A four-year-old-boy playing at Plaza De Vera Cruz in Santa Barbara found a used hypodermic needle and was accidently pricked, drawing blood. The boy has since been subjected to numerous tests for infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS. The boy’s parents have retained legal counsel and are demanding answers as to why the City of Santa Barbara is not addressing the long-standing issue of transients and drug addicts at the park.
In an October 18 letter to Santa Barbara Mayor Cathy Murillo, City Administrator Paul Casey and city councilmembers, A. Barry Cappello, managing partner of Cappello & Noël LLP who is representing the child, points out that the city has long turned a blind eye to the drug dangers at the park.
He states in the letter, “We are informed that emergency responders are regularly summoned to this park for drug related incidents multiple times per month. The City Police Department is likewise aware of these conditions and the danger posed to the children that come to use the play structure installed by the city at this park. The treating doctor at the emergency room knew this to be one of the most common places for addicts in the city. The city was aware of the transient and drug problems at Plaza De Vera Cruz. In fact, anyone who drives by this park on Haley Street on any given day is likely to see half a dozen or more homeless lounging about, drinking and doing drugs in broad daylight.”
Cappello says the boy has had to undergo an intensive course of drug therapy equivalent to chemotherapy. He will also have to be repeatedly re-tested for HIVIAIDS and hepatitis, and his family has already incurred thousands in medical expenses. “Even though we all hope he will be lucky and not contract any life-threatening disease,” Cappello says in the letter, “the full extent of his injury, such as the potential long term effects of his drug therapy, will not be known for years.”
Cappello says that the aim of the boy’s parents is not litigation, but they expect the City Council to respond to their plea and immediately take substantial steps to prevent these types of incidents from happening to other children. Cappello is requesting that an item be placed on a City Council agenda within the next 30 days to discuss the lack of safe parks for children in the community.
