Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State ... subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured....
Mary Sanders Lee began searching for her son after his arrest. She contacted the Los Angeles Police Department, unknown employees of which told her that they had no record of, or information concerning, her son, when in fact, they *686 knew or should have known that they had falsely arrested him and caused him to be extradited to New York. From 1993 to 1995, Mrs. Lee repeatedly contacted the Los Angeles Police Department regarding the whereabouts of Kerry Sanders. However, each time she was informed that his whereabouts were unknown.... [T]he reckless, intentional and deliberate acts and omissions of defendants ... were a direct and legal cause of the deprivation of [Plaintiffs'] constitutionally protected right under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the association, companionship and society of one and other as mother and son.
Given the fact that there are thousands of mentally incapacitated persons who come into contact with the criminal justice system each year, the defendants' failure to provide for sufficient training regarding mentally disabled persons or to implement other procedures to safeguard the rights of mentally disabled persons amounts to deliberate indifference to these persons' rights [and] denies such persons equal protection of the laws....
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