“Paraplegic Activist Leaps From Wheelchair, Runs From Police”

Laura Lee Medley was making a regular career of filing claims against various Southern California entities complaining of violations of her rights as a wheelchair user under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Placed under arrest after police sniffed fraud, Medley leaped from her chair and led authorities on a brief chase which ended with her […]

Laura Lee Medley was making a regular career of filing claims against various Southern California entities complaining of violations of her rights as a wheelchair user under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Placed under arrest after police sniffed fraud, Medley leaped from her chair and led authorities on a brief chase which ended with her capture:

Medley’s claims in California against San Bernardino County, South Pasadena and Long Beach included one allegation that a bus dropped her off near what she called a non-ADA compliant roadway, causing her wheelchair to topple over.

Last year, South Pasadena settled Medley’s claim for almost $7,000.

Medley is also a fugitive with arrest warrants in Arizona for forgery and California for fraud.

(AP/KCRA, May 12; Sploid). For more on dubious handicapped activism, including the California scene where serial complainants abound, see our disabled-rights page.

4 Comments

  • I told this story to my mom, who is handicapped and works for the social security administration as a disability examiner. She not only was NOT surprised, but feels most disabled activists aren’t really disabled.

  • Haha! That’s a hilarious story.. I can just picture it transpiring in my mind! Cracks me up.

  • Aren’t you doing disservice to your readers by labelling her an activist? She was fraud, plain and simple. Did
    she ever claim to be activist?

  • Your complaint, I think, is more suitably directed at the Associated Press, which described Medley as an “activist” in the second sentence of its story, as well as with the headline-writers of the linked news story. (Note the quotation marks around the title of this post).