Inmate claims Rikers Island guards beat him and ignored his injuries, will file lawsuit
EXCLUSIVE: Jose Guadalupe, 23, a mentally disabled Bronx man, says guards pummeled him and then brought him to an isolated, overheated cell. He was ignored until an officer on the next shift was concerned over his condition and sought medical help. He plans to file a lawsuit that will name the city, the Department of Correction and Commissioner Joseph Ponte.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, January 13, 2015, 2:30 AM
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SETH WENIG/APThe U.S. Department of Justice found jail brutality was the norm at Rikers Island (pictured). Now the feds are suing to force changes at the jail.
A mentally disabled Bronx man says he was knocked unconscious in a bloody beating by Rikers Island guards and left in an isolated, steamy cell with no treatment for hours afterward.
Jose Guadalupe, 23, says he was handcuffed during the Sept. 2 beating, which left him in a wheelchair for weeks. He’s planning on filing suit in Manhattan Federal Court this week.
He said the incident started when a Department of Correction search squad came to his solitary cell in mental health housing.
The officers ripped down his collection of family photos and magazine clippings Guadalupe posted on the walls of his cell.
“They started destroying my pictures. That's what caused me to say something,” Guadalupe told the Daily News from Fishkill Correctional Facility in Beacon, N.Y., where he's now serving time after pleading guilty to robbery. “Those were good pictures. Those were mine.”
Guadalupe voiced his objection but said he was not a threat. Yet he was pinned to the wall and told to “shut the f**k up” before he was thrown down, punched in the head and kicked repeatedly, all while he was cuffed, he and his lawyer say.
“This is for disrespecting my search!” one guard allegedly said.
“I was crying. I thought it was over. I thought I was going to die,” Guadalupe said.
Jose Guadalupe says he was beaten by Rikers guards and was ignored despite his injuries.
BRYAN SMITH/BRYAN SMITH
The lawsuit will name Joseph Ponte, commissioner of the Department of Correction.
His lip was busted open and he required stitches on his right eyebrow. He had a concussion, bruises to his ribs, facial swelling, lower back pain and dizziness, he and his lawyer, Zoe Salzman, say.
But instead of getting timely medical care, he says he was put on the floor in a hot cell where he overheated, dehydrated and lay in pain until a concerned officer on the next shift came by and said the inmate could die if he didn't get help.
There is no record of any treatment until about six hours after the attack when a George R. Vierno Center (GRVC) jail clinic checked him out and promptly called for an ambulance to Elmhurst Hospital, Salzman said.
Months later, Guadalupe said he still has bouts of dizziness and frequent headaches which “never happened before.”
While it was his first experience of the kind at the notorious jail complex, Guadalupe said he wasn't surprised.
“That's what they do in Rikers Island — they jump on people. They do all kinds of stuff. They do whatever they want.”
“It's sad to say but it's a typical example of the senseless and blatant violence that pervades the Rikers guard culture,” said Salzman, a lawyer at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP, which is known for its civil rights work. “For four guards to beat a vulnerable, developmentally disabled inmate who is handcuffed is inexcusable and that just can't happen.”
RICHARD HARBUS/FOR NEW YORKDAILY NEWSRikers Island now faces another accusation of brutality against inmates.
Salzman said it "really exemplifies the scope of the problem and how much it is going to take to implement real change."
The incident came less than a month after a scathing report by the U.S. Department of Justice which found egregious conduct against adolescent inmates at Rikers was the norm.
The feds are now suing to force changes at the island jail. Guadalupe's suit will name the city, the DOC, and Commissioner Joseph Ponte.
DOC spokesman Robin Campbell would not comment on the incident but said Ponte “has zero tolerance for violence and unnecessary or excessive uses of force.”
“Allegations such as these are thoroughly investigated,” Campbell said.
A spokesman for the city Law Department said, "We will review the lawsuit once we are served."
