve been to Sheboygan. No offense to anyone who calls it home, but I’d probably drink heavily if I lived there... especially in the winter.
;-)
So if the “lout” starts getting physical in a bar and he gets punched out is it a Hate Crime?
Yeah, winter.. But then St. Patty’s, & Brewers season, then May’s Chilton Micro-Beerfest, then Road America, then Independence Day, then golf, charter fishing, more Road America & more Brewers, more golf, a gazzilion Oktoberfest, then full-on Packers-Badgers season. Repeat.
I’m assuming that he was elected, and the proposal is to remove him before his term is up, but I don’t know for certain.
They seem to be considering obesity a disability more and more, so why not alcoholism?
That was sarcasm, btw.
I used to do Social Securitry and SSI disability cases. I won an SSI award for a drunk/alkie once and NEVER did another case like those. Friggin deadbeat drunks.
Rationalization is the second greatest human drive.
Only lawyers have actually made it a profession, however.
At an AA meeting last night, I heard a guy say, “alcoholics aren’t victims, they’re perpetrators”. I don’t know of any AA with some amount of sober time that would look at alcoholism as a disability.
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