COUPLE SUES ADOPTION AGENCY MAN, WIFE BLAME EMPTY NEST ON WHEELCHAIR BIAS.

MOORPARK - A Moorpark woman and her husband have sued Pasadena-based Holy Family adoption services, saying the agency rejected their application solely because the prospective mother is disabled.

``They never asked me a question about what is your disability, what can you do and what can't you do,'' said Laura Goldberg, 35, who has multiple sclerosis but cares for her home and herself without assistance.

The Americans with Disabilities Act guarantees the disabled equal access to jobs, public buildings and housing, officials say. But they say adoption agencies can exclude a disabled applicant from adopting a specific child after reviewing the case and determining that the disability poses problems for the child.

On the other hand, officials say the agencies can't broadly ban a couple from any adoption simply because one of the pair is disabled. Goldberg says that's exactly what the Holy Family agency did to her and her husband, Neil, even after she obtained a doctor's clearance and certification in cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

She said the agency's director, Debra Richardson, came to her home Oct. 20 last year and informed her that the couple's application to adopt a child 2 to 5 years old was being rejected because Goldberg is disabled.

But an attorney for the 52-year-old agency, which also has offices in Thousand Oaks, San Bernardino and Santa Ana, said the Goldbergs weren't rejected.

``They chose not to proceed with the adoption process because they were not happy with having to answer some of the questions,'' said Pasadena attorney Rosa Cumare.

The Goldbergs deny the allegation.

Cumare said the agency has placed children with disabled parents. However, she indicated that agency officials are apprehensive about a prospective parent who needs to use a wheelchair.

``We're not talking about a job. We're talking about entrusting little children to your care,'' Cumare said. ``It's a very unusual situation for someone who is in a wheelchair to try to adopt a child through our program.''

She said agency workers must worry about whether a parent can keep a child safe - a valid issue under a recent test case.

In 1998, a U.S. District Court judge in New York dismissed a discrimination lawsuit that Kimberly Adams, who is blind, filed against the Monroe County Department of Social Services in Rochester, N.Y., for rejecting her application to adopt a 4-year-old boy.

The court ruled that there was no unlawful discrimination in the agency's determination that it would not be in the best interests of the child - or any other child available at the time - to be placed in Adams' home because of the risk of physical harm.

The judge stated that the agency's role ``was not to find a child for plaintiff's home, but the opposite: to find suitable homes for children.''

However, the judge also underscored the agency's claim that it had determined only that Adams was unsuitable to adopt specific children available at the time.

Despite the Adams case, Dan Tokaji, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said Holy Family violated state and federal anti-discrimination laws if it determined that the Goldbergs, because of Laura Goldberg's disability, were unfit to adopt any children.

``It's hard to see why an agency would believe that being in a wheelchair would disqualify or even count as a strike against anyone's being a good parent,'' Tokaji said. ``I'm certainly concerned and very troubled by these allegations. This ought not be happening in the 21st century.''

The Goldbergs' lawsuit, recently filed in Pasadena Superior Court against Holy Family and Richardson, claims unlawful disability discrimination, unfair business practices and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Neil Goldberg, 39, a firearms-training officer for the Los Angeles Police Department, said he and his wife set out to adopt several years ago after they learned Laura couldn't conceive.

They bought a three-bedroom, two-bath, 1,600-square-foot house near Moorpark College because it was around the corner from an elementary school - Campus Canyon School - in an area that seemed like a good environment for a child. They decorated and furnished a bedroom as a nursery and started screening adoption services.

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Neil and Laura Goldberg or Moorpark are suing an adoption agency that they claim has denied them a child because she uses a wheelchair.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer