{"id":1291,"date":"2024-06-11T15:30:48","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T15:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/four-tops-singer-files-lawsuit-against-hospital-over-er-incident\/"},"modified":"2024-06-11T15:30:48","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T15:30:48","slug":"four-tops-singer-files-lawsuit-against-hospital-over-er-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/four-tops-singer-files-lawsuit-against-hospital-over-er-incident\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Tops Singer Files Lawsuit Against Hospital Over ER Incident"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tThe lead singer of Motown group The Four Tops is suing a Detroit-area hospital over allegations that staffers \u201cassumed he was mentally ill\u201d and put him in a straight jacket when he informed them that he was a famous musician.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a complaint filed Monday in Michigan federal court, singer Alexander Morris<\/strong> claims that when he visited the emergency room at Ascension Macomb-Oakland Hospital in April 2023 with difficulty breathing and chest pain, he was both racially profiled and unfairly treated as if he was \u201cdelusional.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEven though he was showing \u201cclear symptoms of cardiac distress\u201d and had a history of such problems, Morris says that staffers removed him from oxygen support and ordered a psychological evaluation after he \u201crevealed his identity as a celebrity figure.\u201d When he offered to prove his identity, Morris says a white security guard ordered him to \u201csit his Black ass down\u201d and physically restrained him.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPlaintiff had a valid identification on his person and could easily have been identified as a singer in the Four Tops group,\u201d attorneys for Morris\u2019 write. \u201cDefendant hospital \u00a0\u2026 blatantly refused to provide plaintiff with medical treatment due to his race and\/or perceived mental disability.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEventually, Morris says, his wife arrived and learned \u201cthat the doctors thought he was delusional.\u201d When he was able to show a nurse a \u201cvideo of him performing at the Grammys,\u201d he says the hospital finally agreed to cancel the psych evaluation. He was ultimately diagnosed with heart infraction \u2013 and offered what he says was an insulting mea culpa.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPlaintiff was offered a $25.00 gift card to Meijers as an apology for the dehumanization and discrimination he faced at the hands of the hospital,\u201d the singer\u2019s attorneys write. \u201cHe refused to accept the gift card.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFounded in the early 1950s, The Four Tops roared to widespread success in the 1960s and fueled the rise of the growing Motown record company. The original lineup, consisting of Levi Stubbs, Abdul \u201cDuke\u201d Fakir, Renaldo \u201cObie\u201d Benson and Lawrence Payton, stuck together for more than 40 years and are enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Fakir is the sole original member still in the group.<\/p>\n

\n\tMorris, who joined the group in 2019, had already publicized his alleged ordeal in the past. Last spring, he threatened to sue over the alleged incident, claiming that it would have taken \u201ctwo minutes\u201d to verify his identity: \u201cMy health should\u2019ve been first.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a statement to Billboard <\/em>on Tuesday, a spokesperson for hospital owner Ascension said the company was \u201cunable to provide details on cases under investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe health, safety and well-being of our patients, associates and community members remains our top priority,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cWe remain committed to honoring human dignity and acting with integrity and compassion for all persons and the community. We do not condone racial discrimination of any kind.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The lead singer of Motown group The Four Tops is suing a Detroit-area hospital over allegations that staffers \u201cassumed he was mentally ill\u201d and put him in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[297,1806,939,303,1805,1804],"class_list":["post-1291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-files","tag-hospital","tag-incident","tag-lawsuit","tag-singer","tag-tops"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}