On August 15, 1989, two patients at the Connecticut Valley Hospital, a state mental institution in Middletown, Connecticut, filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of all persons with intellectual disabilities who were or would be patients at the Hospital. The plaintiffs, represented by Yale Legal Services, filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, was brought against the Connecticut Department of Mental Retardation under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

The plaintiffs claimed that the State violated their constitutional rights by subjecting them to physical and chemical restraints and placing them in seclusion. They further alleged that the State failed to provide structured behavioral programs and treatment, and that it had ignored state probate court orders to do so.

The defendants filed a Motion to Dismiss. On March 9, 1990, the court (Judge Peter C. Dorsey) denied the defendants' motion. Mihalcik v. Lensink, 732 F. Supp. 299 (D. Conn. 1990).

According to the PACER docket, on March 5, 1993, the parties filed a Joint Motion for Approval of Stipulation and Order resolving all outstanding issues in the case. On March 12, 1993, the court (Judge Dorsey) approved the Order and ordered the case to be dismissed the same day. The parties were ordered to continue to submit status reports to the court every six months.

We have only the opinion and a few docket entries in the file so we have no further information on this case.

Laura Uberti - 07/17/2006


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