AUGUSTA — The Maine Human Rights Commission has found reasonable cause to believe the Oxford Police Department discriminated against a deaf Poland man.

Last year, David Brown of Poland filed two complaints with the Commission, alleging that the Oxford Police Department and the Oxford County Sheriff’s Department discriminated against him by not providing an American Sign Language interpreter at the scene of a fatal accident on Route 26 in Oxford on Aug. 26, 2009.

On that date, Brown’s then-17-year-old daughter Kristen Brown turned south on to Route 26 from the parking lot at Oxford Plains Speedway, driving a pickup truck and hauling a trailer with her stock car. Her father was driving his own vehicle behind her.

According to police, Kristen Brown did not see a motorcycle being driven by Richard Lothrop, 58, of Auburn when she pulled out, but when he saw her he locked up his brakes and started fishtailing. Lothrop, who was not wearing a helmet, tried to avoid a crash and dumped his bike on the side of the road.

He suffered significant head injuries in the crash and died from those injuries about two months later.

No criminal charges were filed in connection with this accident.

According to Brown, who is deaf, he asked for an interpreter at the scene so he could understand what police were saying to his daughter about the circumstances of the accident.

While the Commission found reasonable grounds to believe Oxford police discriminated against Brown, there was no finding that the sheriff’s department did so because no request for an interpreter was made directly to county officers.

According to his complaint, Brown alleges that he could not understand what was said to his minor daughter without benefit of an ASL interpreter, and that he repeatedly asked Oxford police for help, including asking them to provide an interpreter.

According to Brown, Oxford officers said they didn’t “know how” to do that, and continued asking her questions. Using ASL, the teen signed police questions and her answers to her father, according to David Brown, but he alleges that she was not able to act as an effective interpreter because she was upset and crying while police questioned her.

According to Brown, without an interpreter he couldn’t fully understand what was going on and could not advise his daughter about what she was telling police. He also alleges that he couldn’t effectively tell police what he saw, as a witness to the accident.

Some time after the crash, Kristen Brown’s mother arrived at the scene, and police interviewed the teenager in a police car with her hearing mother present. Brown said he continued asking for an interpreter even though his wife had arrived and could hear the conversation.

Both police departments denied discriminating against Brown and say he was never denied an interpreter and that police were “able to communicate with him effectively through the interpretations of his daughter” after Kristen Brown offered to interpret for her father, according to the Commission report.

In April, Oxford Town Manager Michael Chammings said David Brown’s account of the incident contradicts his daughter’s recorded testimony of the incident, and defended the department’s handling of the situation. Chammings asserted that the father was treated no differently than any other witness at a scene, and “with the assistance of his daughter, was asked to produce a written statement like everybody else.”

The MHR Commission was originally scheduled to take up Brown’s case in April, but postponed the hearing because the board couldn’t find a sign language translator to take Brown’s testimony.

In upholding Brown’s complaint, the MRH Commission urged Brown and Oxford police to come to agreement on damages before the Browns seek civil action in superior court.

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