Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - Tuesday September 19, 2000
Tom Hays, Associated Press Writer
In a decision handed down Monday, U.S. District Judge Sterling Johnson said officials violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by "chronically and systematically failing to provide (AIDS patients) with meaningful access to critical subsistence benefits and services."
He called the consequences "devastating."
The opinion stems from a class-action lawsuit filed in federal court on behalf of 25,000 plaintiffs citywide who have AIDS or other HIV-related illnesses.
Johnson's ruling detailed testimony - heard earlier this year at a bench trial - by plaintiffs who described getting the run-around from the Division for AIDS Services for months, if not years. One 51-year-old man, Henry Bradley, said he was denied access to thousands of dollars in medical benefits for two years - an ordeal that caused his fingernails and teeth to fall out.
The judge appointed a federal magistrate to monitor the agency over the next three years.
"This a tremendous victory for people living with AIDS in New York," said Armen Merjian, an attorney for the plaintiff, Housing Works Inc.
Michael Hess, the city's counsel, criticized the ruling and promised an appeal. "Very frankly, I think it's very flawed," Hess said, adding that the judge's opinion was "very poorly done and contains a lot of errors that I hope will be corrected."
Hess said Johnson relied on information that was more than five years old. Statistics cited by Johnson showed that in one out of three cases, the city failed to meet its own 30-day deadline for responding to requests for services. He ordered the city to comply.
The ruling was the latest in which Housing Works has succeeded in forcing Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's administration to overhaul portions of its policies. In 1999, U.S. District Judge Allen Schwartz found that city officials had acted with "retaliatory intent" against the nonprofit group, which has been a relentless critic of Giuliani's policies on AIDS.
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