Attorneys of 99-year-old woman attacked may file lawsuit; dispatchers sent no help for hours
CBS 58 MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Attorneys for a 99-year-old woman attacked inside her home say they are planning on filing a lawsuit against the City of Milwaukee if changes don't take place at the Department of Emergency Communications (DEC).
First responders were not sent to help the woman for hours despite numerous 911 calls.
Shirley
Two DEC employees resigned after an investigation into why it took so long for help to be sent.
The victim's attorneys say what happened was a systemic issue and changes need to be made from the top down.
Attorneys for 99-year-old Shirley say she was brutally attacked in July, and no help was sent until she called herself, despite numerous 911 calls coming from a third-party medical alert company. During the investigation, the DEC asked employees why the call wasn't classified as a battery, which would have resulted in an immediate response.
The employee stated staff were told by supervisors and leads to not classify a call as a battery unless the caller themselves can see someone physically assaulted.
Shirley's attorney says the DEC's internal documents show the employees were mistrained, and that's why policy needs to be changed.
"In response to questions from the city, 'we were trained to do it this way,' which means, from our perspective, that the employees were trained to do this wrong," Attorney Chris MacGillis said.
Shirley's attorney says they are giving the city 30 days to continue discussions about policy changes, and if meaningful changes don't take place in that timeframe, a lawsuit will be filed.
