California woman fights to keep her assistance dog

From Contra Costa Times in California:

CONCORD, Calif. — Theresa Huerta's brown eyes welled with tears at the prospect of losing Manny.

"If it wasn't for this dog, I don't think I'd be alive," Huerta (pictured) said.

When someone walks up to the knee-high metal gate outside Huerta's aging single-wide mobile home, Manny runs to see who's there.

When Huerta dreams that she is being "slaughtered," Manny soothes her. His wide eyes watch over her. His imposing, muscular frame makes her feel safe.

"He has brought a little bit of hope back into my life," she said.

She has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression since being brutally beaten in 2007, according to letters from her doctors. She can't work. Her doctors agree she needs Manny, records show.

But the owners of the mobile home park where she has lived for 19 years say she or the dog must go. She says they just want her out because she spoke out against unsanitary conditions at the park.

The ensuing battle is now playing out in county, state and federal courts.

Willow Pass Mobile Home Park managers say park rules enacted in 2005 ban dogs of certain breeds, including pit bulls and German shepherds. They also ban mixes that include those breeds.

Park owners say Manny is a pit bull mix. Having him at the park violates their rules, they wrote in letters and court filings.

Huerta rescued Manny in January after he was hit by a car outside a nearby foreclosed home. He would otherwise have been euthanized. She does not know his breed.

Huerta said that she received the new rules in 2005, according to a court filing from the park. But Huerta has not signed a lease since at least 1992, she said, when there was no ban against pit bulls.

And park owners never complained about her previous dog Chico, which she had from 1999 until December, Huerta said. Chico was also a mutt, perhaps a pit bull or German shepherd mix.

Huerta's lawyers say none of this should matter. State and federal disability laws trump park rules.

Courts across the country have been consistent: If doctors declare that a person is disabled and that a dog helps him or her, landlords must accept the dog as a "reasonable accommodation" for the disabled person, said Bruce Wagman, who works with the Animal Legal Defense Fund and is one of Huerta's attorneys. The only exception is if the dog causes an undue financial burden for the landlord.

In an earlier case in California, state courts ruled that a condominium association had to allow a couple who both had mental disabilities to keep their dog, even though association rules banned dogs.

It's no different from requiring wheelchair users to be permitted to have a ramp, Wagman said, or that disabled people be allowed to take drugs that might otherwise be banned.

The park's lawyer, Kenneth Brans, declined to comment on the case beyond saying Huerta's assertions are "groundless" and that the case should be tried in the courts, not the media.

In court papers, Brans and the park have said Huerta has yet to provide adequate documentation that she is disabled, or that her disability requires her to have Manny — a dog of a banned breed — as opposed to any other dog.

Wagman said it's not up to the park to decide what works for a disabled person. Asking Huerta to get a different dog is like asking a disabled person to switch medications, he said.

"The point is, Manny is the dog that works for Theresa," Wagman said. "Manny is the drug that works for Theresa Huerta."

Standing up to authority is in Huerta's nature, she said. At the schools where she worked, she was a union leader.

So it felt natural two years ago when she and a neighbor filed complaints with the state about unsanitary conditions at the park. State inspectors found "the park's portion of the sewer line is substandard and leaking "... the sheet metal has a hole in it where raw sewage is leaking onto the ground." The park had to clean up.

Another neighbor who complained, Martin Alday, has already been evicted for being a few days late to pay his rent. Huerta testified at his eviction hearing. Afterward, she said, the park's lawyer told her, "You're next."

Alday also remembers the conversation. He said the lawyer added, "I know you're the one behind all of this."

The park is no stranger to complaints. Since 2007, six complaints about substandard conditions have been filed with the state Department of Housing and Community Development, said Ken Shryock, a codes and standards administrator in the department. At least two of the complaints resulted in mobile homes at the park being declared uninhabitable, he said, for reasons including a "strong odor of sewage" and "some pretty egregious issues relevant to cleanliness and storage."

In those cases, the homeowners can be cited. But ultimately the park's owners and managers must ensure the homes there are up to code.

"It's their responsibility," Shryock said.

Huerta said she does not know where else she could go if she is evicted. Her only income is $700 per month in disability payments from Social Security, she said. Her monthly rent at the park is $530.

Huerta had worked as a bilingual instructor for the Oakland and Mt. Diablo school districts — until she was attacked.

On Feb. 25, 2007, Huerta went to the Agave Grill and Cantina to relax and dance. She left in an ambulance.

A few minutes after arriving, she was sexually assaulted by a man who put his hands under her skirt, according to a lawsuit Huerta filed. The man denied the claim in a court filing and was never criminally charged in the incident.

A few minutes later, the man's wife and her sister got involved. They beat Huerta up, using fists and a bottle, according to a court filing. She now has a mouth full of fake teeth.

Both women pleaded no contest to battery charges in the attack; one of them also pleaded no contest to assault charges. Restitution hearings continue in the case; one earlier this year was postponed because Huerta had a panic attack, according to court filings. Huerta's civil suit against her attackers and the restaurant is ongoing.

Seeing her attackers in court makes her disability worse, Huerta said, and her doctors say she likely won't be able to work until the court cases are done.

The eviction proceedings don't help.

"I feel like my body's giving out," Huerta said. "It was just one thing on top of another. They're purposefully putting salt on an open wound."