A woman with developmental disabilities who befriended a Portland firefighter but then was ordered to stay away from him and certain fire stations under threat of a criminal trespassing charge is suing the city for alleged discrimination.
Brandy Tuchscherer first encountered firefighters while rowing with the Wasabi Paddling Club’s “Special Dragons’’ team. She is in her 30s and on the autism spectrum, according to the federal lawsuit filed by her mother.
She considered firefighter Colin McGladrey a mentor and would visit him at different fire stations where he was assigned last year. She told McGladrey of her dream to work as an emergency medical technician and he offered to help her look for jobs, the lawsuit says.
She often would sit on a bench overlooking the Willamette River near the riverside Fire Station 21 before or after her dragon boat practices. Having lost her father in June 2017, she also found solace at that site, her attorneys wrote in the lawsuit.
The city, though, contends she began stalking McGladrey.
The Fire Bureau suggested she limit her visits to once every two weeks unless she had official business at a fire station. She left repeated notes and letters for McGladrey and text messages and voicemails on his city-issued cellphone, according to the city.
Fire Bureau supervisors tried to make it clear to her and her mother, Randi Jones, that the repeated contact interfered with bureau employees and caused safety concerns, a deputy city attorney said in a response to the suit.
Fire Lt. Jason Anderson, for example, went to her home on Sept. 29, 2017, to discuss her conduct and asked that she not contact McGladrey again.
Anderson also sent her a text message that day, saying this wasn’t about “anyone being in trouble’’ but about the need to establish “boundaries at the workplace,’’ according to court papers.
The city contends the plaintiff and her mother were warned that any further unwanted contact with the firefighter could bring a citation for trespassing.
“These reasonable requests were ignored,’’ Deputy City Attorney Ryan C. Bailey wrote in the city’s response. “The city and its employees had valid, lawful, objectively reasonable and non-discriminatory grounds for all actions taken with respect to plaintiff.’’
The plaintiff’s lawyer Daniel Snyder, said that the Fire Bureau’s actions, including excluding her from all bureau properties under the threat of a criminal trespass arrest and a threat to revoke her limited EMT license, were unnecessary and baseless.
She posed no threat to firefighters, the city never obtained a civil stalking order against her and she couldn’t trespass on a public sidewalk, Snyder said.
“She was befriended by a nice fireman who mentored her,’’ Snyder said. “What this case boils down to is it appears some people in the Fire Bureau weren’t comfortable having this developmentally disabled woman around.’’
The lawsuit alleges the city violated the woman’s rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act by denying her contact with the firefighter she befriended, issuing a trespass order against her and excluding her from public property and posting her photo in fire stations.
The city acknowledged in court papers that her photo was placed in some fire stations “so that staff would be aware of potential safety risks.’’
In November 2017, after Tuchsherer left a note and cookies at Fire Station 6, Anderson ordered her to stay away from all fire station properties or she could face a criminal trespass citation.
At one point, Officer Chad Bryson, then assigned to the Police Bureau’s Behavioral Health Unit, contacted the woman by phone. Portland police also contacted her when she was spotted near Fire Station 17, where McGladrey was working last Feb. 21.
Police stopped and held her to investigate why she was there and if any potential crimes, such as trespass or telephone harassment, had occurred, according to the city’s response. No charges were filed.
The city contends the officers had probable cause to detain the woman. It calls the suit meritless and urges the plaintiff to cover the city’s attorney fees.
-- Maxine Bernstein
Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com
Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian