LOS ANGELES, Oct. 31, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Brad Lund, grandson of the late Walt Disney, filed an appeal with the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, asking the panel to reverse the
lower court's decision to dismiss a civil rights and
anti-disabilities discrimination suit filed against Los Angeles
County Probate Court Judge David J.
Cowan and the Los Angeles County,
California Superior Court system. Lund asserted in his
federal court complaint that Judge Cowan violated his civil rights
under Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and a provision
of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Mr. Lund alleged that his rights were violated by Judge Cowan
when the judge said, in open court and recorded on a court
transcript, on June 25, 2019 (p.19,
II. 10-13), "Do I want to give 200 million
dollars, effectively, to someone who may suffer, on some
level, from Down syndrome? The answer is no." This statement, Mr.
Lund said, was one of the illegal grounds for depriving him of his
right to his own counsel and due process.
Sandra Slaton, the lead attorney
for Mr. Lund in his lawsuit, immediately asked Judge Cowan to
withdraw his public assertion, since it was contradicted by a DNA
test from a respected lab that precluded even the possibility that
Mr. Lund "may" have Down Syndrome. "Denied," was Judge
Cowan's one-word response.
"No person should be deprived of their day in court on such
infringements except under the narrowest exceptions, which have no
application here," said Lund's co-counsel in the case, Lanny J. Davis, a former Special Counsel to
President Bill Clinton, said.
The US District Court dismissed the case not on the merits but
based on inapplicable legal doctrines. Lund claimed Judge
Cowan does not have immunity under the ADA. Similarly, a sitting
judge can be subject to a "prospective" order for declaratory
relief. Moreover, the brief argued that the Younger doctrine
requiring federal court deference to state courts was not
applicable here. "Assuming all the allegations in our complaint
about constitutional and statutory violations by the court are true
– which is the rule in dismissing a case on the law – then we hope
the 9th circuit panel agrees that Brad
Lund deserves his day in court," attorney Davis
asserted.
CONTACT: Lincoln Zweig,
lzweig@tridentdmg.com
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SOURCE Lanny Davis