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Dispute at Hart Senior Center Leads to Courthouse Mediation
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Verbal Dispute at Hart Senior Center Leads to Courthouse Mediation
Spectrum
staff
A verbal dispute between two men at the Ethel MacLeod Hart Multipurpose
Senior Center led to a mediation Thursday in which the men agreed
not to associate with each other.
William Grant, 79, had filed a motion in Sacramento Superior Court for a restraining
order against Don Souza, 66, stemming from a Jan. 12 incident at the midtown
Sacramento senior center.
“He doesn’t like what I’ve been doing as far as trying to make
changes up at the senior center, that’s the crux of it,” Grant said
Thursday, referring to his long-standing effort to have a program for Alzheimer’s
disease patients moved from the senior center to another site.
In a police report, Grant said Souza had entered a classroom twice to use a sink
and had engaged him in “unrequested conversation” while Grant and
others were playing bridge.
“One thing leads to another, and he is asking me outside to fight (2 or
more times),” Grant wrote in the report. “Finally we ignored him
by playing Bridge, and he left.”
Souza disputed that account, and said that while he disagrees with Grant’s
efforts to relocate the Triple R Program for Alzheimer’s patients, he did
not threaten him.
Souza said Grant initiated the discussion by making a disparaging comment about “hairdressers” as
Souza was cleaning a comb he had used as part of his monthly barbering at the
center. Souza said he asked Grant to “step outside to discuss this matter” because
he didn’t want to swear in front of women who were present, but said he
did not mean it as an invitation to fight.
“Do you think I’m going to fight anybody?” Souza asked, motioning
to a cane he used for walking at Thursday’s court appearance.
Judge Pro Tem Patricia Wong, a local lawyer assigned to hear Sacramento Superior
Court cases involving restraining orders and minor disputes, ordered the two
men into a small room where they met with a mediator for about an hour.
During the meeting, Grant agreed to dismiss his request for a restraining order
and the two signed an agreement stating they will have “no verbal exchange
or physical confrontation” and will not be in the same room “for
the foreseeable future.”
Both men live at the same apartment complex on I Street, but Souza said the building
is large enough to make the agreement workable.
Grant said he is happy with the outcome. He said the dispute will not keep him
from lobbying for changes at the senior center, and said he plans to appear before
the City Council this week to protest the center’s decision not to schedule
more bingo games.
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