City OKs settlement with state Dept. of Civil Rights

After a mother was denied information in 2014 from Police Chief Hal Berriman on her special-needs, minor daughter’s sexual assault in the parking lot at Belleville High School, she filed a complaint with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights.
In January, the Department of Civil Rights sent a settlement agreement to the Belleville Police Department and Yuanettis Stevens to settle the situation.
Stevens signed the agreement on Jan. 14 and the Civil Rights Department was waiting for Belleville to sign.
At its Feb. 16 meeting, the Belleville City Council officially accepted the agreement.
The settlement requires Belleville Police:
• Within 30 days of the execution of this agreement, agree to implement a written non-discrimination policy and to provide a copy to the Michigan Department of Civil Rights;
• Within 30 days, to implement a written disability accommodation request policy for the public and to send a copy to the Michigan Department of Civil Rights;
• Within 30 days, to implement a written disability accommodation policy for the public and send a copy to the Michigan Department of Civil Rights;
• Within 30 days, implement a written Freedom of Information policy and procedures on how the public can request a copy of Belleville’s police reports and associated documents or files. In addition, they will provide a copy to the Michigan Department of Civil Rights;
• Within 30 days obtain a Michigan Department of Civil Rights poster and place it within the department where it is visible for all to view;
• Within four months, agrees for all of their [police] employees to undergo training on civil rights laws. Upon completion of the training, send proof to the Michigan Department of Civil Rights.
• Agrees to continue the practice of asking a minor’s parent/guardian permission to interview their child without the parent/guardian present. Belleville agrees they will obtain a signed form from the parent-guardian acknowledging that they have agreed to allow the minor to be interviewed without the parent/guardian.
If Belleville PD follows through as directed, Stevens agrees not to sue.
Belleville city attorney John Hitchcock said the policies the state wants the city already have and they will be provided to the council at a subsequent meeting. Hitchcock also said the city already does “number seven,” getting permission before questioning a minor. When he was informed the complainant states the city didn’t do that, Hitchcock said that was only an allegation.
Stevens was not at the council meeting. She has kept detailed records of the whole incident and has them filed in folders that she showed to the Independent.
Stevens has cover sheets of her complaint – one for the police chief and one for the mayor — delivered to city hall at 10:45 a.m. Oct. 31, 2014 and signed for by City Manager Diana Kollmeyer. Stevens said the Civil Rights Department told her the city said it never got the complaints.
Stevens complained to the Civil Rights Department that police failed to provide her daughter with a Kid Talk Forensic Investigator to accommodate her disability during the police investigation.
Stevens is not happy with the way her daughter was treated by the school officials, who let the boy involved stay in school and sent home her daughter, the victim.
This happened about 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 10, 2014 as students waited for a band event.
In her complaint on the school district, Stevens wrote: “I believe my disabled daughter was suspended in retaliation for reporting the sexual assault that occurred under the respondent [school district] representatives’ watch.”
She said after the boy led her 15-year-old, special-needs daughter to a vehicle in the student parking lot and got her into the vehicle, he put his penis in her mouth with three friends watching. She said she told him no.
After the girl went back into the school and broke down in tears, hysterically crying on the floor of the bathroom, she was found by the Band Boosters’ president and then school staff responded.
Stevens said Belleville Police Officer Greg Beach told her to get an oral rape kit done at the hospital, which she did. She said it must be sitting on a shelf somewhere because Belleville PD never sent it to be processed.
She said employees in the school office gave the girl water to drink which may have compromised the rape kit.
In her complaint to the Civil Rights Department about BHS, she said those responsible for the actions she complained of were BHS Principal Abdul Madyun, BHS Assistant Principal Melissa Lloyd, and School Resource Officer Kris Faull of the Belleville Police Department.
She said Principal Madyun said she couldn’t see some of the surveillance tapes that would show her daughter in the parking lot because they weren’t working or he couldn’t get the cameras to download.
Stevens said Officer Faull told her to tell her daughter if she is lying they will press charges against her and she will get 20 years in prison.
Stevens said Officer Faull also said she should think about what it would do to the boy. Stevens was thinking what it had done to her daughter, who cries about the assault even now.
Principal Madyun had recommended the girl be expelled from BHS for criminal sexual misconduct, but after a hearing, Supt. Van Tassel suspended her for 11 days for violating the Student Code of Conduct and required her to agree to a behavior contract before returning.
Stevens credits the student lawyers at the University of Michigan with getting her daughter back in school.
After investigation by the state, the charges against the school were dismissed, but Stevens is filing an appeal in circuit court and taking along new evidence.
The complaints are based on the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act No. 453 as amended and Michigan Person with Disabilities Act N. 220, as amended.