Prisoner sues over nab injury
A RIKERS inmate has suffered with torn shoulder tendons for nearly 11 months after a rough arrest — but jail staffers have refused to provide medical treatment for his injuries, his lawyer alleges.
Angel Diaz, who is now in Rikers facing an attempted robbery rap, has charged that NYPD cops fractured his right shoulder during the June 22 arrest in the Bronx, according to a notice of claim filed shortly after the incident.
Diaz also maintains his connective tissue was ripped when he was collared, and that his shoulder was dislocated in the Eastchester bust.
Another notice of claim, filed in January, maintains that the Department of Correction’s own doctors determined he needed “immediate corrective surgery in order to repair the dislocation and tendon tears.”
Diaz, 52, has been “treated with deliberate indifference,” according to this notice of claim.
Diaz’s civil lawyer, Conway Martindale, told the Daily News that the Correction Department still hasn’t acted on the diagnoses — despite “numerous” requests.
“It is unconscionable that the NYC Department of Corrections has allowed my client to go nearly a year without the proper essential medical care for injuries he sustained during his arrest at the hands of the NYPD,” Martindale told The News.
“There is a chance that my client, among other things, will have permanent loss of full range of motion of his dominant arm,” Martindale added.
State Department of Corrections records indicate that Diaz did two prison stints on convictions for burglary and robbery.
“Regardless of what his previous convictions were, his lack of medical attention isn’t premised on whatever convictions he may or may not have had,” Martindale said.
The city Department of Correction deferred comment to the Correctional Health Services, part of NYC Health and Hospitals, and the city Law Department.
Correctional Health Services said privacy laws don’t allow the department to comment on patients’ health care.
The NYPD also deferred comment to the Law Department, which declined to comment.