Boulder City Council voted Thursday night to settle a lawsuit filed by Joslynn Montoya, a deaf woman, who had her children taken from her for two months, following miscommunication at a domestic violence shelter and with police.
“We believe this is a good settlement,” said Andrew Montoya, her lawyer. “Although no amount of money will ever be enough to make up for the harm done to Ms. Montoya's family, this is a good settlement that brings Boulder into compliance with the law, makes this sort of discrimination less likely to happen to others in the future, provides Ms. Montoya and her family with some relief, and brings them some finality and closure.”
The lawsuit, which was settled for $75,000, alleged that the Boulder Police Department lacks policies that ensure accessible communication with people with disabilities. Under the settlement, Boulder has agreed to adopt more policies and practices to guarantee effective, accessible communication for disabled people.
Montoya and the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition sued the city last June over the May 2022 incident. She and her two children were staying in a domestic violence shelter to avoid a former partner. Staff told her she had to vacate the shelter by the end of the day, although she believed the deadline was extended to 7 p.m.
Officers with the Boulder Police Department showed up at her door at 5:30 p.m. and attempted to communicate with her, knowing she was deaf, according to the complaint. One officer claimed to understand American Sign Language and attempted to “fingerspell,” where one uses their hand to represent letters from the alphabet and spell out words.
Montoya alleged the officers ignored requests for an ASL interpreter during their interactions. When officers tried to arrange a hotel room for Montoya and her kids, she did not understand that she needed to provide a security deposit on a credit card. That led officers to believe she could not afford a room.
Because of this communication breakdown, officers removed Montoya’s two kids from her custody and took them to her sister-in-law’s. The children were kept from Montoya for an additional two months.
Andrew Montoya, Joslynn Montoya’s lawyer, said it took two months for custody to be restored because she had to prove to Boulder County Housing and Human Services that the kids would be safe with her.
“Notably, because the Boulder police decided to remove custody in the manner that they did, Ms. Montoya was not able to work her usual HHS case worker, and had to work with the HHS case worker who was on call the night of the incident during this process,” Andrew Montoya said.
When the lawsuit was first filed, the city denied it intentionally discriminated against Montoya.
