A 20-year-old man claims in a lawsuit that deputized "peace officers" on Roosevelt Island nearly beat him to death earlier this month, then kept him handcuffed to his hospital bed for five days without a charge. Anthony Jones says he suffered fractured ribs and a pierced lung in the “unprovoked” attack around 8 p.m. on January 13th. And his family told the News that the Roosevelt Island Public Safety Department is a menace to the island: “They arrest the kids for nothing. One kid who taped the incident was punched in the face and charged with obstruction of justice,” said Jones'smother, Monica Vega. “I came across a lot of parents who have the same issue.”
According to the lawsuit, Jones and some friends were waiting in front of an apartment building for another friend when they were “rushed” without warning by several members of the island’s 37-person Public Safety force. Jones claims he complied with their orders to lie down, and “without resisting in any manner, he was maced, severely kicked, beaten and then handcuffed." He was then taken to the department’s holding cell, even though he told cops he couldn’t breathe.
Vega said her son was eventually taken to Elmhurst Hospital, where he was handcuffed to a bed and initially diagnosed with pneumonia. But he was transferred to Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, where doctors found his ribs had been fractured and had pierced his lung, filling it with blood. “He almost died,” she noted. Altogether, Jones was hospitalized for seven days, five days of which he was cuffed to the bed. Ultimately, he was not charged with anything by the NYPD.
The Public Safety Department, which is run by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation, is NYPD-deputized, but not officially part of the NYPD. According to their website:
The Department assists in enforcing all State and City laws, including traffic regulations and those sections of the Penal Law, Criminal Procedure Law, and Vehicle and Traffic Laws as they pertain to Roosevelt Island. Officers are trained to know these laws and regulations, the laws of arrest and the Constitutional rights of the individual. Public Safety Officers have undergone extensive training for sensitivity to bias crimes and crimes involving sexual assault and harassment.
Both the Public Safety Department and the Operating Corporation declined to comment on the case; we've contacted the NYC Law Department for comment as well.
