To settle a federal lawsuit, the St. Paul City Council approved a $95,000 payout Wednesday and agreed to again change the police department’s policy on communication with people who are deaf.

Catrina Hooper, who is deaf, scheduled a meeting with the St. Paul Police Department in 2014, during which she wanted to file a domestic assault report against her mother. She asked for a qualified American Sign Language interpreter, according to her lawsuit. Police told Hooper they only would use an officer who knew sign language, but whom her lawsuit said was not a qualified interpreter.

The Minnesota Disability Law Center represented Hooper and also brought a lawsuit by Doug Bahl against the St. Paul Police Department in 2008, which resulted in policy changes and a $93,450 settlement in 2013.

Bahl, who was deaf, asked an officer to communicate with him in writing when he was pulled over in 2006 for a traffic violation. The officer sprayed him with a chemical irritant, dragged him out of his car and beat him, Bahl said in his lawsuit.

As part of the Bahl settlement, the police department agreed that when officers have a scheduled meeting with a person who is deaf, they would only use ASL interpreters, Hooper’s lawsuit noted. That didn’t happen for Hooper, although she asked the police department to use a certified interpreter, according to her lawsuit.

Hooper, now 47, wasn’t allowed to give her statement and, instead, police arrested Hooper both times she went to the department about the domestic assault case, her lawsuit said. Court documents show that prosecutors charged Hooper with felony assault against her mother and she pleaded guilty in 2015 to misdemeanor domestic assault.

Hooper’s lawsuit claimed violations of the Americans With Disabilities Act and Minnesota Human Rights Act. The city denies Hooper’s allegations and liability.

“While this settlement was reached to avoid protracted litigation, it also provides an opportunity to expand city policy to ensure we’re better responding to the needs of everyone in our community,” St. Paul City Attorney Lyndsey Olson said in a statement Wednesday.

The police department’s policy will be amended to specifically state that the department will use only certified sign language interpreters in scheduled interviews and meetings with people who are deaf or hard of hearing; it doesn’t apply for emergency situations that officers are responding to.

Supervisors will be given training on the new policy, as will new employees.

“The city is recommitting … to making sure they have a policy and it’s clarified about when the police will provide deaf and hard of hearing interpreters,” said Bud Rosenfield, a supervising attorney with the Minnesota Disability Law Center. “… There’s also some ongoing monitoring of compliance.”

After the Bahl settlement, the department made additional changes to its policy in 2018 when three St. Catherine University students, who were in the American Sign Language/interpreting program, raised concerns in a letter to the police chief.

The previous policy said an officer must make a qualified interpreter available before taking a statement from a deaf person who is under arrest, but the revised policy specified the interpreter must be nationally certified.