A cruel cut
Inmate: Rikers foulup let slay susp slash me
ALL HE WANTED to do was get a late-night snack for his friend.
But when Rikers inmate Joseph Troiano tried retrieving a pineapple snack that was stashed in a shower stall, another inmate slashed him in the face, he alleges.
The 28-year-old says he was attacked by Kaymel Taylor, 20, in the protective custody unit, according to Troiano and Department of Correction records.
The fresh fruit was hidden there — inside a plastic container with ice — so it wouldn’t get tossed by jail officers during a possible cell search, he said during an interview with the Daily News.
When Troiano went to retrieve it, on Jan. 21 at 9:30 p.m., he expected the shower area to be empty. But he startled inmate Taylor, who was inside the stall without his shirt on.
“Taylor said he wasn’t going to deal with this f---ing s--t,” Troiano, who is openly gay, recalled during the interview in his mother’s home.
“I just wanted to get the pineapple,” he added. “It was no big deal.”
As he walked away, Taylor charged at him with what appeared to be a piece of plastic melted down into a knife, he said.
Troiano was slashed on the right side of the face. Medical staff needed 22 stitches to close the 6-inch cut. No weapon was found. “I just lifted my hand to block a punch,” Troiano said. “That’s what I was expecting.”
Taylor, in jail on murder charges, went on to slash another inmate in the unit, Kevin Moise, 31, moments later, jail records show.
Jail officials are investigating the incident.
Troiano, a hairstylist who was placed in the special unit because he is gay, wants to know why there weren’t enough officers on duty to block the attack.
He was initially placed in a different facility on Rikers Island. He petitioned the court to be assigned to protective custody.
“It had to be two or three minutes before someone acknowledged I got cut,” he said, noting a fellow inmate was the first to put a cold compress on his bleeding face.
“I was told one of the correction officers was watching football,” he added.
He’s planning on suing the department for $30 million in damages.
Troiano, who was serving a 90-day sentence for shoplifting, contends he should have never been in a unit with an alleged murderer.
Records show Taylor was assigned to the same protective custody area after he was also slashed.
The unit inside the Robert N. Davoren Center also houses men charged with sex assault as well as gang members who denounce their affiliations.
Inmate advocates have long argued the department needs to do a better job protecting gay and transgender detainees.
The department says the slashing — and the over 140 similar attacks last year — show why they need permission to use airport-like body scanners.
Lawmakers in Albany have prohibited the use of those devices, citing potential health hazards of overuse.