NYC Rehires Former Head of Rikers Island Lockup Where Guard Assault Left Detainee Quadriplegic
On May 11, 2024, the New York City Department of Correction (DOC) rehired Ned McCormick, the former official in charge of a Rikers Island lockup where a massive guard pile-on exactly one year earlier left a detainee quadriplegic. McCormick also got a salary raise to $212,187 for his new position as DOC Assistant Commissioner.
He resigned his earlier post helming Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center in October 2023, the same month that a federal civil rights lawsuit was filed against DOC and 13 guards who paralyzed detainee Carlton James, 40, on May 11, 2023. A former martial arts expert, James suffered from mental illness and spinal stenosis. He was shackled and handcuffed for a transfer he had requested—in fear of gang violence—when the guards allegedly saw his leg move and violently tackled him. He has been hospitalized ever since, able to move only his head.From his hospital bed, James said he feared another assault by DOC guards stationed outside his room. His lawsuit, filed in state court for the Bronx on October 27, 2023, with the aid of attorney Jason Rubin of Wingate, Russotti, Shapiro, Moses & Halperin LLP in Manhattan, seeks to hold DOC liable for his injuries, along with guards surnamed DeBianchi, Venechnos, Ferreira, Avila, Moore, Lozano, Terry, Brumfield, Chisolm, Murray, Scott, Allen and Dawkins. See: James v. City of N.Y., N.Y. Supr. (Cty. of Bronx), Case No. 817069-2023E.
James filed a second suit on February 20, 2024, with the aid of attorney Darren R. Seilback of Oddo & Babat PC in Manhattan, blaming “Doe” guards for failing to protect him from three earlier assaults by fellow detainees in November 2022 and January 2023. See: James v. City of N.Y., N.Y. Supr. (Cty. of Bronx), Case No. 802918-2024E.
McCormick is not named in either suit, both of which were cited by the Legal Aid Society’s Prisoners’ Rights Project and the law firm Emery Celli Abady Brinckerhoff Ward & Maazel, in a brief presenting what they called overwhelming evidence of DOC misconduct; that brief was filed with the federal court for the Southern District of New York in a long-running class-action challenging jail conditions, urging it to place Rikers Island under federal receivership. The district court heard arguments on that motion before issuing another order on September 26, 2024.
“It is clear that court orders alone”—including the appointment of a federal monitor—“have not effectively accomplished improvements on safety,” said Judge Laura T. Swain. But as she has so often in the long history of the case, the judge kicked the receivership can down the road, giving the parties 45 days to develop and present their ideas for how it would work. PLN will update those developments as they are available. See: Nunez v. City of N.Y., USDC (S.D.N.Y.), Case No. 1:11-cv-05845.
The City is also defending DOC and its guards against an astonishing number of suits by current and former jail detainees and prisoners who alleged they were victims of sexual assault. By March 2024, there were 719 that had been filed since the state’s “look back” law, the Adult Survivors Act, opened a one-year window in July 2022 to bring sex assault claims that would otherwise fall outside the statute of limitations, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Aug. 2023, p.34.] By September 27, 2024, DOC said that three guards named in those suits had been transferred from the Rose M. Singer Center, a Rikers Island women’s lockup. Those three, Terrell Armstead, Valery Attimy and Anthony Rizzo, were among five guards so far named in the lawsuits who remain employed by DOC.
Another guard Anthony Martin, Jr. was suspended and placed on unpaid leave after he was arrested for posing as a TV producer to lure an non-incarcerated victim to his home and sexually assaulting her. For that, he was indicted on July 25, 2024. Two former Rikers Island detainees have also accused him of committing the same crime against them in 2021.
Additional source: The City, Gothamist, New York Times
As a digital subscriber to Prison Legal News, you can access full text and downloads for this and other premium content.
Already a subscriber? Login