LEFT HIM TO DIE
Inmate hangs self after bigs fail to check file
A FAST-MOVING crew of good Samaritans plucked a pinned pedestrian from beneath a runaway Corvette after the driverless sports car jumped onto a crowded sidewalk.
The driver of the yellow Vette watched helplessly Thursday afternoon as his car, with no one behind the wheel, suddenly tore across E. 56th St. from the exit of a parking garage.
Todd Bassen, one of the heroes who moved the sports car off the injured woman, said the 1 p.m. scene was surreal.
“It was headed straight toward us,” said Bassen, who feared the car was about to slam into a crowded salad store. “She was pinned underneath. I’m shaking. This could have been so much worse.”
The woman, who was not identified, was taken to a Manhattan hospital for treatment of unspecified injuries.
A garage attendant claimed the Corvette sped off after its owner used his key ring to start the car, while the owner believes workers failed to engage the emergency brake.
Either way, the vehicle was soon hurtling at the woman walking just over a block east of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
“The car just came flying out of nowhere with no driver,” said shaken eyewitness Cam McInnis, 29. “It just smacked her. . . . A whole bunch of people came to her rescue.” A CITY INMATE with a history of serious mental illness was tossed into the jail’s general population and blocked from being fully evaluated by a psychologist hours before he hanged himself, the Daily News has learned.
Jairo Polanco Munoz, 24, was awaiting trial on petty larceny charges when he was found dead inside his cell Monday in the Manhattan Detention Complex at 9:35 p.m.
He was being held on $750 bail for stealing a cell phone in a Dunkin’ Donuts in the West Village, records show.
In jail, a medical official conducted a basic health check and ordered a more comprehensive psychological assessment to be conducted within 72 hours, according to sources.
He killed himself before that ever happened.
Munoz’s earlier appointment was canceled because the jail was put on lockdown due to an inmate-on-inmate stabbing earlier in the day, internal department documents show.
Hours later he was found dead inside his cell — his 70th hour behind bars.
“On arrival patient was found sitting on a toilet looking cyanotic (blue), cold to the touch, neck laterally flexed to the right with visible ligature mark on the left,” the medical file states.
Emergency medical staff were unable to open his mouth to intubate him, the record notes.
This past April, Munoz tried to commit suicide while he was behind bars, records show. It was unclear why Munoz wasn’t sent directly to a specialized medical observation unit or on suicide watch when he first arrived due to his prior history.
He was put in the general population during two prior stays in jail. The suicide attempt was so serious, he had to have a breathing tube inserted, records reveal.
“All someone had to do was review the chart,” a furious medical staffer said Wednesday. “He was left to die.”
The Correction Department is conducting a “thorough investigation,” said Commissioner Joseph Ponte (photo).
“This suspected suicide, as with any death in (Correction Department) custody, concerns me greatly,” he said in a statement.
Munoz’s death is the second suicide over the past three months involving a medical mishap tied to a jail lockdown.
In January, inmate Angel Perez-Rios, 44, killed himself after his pleas for stronger antidepressants were repeatedly ignored. A COMMISSION examining how
to reform Rikers Island will include a cross-section of criminal justice experts and bigwigs from the business world — but notthecorrection officersunion or the jail’s administrators. Thechairmanofthe27-person
independent commission, former
chief judge Jonathan Lippman, said it
was hischoicetonotincludethepo
werful Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, orrepsfromCityHallor district attorneys’offices.
The commission will be “a little insulated so we can have thoughtful, concerned discussions,” Lippman (pictured) said.
Thatdidn’tsitwellwithunion boss Norman Seabrook, who is
a frequent opponent of jail reform.
“It would be nice...ifthemembers of (the union), who put their lives on the line on Rikers Island every day, were officially invited to sitat thetable.Reform hasto be atwo-way conversation,” Seabrook said.