A registered sex offender is suing Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Children's Hospital over visitation policies that bar him from seeing his son, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Stuart Yates filed the lawsuit March 9 after security guards escorted him from the hospital March 6. Mr. Yates' 9-year-old son had already been undergoing treatment at the facility for five days due to a blood infection. Though Mr. Yates was convicted of second-degree sexual assault in 1998, he said his son was born at Wisconsin Children's Hospital and he has never encountered any visitation troubles there before last week.
"They're using my past record, 20 years ago, against me," Mr. Yates said, according to the Chicago Tribune. "I served my time for it. I've been transparent about it."
A hospital spokesperson told the Chicago Tribune the hospital has policies in place allowing it to make decisions regarding visitation that they feel are in the interest of safety for patients and staff. However, Adele Nicholas, an attorney representing Mr. Yates, said Wisconsin Children's Hospital is the only hospital in the state she's heard of with these visitation restrictions and suggested the facility may be breaking the law.
"The law is quite clear that the patient has a right to designate the people they want to visit with while they're in the hospital and the hospital is not supposed to interfere with that visitation," Ms. Nicholas said, according to the Chicago Tribune.