We are happy to announce that LLG was able to secure a $187,500 settlement for a client who was violently assaulted while in the custody of the City of New York’s Department of Corrections at its Metropolitan Detention Center in lower Manhattan. Our client, who we represented along with Amy Rameau, Esq., had complained to DOC guards that another inmate was threatening him. Nothing was done and shortly thereafter, the other inmate struck our client from behind, and then viciously beat him. The case was filed and litigated in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and was formally dismissed by the court following the settlement on December 4, 2017.
Inmate-on-inmate assaults are difficult cases to successfully pursue. A plaintiff has to demonstrate not only that he or she was the victim of an attack (and not participants in a fight), but that the DOC had advance notice that the plaintiff was particularly vulnerable, and failed to take reasonable steps to protect the inmate. Here, we were able to establish that the guards saw and heard the initial threats by the attacker, and made no effort to separate plaintiff and the other inmate. We are proud of this result and the work that we performed that helped bring about the settlement.