Discrimination settlement assures 'pleasant retirement'

Clay Greene can breathe easier now that his two-year legal battle with Sonoma County is over, his lawyer said Friday.

The 78-year-old retiree settled his discrimination lawsuit against Sonoma County this week for $600,000, agreeing to drop allegations that Public Guardian officials separated him from his dying partner, sold their belongings and got rid of their cat, all because they were gay.

With his share of the money, which amounts to about $350,000 including an additional $50,000 from a Glen Ellen nursing home named in the suit, the ailing man will be able to live out his days in relative comfort and an abiding sense that justice was done.

"He's very pleased," said Greene's lawyer, Anne Dennis of Santa Rosa, who will receive half of the county settlement. "He thought he'd be dead before the county ever gave him money. And he's relieved he doesn't have to go to trial."

Greene had a doctor's appointment Friday and was not available for an interview, but his lawyer said it was clear the county knew it would have little to gain by going to trial, set for Tuesday.

Dennis alleged in the lawsuit filed last year that Greene was denied visitation when his partner, Harold Scull, 88, was hospitalized after a fall. He contended he was later subjected to a series of abuses that left him alone and penniless.

Dennis said there was never any evidence to support law enforcement statements that Greene battered Scull, as the county alleged. The men's civil rights were violated because of their sexual orientation, she said.

"You don't pay $600,000 for simple procedural errors," Dennis said Friday, a day after the settlement. "It's a lot easier to make statements in the paper than to have those statements weighed in court."

The county's lawyer, Gregory Spaulding, admitted officials were wrong to auction the men's property after both were deemed unable to care for themselves. He said items in their rented house turned out to be more valuable than anyone thought.

But he denied any discrimination, saying the only reason the county stepped in was to protect Scull from Greene. A police report from April 2008 said Greene attacked Scull, sending him to the hospital. Scull died four months later of natural causes.

Spaulding said the county settled the lawsuit to avoid an even costlier trial. The county board of supervisors will be asked to sign to sign off on the deal Aug. 3.

"This is a case about the county doing the right thing and stepping in to assist and individual who made claims of domestic abuse," Spaulding said. "It's everyone's right, no matter what their sexual orientation, to have a relationship that is not abusive."

Gay rights advocates said they were heartened by the settlement and policy changes the case brought about. Among other things, the Public Guardian staff will now appraise property before selling it to raise money for elder care, Spaulding said.

But Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San Francisco, said the office needs additional oversight. And he said no changes can ever repay Greene for the treatment he suffered.

"Nothing can make up for the discrimination and abuse inflicted on him and Harold," Minter said, whose group consulted on the case. "We hope this will send a clear message to Sonoma County and every county in California that public guardians need to treat gay elders with dignity and respect."

Meanwhile, Greene, who had been living in a cramped studio apartment in Guerneville, has moved into a Kenwood nursing home surrounded by vineyards.

For the time being, the retired bank manager and gardener is sharing a room with five others at The Hill House, which costs from $2,500-$5,000 a month, but he's applied for his own room, Dennis said.

She said his money should last the rest of his life. Anything remaining after he dies will be left to an animal charity, Dennis said.

"He should have a nice pleasant retirement there," she said. "It's something he should have had from the very beginning."