City to Shell Out $1.6 Million to Rikers Detainee Abused by Therapist

New York City has agreed to pay $1.6 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a former Rikers Island detainee who was sexually abused by a physical therapist inside a jail clinic.

The settlement is among the largest pretrial payouts ever awarded to a single plaintiff in a sexual assault case at Rikers, according to Josh Kelner, who represented the plaintiff known as John Doe in legal documents.

“At first they didn’t want to believe me,” the former detainee, who did not want his identity revealed, told THE CITY last week.

The man said he was forced to perform oral sex on physical therapist Carlos Negron, 57, inside the West Facility on Rikers on May 30, 2019, according to the Manhattan federal court lawsuit .

The incarcerated man, who was 27 years old at the time, said Negron threatened to get him in trouble if he didn’t comply.

After the assault, the detainee reported what happened to a correction officer and handed over DNA evidence that he had in his mouth and on his hand, according to court records.

“If I didn’t have that DNA evidence, I’m 100% sure he’d still be working at Rikers,” said the former detainee, who was locked up on a parole violation tied to a drug related conspiracy.

Negron was charged with multiple offenses by the Bronx District Attorney on Oct. 7, 2019. In February 2022, he pled guilty to one felony count of Criminal Sexual Act in the third degree.

He was sentenced to two years of outpatient mental health counseling and ordered to surrender his physical therapy license  — and blocked from applying for a new one for five years.

Hundreds of Cases

The settlement comes as 819 former detainees have alleged that they were sexually assaulted by correction officers and jail staffers over the last few decades. The legal cases were all filed under the Adult Survivors Act , a state law that extended the statute of limitations for such cases.

The case also comes as the troubled New York City Correction Department — and other lockups throughout the country — struggle to comply with the 2003 federal Prison Rape Elimination Act known as PREA.

As part of those guidelines, the city Correction Department in 2016 implemented a 24-hour hotline people behind bars can use to file complaints of abuse. The department also added more investigators to review allegations and clear a backlog of cases.

Still, allegations against officers or other department staffers are rarely substantiated, according to Correction Department records.

The Correction Department fired only one correction officer for having a prohibited sexual encounter with a detainee over a recent five year stretch, THE CITY reported in November 2022.

Initially Ignored

In Negron’s case, another detainee, Edward Baker, complained about him a little over four months before in 2019, according to court documents from the John Doe case.

Baker alleged that Negron groped his genitalia over his clothing and also commented that “it looks nice.”

Baker says he complained to a nearby correction officer right after the incident.

The DOC investigator assigned to the case received the complaint at 4:35 p.m. on Feb. 2, 2019 and only three hours later concluded it was “unsubstantiated,” department records show.

That staffer never even looked at surveillance footage or questioned Negron, a later review of the internal DOC investigation revealed.

Negron right afterward filed an internal DOC counterclaim against Baker, alleging the detainee slapped him on the butt, the records show.

Negron’s claim led to Baker being placed on so-called “enhanced restraint” status, meaning he was cuffed everytime he was transported.

As for other similar cases, the second highest payout appears to be a $1.2 million case filed by a former female detainee who alleged she was repeatedly raped by a correction officer, according to Kelner, who has handled multiple high-profile lawsuits against the Correction Department.

“Reports of sexual assault at Rikers routinely languish, often are barely investigated, and are almost never taken seriously,” said Kelner.

“Only one in one hundred complaints were substantiated the year this took place,” he added. “An assault like this can only take place when a perpetrator knows he is unlikely to face any consequences.  This incident was a product of the culture of neglect and impunity that exists at Rikers for sexual assaults.”

The Correction Department referred questions about the settlement to the city’s Law Department, which handles legal cases. The Law Department did not respond to an email request seeking comment.

THE CITY is a nonprofit newsroom that serves the people of New York. Sign up for our SCOOP newsletter and get exclusive stories, helpful tips, a guide to low-cost events, and everything you need to know to be a well-informed New Yorker. DONATE to THE CITY

The post City to Shell Out $1.6 Million to Rikers Detainee Abused by Therapist appeared first on THE CITY - NYC News .