Applause is rarely allowed in a courtroom, much less a full
standing ovation — for a defendant.
But that's what happened on Wednesday afternoon, when U.S.
District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle led an ovation for Laura Nuss, the departing
director of the D.C. Department on Disability Services, the city agency charged
with serving residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The moment of celebration came as Nuss prepares to leave
the agency she has led since 2010, making her the agency's longest-serving
director.
In that time, she has led what many say is a dramatic
turnaround in an agency that for decades had been dysfunctional — and unable to
escape from the Evans class action lawsuit filed in 1976 over conditions at
Forest Haven, the institution where people with disabilities were sent until it
was closed in 1991.
Huvelle, who has presided over the Evans case for 16 years
— and often lambasted Nuss for her agency's performance in earlier court
hearings — said Wednesday that Nuss's longevity at DDS contributed both to the
turnaround and the possibility that the Evans suit will be dismissed later this
year.
"We wouldn't have done it without you," said
Huvelle to Nuss at Wednesday afternoon's hearing. "Until we got consistent
management, we weren't able to move the ball."
As we reported in our four-part series "From
Institution to Inclusion" in March, while the Evans lawsuit succeeded in
closing Forest Haven and moving its 1,000 residents into other living
arrangements in D.C., the city has long failed to meet the broader requirements
of the suit: that residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities be
offered the opportunity to be more closely integrated into their community.
To read more on this story, click here: Longest-Serving Director Of D.C. Disability Agency Departs
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