$28.75 Million Settlement Paid by New York City in Suit Alleging Rikers Guards Stood by and Watched Detainee Hang Himself
by Douglas Ankney
On April 5, 2024, the City of New York agreed to pay $28.75 million to settle a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 complaint filed by Madeline Feliciano, whose grandson Nicholas Feliciano hanged himself in November 2019 at the city’s Rikers Island jail complex—after which city Department of Correction (DOC) guards stood by and watched almost eight minutes before cutting him down. Due to the lack of oxygen, Feliciano suffered permanent brain damage, leaving him unable to feed himself or even stand on his own.
According to the complaint, Feliciano had a well-documented history of suicide attempts and mental illness. Nevertheless, when he was taken into custody for a parole violation, Parole Officer Tasha Lambre failed to ensure he was placed in a mental health unit. Instead, Feliciano was incarcerated at the Robert N. Davoren Complex on Rikers Island, where he was assaulted by several other detainees and ultimately placed alone in Intake Holding Pen #11 to await transfer to a medical facility for treatment of injuries.
Surveillance video captured Feliciano, then 18, tying one end of his shirt around his neck and the other end to a hook in the ceiling—the same hook used in another detainee’s suicide attempt six days earlier. Guards Cpt. Terry Henry, Daniel Fullerton, Kenneth Hood, Konstantinos Makridis, Mark Wilson, Nicholas Prensa, Peter Moses, Sincere Crowell and Jean Lantingua-Pena allegedly observed Feliciano and did nothing to intervene for 7 minutes and 51 seconds, before Henry entered the cell and cut Feliciano down from the makeshift noose.
It took more than 30 minutes for paramedics to arrive and transport Feliciano to Elmhurst Hospital Prison Ward, where he was placed on a respirator with limited brain activity. He will likely remain in a skilled nursing facility, entailing enormous expenses that the settlement attempted to compensate. The agreement also included fees and costs for Feliciano’s attorney, David B. Rankin of Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP. See: Feliciano v. City of New York, USDC (S.D.N.Y.), Case No. 1:20-cv-10033.
DOC filed disciplinary charges against Henry, Fullerton, Hood, Makridis, Wilson and Prensa, resulting in 30-day suspensions for each. Crowell and Litigua-Pena resigned. In July 2022, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark obtained indictments against four of the guards for felony reckless endangerment. Wilson and Fullerton pleaded guilty to misdemeanor official misconduct, avoiding jail time. Hood and Henry are reportedly still awaiting trial.
Sadly, what happened to Feliciano was not an isolated incident; the complaint listed 19 detainee deaths dating back to 2012, plus a 2014 investigative report by the federal Department of Justice under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA). That included a firsthand description of “a suicide attempt by an inmate who had tied a ligature around his neck,” after which staff “did not immediately enter the cell to cut the ligature and determine whether CPR was necessary”; once again, “it took an unreasonable amount of time for an emergency response team to arrive.”
The complaint also revealed that Henry had been promoted despite being accused in a similar 2015 case of ignoring the pleas of a prisoner as he gasped, convulsed on the floor complaining of chest pains, and died. DOC originally blamed the death of Richard Gonzalez, 45, on an overdose, but an autopsy later revealed he died of untreated withdrawal symptoms. A suit filed on his behalf, also with Rankin’s aid, reportedly settled for $1.5 million in 2017. See: Carlson v. City of New York, USDC (S.D.N.Y.), Case No. 1:17-cv-00172.
Perhaps this lack of meaningful consequences is why the “use of force” report in the instant case describes Feliciano’s attempted suicide as “a manipulative gesture”—demonstrating how little has changed in the years since the CRIPA report. It remains to be seen if lasting change follows this payout, which is believed to be the largest for a single plaintiff in City history and one of the largest ever in the U.S.
Additional sources: New York Daily News, Spectrum News New York, WNBC
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