New Details On Extent Of Injuries By Missouri Police To Man Visiting Husband In Hospital

New information has emerged suggesting that Kansas City, Missouri police inflicted multiple injuries on Roger Gorley, the man arrested last week after being ejected by Research Medical Center staff for refusing to leave the hospital bedside of his ailing husband, Allen Mansell. When asked about the extent of her father’s injuries — which included drawing “blood from accosting him in such a brutal manner”  – Amanda Brown, daughter of Gorley and eyewitness to the arrest, wrote to The New Civil Rights Movement:

My father suffered cuts on his ring finger (left hand), swollen wrist, cannot bare weight or have full motor movement in the wrist. Suffering from back pain (not unusual but it is more severe than normal), as well as having to take his hearing aids in to be fixed b/c they are now broken.

The extent of these injuries, both physical and emotional, are particularly concerning considering the behavior of  some of the arresting officers. In an article authored by Amanda Brown on April 11, she describes truly appalling behavior by KC police:

 [The officers] assumed because he was a gay man that he was HIV+.  When they drew blood from accosting him in such a brutal manner they freaked out. One of the arresting officers was so offended by my father’s presence that he would not touch him with his bare hands. He wore gloves the entire time and to make matters even more humiliating he didn’t want his handcuffs back. He grabbed them with gloves on, then another layer of gloves pinched between his index finger and thumb as he handed them off to another officer.  The officer taking the handcuffs looked at him like he was crazy and just grabbed the handcuffs with no issue.

The Kansas City Police Department has yet to formally respond to these allegations, and we have received no response to a request for comments relayed to their Media Unit.

READ: Hospital That Handcuffed Gay Man Owned By Bain Capital, Was Run By Gov. Rick Scott

Amanda Brown has set up a legal defense fund on behalf of the family. When asked about the fund, she responded:

We are going to use the money to fund Roger and Allen’s legal defense. Any money left over will be split among the LGBT organizations that have helped us during this traumatic injustice. We only want the hospital to apologize for what they did, re-educate their staff as to the proper procedure, educate their staff, including security, as to the current laws in place to protect individuals/ couples who identify within the LGBTQQIAA movement, and on a national level ensure every police department and medical establishment educates their staff as to what their regulations are and how they need to coincide with the current laws.

No such apology has yet materialized from hospital officials, nor have they admitted to any wrongdoing in the incident. It remains to be seen what the full fallout of the incident will be for Research Medical Center, as federal officials have announced an investigation of the matter. Last Thursday, BuzzFeed published this statement from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services spokesman Brian Cook:

[Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)] is aware of this specific issue and we are working to gather the facts and determine what steps to take in a speedy manner.”

“All Americans are guaranteed the right to receive hospital visitors that they designate, and there are specific protections in our rules for same-sex couples across the country,” Cook added. “We take alleged violations of federal rules around hospital visitation very seriously.”

No word has yet been given on any similar investigation into the actions of the Kansas City Missouri Police Department, or the inhumane treatment Roger Gorley was allegedly subjected to.

Image via video by Fox 4 News
Benjamin Phillips is an Essayist, Web Developer, Civics Nerd, and all around crank that spends entirely too much time shouting with deep exasperation at the television, especially whenever cable news is on, and proudly serves as Director of Development for The New Civil Rights Movement. He lives in St. Louis, MO and spends most of his time staring at various LCD screens, occasionally taking walks in the park whenever his boyfriend becomes sufficiently convinced that Benjamin is becoming a reclusive hermit person. He is available for children’s parties, provided that those children are entertained by hearing a complete windbag talk for two hours about the importance of science education, or worse yet, poorly researched anecdotes PROVING that James Buchanan was totally gay. If civilization were to collapse due to zombie hoards or nuclear holocaust, Benjamin would be among the first to die as he has no useful skills of any kind. The post-apocalyptic hellscape has no real need for homosexual computer programmers who can name all the presidents in order, as well as the actors who have played all eleven incarnations of Doctor Who.

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