By the time Sacramento attorney Scott Johnson was indicted in May 2019, he had filed thousands of disability access lawsuits in the Sacramento area, sometimes filing as many as six or more a day at the downtown federal courthouse.
Johnson, 59, a quadriplegic who uses a motorized wheelchair to make the rounds of restaurants, office buildings and merchants he suspects are violating the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, has been one of the most prodigious serial filers of ADA lawsuits in California for years.
So, when a federal grand jury indicted him on charges of filing fraudulent tax returns on funds he received from the lawsuits, some Sacramento-area merchants rejoiced, and Johnson’s filings at the I Street courthouse stopped coming.
But that doesn’t mean Johnson went away.
Instead, he turned his focus to the Bay Area, court records show, where he has filed 1,006 cases since he was charged — 11 of them on Monday alone.
“I looked up Scott Johnson and one day in Silicon Valley he had 19 suits, and another day he had 14 and another day he had 13,” said Kathryn Hughes, who was sued in January over a building she and her husband own in the Santa Clara County city of Campbell that houses a salon. “And then he must have had a slow day one week because it was only two.”
Hughes, 86, says she had never before been sued over ADA issues and that the law firm that filed on Johnson’s behalf offered to settle the case for $19,000.
“But there’s no way,” Hughes said, echoing a claim many merchants have made over the years that Johnson never actually tried entering the business he is suing for access.
“In this suit, he said that he visited Amy’s Salon on the first floor in November,” Hughes said. “Now, Amy’s Salon, there was no one there in November because they were closed because of COVID.
“Number two, you may not visit Amy’s Salon, especially if you are male, because you have to be interviewed and vetted because she works there alone. And number three, you may not open Amy’s door — even if it’s a knob or a lever — because it’s locked, and you must press a button for her to open the door and let you in.”
Johnson, who rarely speaks to the media, did not respond to a message left with his office in Carmichael.
San Diego attorney Amanda Seabock, who has filed many suits on Johnson’s behalf through the Potter Handy LLP law firm under the name of the Center for Disability Access, did not respond to a request for comment.
Still going despite legal troubles and COVID
But Johnson’s criminal defense attorney, Malcolm Segal of Sacramento, said Johnson’s filings are part of a years-long effort under the Americans with Disabilities Act, which was passed 31 years ago but still is the subject of lawsuits over barriers to access for the disabled.
“He has tried to gain access to public places in his motorized chair in order to take advantage of the opportunities offered to the general public, and when barred from that access tried to convince the owners of the business to rectify the problem. And if they fail to do so, he brings an action to enforce the rights of both himself and others suffering from disabilities.”
Johnson’s criminal trial has been pushed back to next year, in part because he was hospitalized for three weeks with COVID-19 and twice suffered a collapsed lung, court filings say.
“He had some difficult challenges wrought by COVID,” Segal said. “He’s now gotten past that and continues to do what the federal government has failed to do for many years.”
Johnson has pleaded not guilty to the charges in the federal indictment, and trial is now set for April 4, 2022, with federal prosecutors estimating they will need 19 days to present their case.
Prosecutors have turned over 447,713 pages of discovery and more than 100 Bankers Boxes of documents, court papers say.
But there is no indication that Johnson’s legal troubles or illness have slowed his pace.
Court filings say he has filed more than 6,250 lawsuits since 2003, and court records, lawyers and merchants indicate the cases typically end up being settled in exchange for a payment and promise to correct any access-related deficiencies.
For instance, a 2012 lawsuit Johnson filed in Sacramento against developer Angelo K. Tsakopoulos’ Redwood Plaza Investments ended up with the defendants paying Johnson $7,500 to settle the case, according to documents filed in Johnson’s criminal case.
California law calls for businesses to pay at least $4,000 for each violation encountered by a potential patron, plus attorneys fees, but the amounts of settlements vary.
Johnson focused much of his attention on businesses in the Sacramento region, filing more than 2,900 lawsuits in the area since 2003.
But he hasn’t filed any in the Sacramento-based Eastern District of California since January 2019, just before his indictment, according to court records.
While other plaintiffs have continued to file cases against merchants in the area since Johnson’s indictment, he has turned his focus to the Bay Area, where he is listed as a plaintiff in 1,918 cases since 2015, more than half of which were filed after he was indicted.
And despite the stay-at-home orders issued during the pandemic, Johnson still was able to travel to Bay Area merchants to ferret out potential ADA deficiencies.
“It looks like even though we were supposed to stay at home, shelter in place, he’s visited places 60 miles away,” said Hector Pedraza, owner of Crown Tires & Auto Repair in Hayward, which Johnson sued over a lack of wheelchair accessible parking. “According to his suit, he was right here during the shelter-in-place, away from his home.”
Johnson sued Pedraza and the building owners last March, alleging he was unable to find accessible parking during an August 2020 visit, and Pedraza said in April that he expected the case would end in a settlement.
“I guess it’s cheaper to do it that way than to spend $50,000 or $100,000 on litigation,” Pedraza said.
In fact, the case was settled in May and dismissed, court filings say.
Nora Rousso, a Campbell attorney who represents Kathryn Hughes in Johnson’s suit over her building, said she considers the Potter Handy law firm suing on behalf of Johnson — which touts its expertise online in handling wildfire, nursing home and other cases — to be like “a factory.”
“They have so many cases they don’t even know who they’ve sued,” she said. “They just want you to make them an offer, and they’ll judge whether they can squeeze you for a little bit more ...
“The calculation is always this: How afraid are the clients and how much are they afraid of having to pay a lawyer than perhaps paying to settle the claim? It’s very calculated, and very jaded.”
Some argue he never tried to enter the businesses he goes after
Disability advocates argue that businesses have had decades to come into compliance, and that those facing lawsuits simply have not made adequate efforts to do so. They have argued that offering to provide access by carrying patrons into an inaccessible cafe, as some have done, is not granting equal access.
Sacramento attorney Catherine Corfee, who has defended hundreds of clients sued by Johnson and others over ADA cases, once represented four women who worked for Johnson and filed a workplace sexual harassment lawsuit against him.
The case was settled, but Corfee said the women claimed Johnson did “drive-bys” of businesses before sending the women in to document potential problems, despite the fact that a plaintiff has to personally experience a barrier to access to sue.
“He does these intentional drive-bys, and he would send them in with a ‘cheat sheet’ literally that would say something like, ‘check the bathrooms, take a picture,’” she said. “It literally was not protecting any injury he suffered or a personal barrier.”
One of her clients, Sacramento businessman Mel Vail, said he had paid out $200,000 to deal with Johnson’s ADA lawsuits, including for some properties he believes Johnson never entered.
“He got to the point where he never even entered,” Vail said. “I talked to one of the people working for him at the time and she said they would drive by a property and he would say, ‘Oh, I’ve seen enough,’ and never go onto the premises.”
Many businesses simply cannot afford the cost of settling a lawsuit and bringing their businesses into compliance and fold up shop. Jointed Cue Billiards, Ford’s Real Burgers and the Basketball Town sports complex all closed in the Sacramento region over ADA lawsuits.
Kathryn Hughes said she has spent more than $100,000 so far making fixes to her building’s parking lot and door openings.
“I firmly believe that people with disabilities should be treated fairly,” she said. “But sometimes these things just come up and bite you in the butt.
“The whole system stinks.”
This story was originally published June 22, 2021 5:00 AM.
