Federal civil rights trial begins in Six Flags ASL interpreter case

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) — Melvin Patterson didn’t say the oath when he took the witness stand on Tuesday — he signed it.

Patterson, who is deaf, sued Six Flags Theme Parks, Six Flags Entertainment Corporation and Park Management Corp. in federal court over what he says are violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the California Unruh Civil Rights Act.

He claims that the Vallejo, California, park denied him an interpreter in 2021, at one point telling him it didn’t provide that service.

“’You can bring your own interpreter,’” attorney Reyna Lubin, representing Patterson, quoting what a customer service representative told Patterson. “’We don’t provide services for interpreting.’”

Lubin in her opening statement called that a blatant denial of equal access to public places.

Six Flags has instead called Patterson’s back-and-forth with the theme park a bad customer service experience, not a violation of his rights.

Patterson — through an American Sign Language, or ASL, interpreter — testified that he bought five gold passes to the Six Flags park in June 2021 as a birthday gift for one of his daughters. He and his wife had visited the park some 10 years before and had interpreters provided to them.

“In 2021, I thought it was going to be the same experience,” Patterson said. “But it wasn’t. Not that year.”

After buying the passes, he tried to contact the park to request an interpreter. However, he had to leave messages. Two days later, his family traveled to the park. His first stop was the guest relations office, where he was given a phone number he needed to contact. He and his wife, who is also deaf, had no interpreter that day.

“My daughter would hear announcements going on,” Patterson told the judge. “My wife and I certainly miss a lot.”

The family opted to focus on the rides, instead of performances, which Patterson said didn’t provide them the full park experience.

What followed were weeks of calls and emails to park representatives. At one point he tried to get a refund for the park passes, but was instead directed to a website with information about the Americans with Disabilities Act. Patterson said the site had no information about American Sign Language services.

“I asked why wasn’t an interpreter provided for me and they hung up on me,” he said.

Lubin said that none of her client’s attempts to contact Six Flags mattered, because the park never intended to provide an interpreter for him.

Representing Six Flags, attorney Rudie Dane Baldwin told Mueller that the evidence will show Patterson’s case was merely a bad customer service experience, not a violation of civil rights laws.

“It’s not a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act or the Unruh Act,” he added.

Patterson knew he had to provide at least seven days’ notice to the theme park to obtain interpreter services. He bought his tickets without researching Six Flags’ policy on those services and then visited the park two days later, Baldwin said.

That meant Patterson had no expectation to get those services because he hadn’t provided the necessary notice.

Baldwin indicated that an employee telling Patterson that the park provided no sign language interpretive services was an error. That employee thought he needed a personal care attendant, and she didn’t realize that the park also offered ASL interpreters.

Despite this, none of the dates that Patterson intended to visit the park in summer 2021 were at least seven days in advance.

Patterson’s trial is being held before U.S. District Court Chief Judge Kimberly Mueller, without a jury, meaning that Mueller will rule on the case.

The trial is scheduled to continue Thursday and conclude no later than Monday.