Reginal Cole, a 59-year old Kaiser Permanente patient, has filed a lawsuit against the health care company for wrongfully accusing him of theft solely based on the color of his skin.

In June of 2016, Reginal Cole, a black patient of Kaiser's Sunnyside Medical Center was arrested during a visit to the facility after Dr. Douglas Ackerman identified Cole as the culprit who stole his wallet.

What proof did Ackerman have that Cole was the thief?

Well, as reported by Oregon Live, Ackerman told the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office that in a surveillance video, a black man was seen stealing the physician's wallet. Ackerman claimed that he discovered that Cole was the only black patient who had visited the facility that day after going through patient files.

This led to Cole facing charges of two counts of second-degree theft and fraudulent use of a credit card solely based upon the color of his skin.

Cole, a refugee from Sierra Leone and para-educator for Portland Public Schools, told his spokesperson, that he was humiliated over the hasty accusation.

According to Cole's defense attorney, there were distinct physical attribute differences between Cole and the thief shown in the video. Ackerman, who violated federal patient privacy laws to search the database with the intent to identify the thief, was not even Cole's doctor.

Cole has filed a lawsuit against Kaiser for $251,000 for his arrest on on-the-surface allegations. In addition to such, Cole is taking legal action against Clackamas County for conducting a second-rate review of the evidence.

Since the investigation proved that Cole was undergoing a medical procedure at the time in which the theft and fraudulence occurred, the charges have been dismissed.

The lawsuit, which was filed on Monday, is currently pending.

Reginal Cole

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