How else to explain this travesty documented at Sheelzebub’s?
Bahl, who was on the way to the hospital to visit his girlfriend, was sprayed with a “chemical irritant,” beaten, and kicked. The cops say the 54-year-old man assaulted them. Bahl isn’t commenting on that on the advice of his attorney.
What’s worse, once he was brought to jail, he was refused any access to communication, including an interpreter.
After Bahl entered jail, Fletcher said, a preliminary investigation showed that he wanted to use e-mail and was refused, since prisoners aren’t allowed to use the Internet.
Fletcher said Bahl should have been told in writing that the jail has two portable TTY (teletypewriter) communication devices and on-call sign language interpreters. “That’s what should have happened. We’re investigating to see if it did,” he said.
What is clear is that when Bahl made his first appearance in Ramsey County District Court on Nov. 21, there was no American Sign Language interpreter available to translate the proceedings.
“That was another shocking thing,” said [his son] Chris Bahl, who flew to the Twin Cities that weekend to look for his dad because no one had heard from him in more than two days.
Bahl was finally able to reach someone on the outside world through an inmate, who offered to make the call for him. He called Bahl’s girlfriend, Sue Kovacs, who was ironically relieved. No one knew where he had been for the past three days; before the call, she thought he was dead.