Denied entry, man seeks justice

An attendant would not allow David Bearden and his Seeing Eye dog, Isaac, into a BP gas station in Brooksville.

By BETH N. GRAY
Published November 14, 2005

BROOKSVILLE - David Bearden marched in the Nov. 5 Veterans Appreciation Parade, and afterward the legally blind 48-year-old was feeling pretty good about himself and his Seeing Eye dog, Isaac, who led him along the downtown route.

Bearden and his son, Timothy, decided to stay in town and walk around a little bit. They live in Hill 'n Dale, where there are no sidewalks, and Bearden likes to give Isaac some concrete retraining when the opportunity is available.

As the day warmed, father and son wanted to get a cold soda, so they approached the BP gas station-convenience store at Jefferson Street and Ponce de Leon Boulevard.

They got no farther than just inside the door.

Clerk Mike Hamed, whose brother, Omar Hamed, owns the establishment, said he looked up from the counter.

"I saw this big dog," Mike Hamed said, and he acknowledged that he told Bearden the dog could not come in.

Said Bearden: "As soon as we got inside the door, the clerk yelled at us to stop."

Isaac, trained to the command, halted immediately.

His owner said the German shepherd was a service dog, and state law not only provides for access, but regards denied access as a criminal misdemeanor.

"I didn't recognize he was a blind man," said Mike Hamed, 64.

Isaac had a traditional guide dog harness and wore a large tag inscribed with the statute.

"I gave him the law three times," Bearden said. But, according to Bearden, Hamed insisted: "Get that dog out of here; it's going to eat my food."

Bearden, who has only 26 percent vision in one eye after a biohazard accident 16 years ago, says Isaac - his eyes and companion for four years - is "an absolutely perfectly trained dog. There are three things a dog can be asked to leave a building for: barking, not having control of bowels or bladder, or snatching food off a table. And he's never done any of those things."

While Bearden maintains Hamed continued to rail at him, Hamed claims that when he realized the customer was blind, he offered to get him what he wanted.

Not so, Bearden said. "He did not make any effort to help us."

Bearden said he, his son and Isaac turned to walk outside. He told his son to call police.

"(Hamed) chased us and said, "Don't call the police,"' Bearden said.

Across the street, at Deli World, owner Sal Faglio said he saw "a disturbance and the (BP clerk) waving."

Hamed maintains he was entreating the Beardens to return so he could assist them.

Faglio welcomed the Beardens and Isaac into the deli shop, sat them at a table, got them soft drinks and called Brooksville police.

"They were pretty upset," Faglio said.

Brooksville Officer Joshua Caldwell arrived at the deli and took statements. However, the department's statute book does not include anything regarding guide dogs, and Caldwell said he would have to review the law before taking any action.

Bearden, an avowed activist for the visually impaired, knew the incident would be handed over to the State Attorney's Office, which requires a three-day cooling-off period before filing.

"I'm definitely not cooling off," Bearden said as he filed the complaint and sealed police report with the state attorney Wednesday.

Marion Gwizdala, president of the Florida Association of Guide Dog Users, based in Tampa, and vice president of the National Association of Guide Dog Users, said there have been a lot of cases of denied access for the visually impaired and their guide dogs.

A Police Department spokeswoman declined to share the report with the Times, explaining that the case is still under investigation. The State Attorney's Office also would not release the report.

Lisa Chittaro of the State Attorney's Office said a decision on whether to prosecute the case should be made this week.

Bearden said he hopes to make a statement with his grievance.

"We've never been able to get a discrimination case in Hernando County," said Bearden, who is president of the National Federation for the Blind for Hernando and east Pasco counties.

But many incidents go unreported, Gwizdala said; those denied access just don't go back to the offending place of business.

Gwizdala said he has been involved this year in four cases of denied access under the federal Rehabilitation Act and the Rehabilitation Code of Florida.

He said the association usually aims for "education before litigation."

"Sometimes we can resolve without taking measures," he said. "Sometimes we have to demand our rights."

Gwizdala said ethnically owned businesses, such as the BP in Brooksville, pose a particular problem.

"They may not be aware of the law," he said, "but we can educate them."

Bearden said he has been denied access before, at another convenience store in Brooksville.

He decided not to file a claim in that case. But this time, he said, he felt so strongly about the way he was treated that he decided to seek justice.

--Beth Gray may be contacted at graybethn@earthlink.net