Man Says Paralyzed Wife Ejected From Fair

'Are You Happy?'

After years of inactivity, Harn's muscles have atrophied despite exercise. Her hands are curled up around her chin, balled into fists. She is blind in the right eye and the left is damaged. She can't swallow and gets fed every four hours through a feeding tube.

"I ask her, 'Are you happy?'" Mike Harn said, "and she blinks her eyes yes."

Mike Harn said he's also asked his wife whether she's mad at the girls who hit their car that night more than two decades ago. She says no.

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But she likes to visit schools, from elementary through college, to show young people what can happen if they drink and drive. The students, Mike Harn said, are always receptive to her.

"It does make an impact. They ask her yes and no questions," he said. "But I have never to this day seen any kids scared of her."

Likewise, Loleeta Wine, Harn's caretaker since 1992, said she has gotten stares and questions while out in public, but never anything like what they experienced at the Western Idaho Fair.

The woman from Spectra, Wine said, "was on a mission. She had to do it --- she was told to by her boss."

Leslie Goddard, director of the Idaho Human Rights Commission, said it does not comment on specific cases, but confirmed the Harns had filed a complaint.

The Idaho Human Rights Act, she said, dictates that people cannot be removed from a public place because of their disability.

When a formal complaint is lodged, the commission sends a copy to the entity said to have done the discriminating, which then has 30 days to file an answer.

"We often try to mediate cases before trying to determine whether discrimination really occurred," Goddard said.

If that is unsuccessful, the commission launches an investigation and, if it finds discrimination occurred, then acts on behalf of the victim. In rare cases, complaints rise to the level where court action is taken.