Dance Moms alum Abby Lee Miller is suing a hotel chain after a door fell on her wheelchair as she was trying to navigate the bathroom, trapping her for several minutes, she alleges in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit.
Miller, who has used a wheelchair since her 2018 Burkitt Lymphoma diagnosis, stayed at a Santa Monica, California, Hampton Inn between March and October 2020, People reported.
That August, Miller wheeled into her hotel bathroom to wash her hands, she said in the documents obtained by People. As she left the room, her back left wheel got caught under the sliding bathroom door. Her attempts to unhook brought the door tumbling down upon her head and left shoulder, and she was trapped, she said in the filing.
For six to 12 terrifying minutes, Miller was trapped in her wheelchair, pinned under that door, she alleged. She screamed for help, and two staff members lifted the door off. Treated at a hospital for her injuries, she has been in physical therapy ever since, she said.
Even before that, she alleged, accessibility was an issue when it came to the laundry room, and that housekeeping carts often blocked the hallway.
Miller is seeking US$8.5mil (RM35.5mil) in damages in her lawsuit against Hampton Inn & Suites alleging negligence, emotional distress, unlawful discrimination, discrimination against individuals with disabilities, and false imprisonment, according to People.
This is not Miller’s first time in court, or in a controversial spotlight. In 2015 she was charged with bankruptcy fraud, pleading guilty in 2016.
She was sentenced to a year and a day in prison, though she could have faced five. She was released early, in March 2018, and a few months later was diagnosed with the rare form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma that she is still battling.
In 2020 a comeback was scotched after a Lifetime series she was set to star in booted her after racial accusations surfaced from a former fellow contestant on Dance Moms. – New York Daily News/Tribune News Service
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