NewAG-& old probe on Garner
RELATIVES OF a bipolar police sergeant say his transfer to the midnight shift became a death sentence, prompting the sleep-deprived cop to hang himself.
Nine-year NYPD veteran Jose Benitez committed suicide on March 10, 2015 — roughly five months after the diagnosis of his mental health woes, according to a Thursday court filing.
Benitez, who underwent a number of psychiatric exams with private doctors and the Police Department, “died on the job based on emotional stress negligently caused by the NYPD,” the documents alleged.
Police brass, despite knowledge of Benitez’s shaky mental health, “assigned him to a position that would become the trigger for his eventual demise,” the Manhattan court filing charged.
The lifelong distance runner, once hailed as the fastest cop on the force, left behind an infant son.
“He was a great officer,” family lawyer Nicholas Iannuzzi said Friday. “He graduated second in his class and just was overworked at his precinct. Essentially they didn’t take care of him.
“He was diagnosed with a condition and they didn’t take care of it correctly.”
The estate seeks full death benefits for the 30-year-old officer, who was eventually assigned to monitor surveillance cameras at a city housing development in Brooklyn.
While experts say regular, quality sleep is important for bipolar patients, the NYPD had Benitez “working through the night. . . with no sleep,” said the documents that identified both the city and the NYPD as defendants.
“A common risk of bipolar disorder, if not properly treated, is suicide,” the ninepage filing said.
The court documents sought to file a late Notice of Claim in the death because of delays by the city in providing psychiatric health documents regarding Benitez.
The notices are the first step in the filing of a lawsuit against the city or its agencies. Potential plaintiffs typically have 90 days to file.
Iannuzzi argues the clock only started running from the end of this past November when the first NYPD medical files were turned over. The court documents also charged all of Benitez’s beneficiaries were denied their rightful compensation because of the NYPD’s lag time in turning over the medical records.
The Police Department declined comment, while the city Law Department said it would review the court filing.
A July 2013 story in the Queens Gazette detailed how Benitez began running at age 8, and continued even after he moved up through the police ranks to become a sergeant at the 48th Precinct in the Bronx.
The officer said then that running helped ease the stress of his job.
“(It) keeps you mentally healthy,” he said. A FEDERAL grand jury is still investigating NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo for Eric Garner’s chokehold death, according to sources.
Grand jurors met as recently as last week in the ongoing probe that’s unfolding in Brooklyn Federal Court, the Associated Press reported, and officers have recently testified who were present when Pantaleo put his arm around Garner’s neck during the July 2014 confrontation recently testified.
Responding officers also appeared before the grand jury before the Trump Administration took office, according to a source familiar with matter.
Federal prosecutors from Washington, D.C., are on the case, pressing on even as they have a new boss in newly-confirmed Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Sessions came to be the country’s top prosecutor despite questions about his track record on race and civil rights issues.
Pantaleo's lawyer, Stuart London, declined to comment but said the Justice Department hadn’t reached out to him.
A rep for the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office declined comment.
“As far as we know, it’s an ongoing investigation,” Jonathan Moore, the lawyer for the Garner family, told The News.
He countered speculation that Sessions would shut the probe down.
“This is a great case to show the country and the world he’s evolved on civil rights,” he said.