RIKERS ‘GAY BASH’
Jail officers beat visitor, used hate slur: suit
A man visiting his boyfriend on Rikers Island suffered a brutal beatdown at the hands of a female correction officer and other prison guards, the man charges in a lawsuit.
Thomas Hamm and his boyfriend, identified in court papers only as P.F., were talking across a visiting table on May 9, 2014, “holding and/ or rubbing each other’s hands in a sign of affection for each other — when all hell broke loose,” according to his Manhattan federal court suit.
“C.O. [Shaquana] Gatling ordered P.F. to stand up and approach her,” the suit claims. “When P.F. walked over to C.O. Gatling, the corrections officer told him, in sum and substance: ‘We don’t want that ft st in here.’ ”
A male correction officer then abruptly ended their visit — even though no such thing was done to other guests of the notorious jail complex, Hamm says.
When Hamm asked for the security slip he needed to board the bus and leave the jail, Gatling and two other jail guards hit him in the head, he says in court papers.
“Mr. Hamm fell to the floor, and C.O. [Ronnie] Mack, C.O. Gatling, and C.O. [John] Doe kicked Mr. HHamm,” according to the lawsuit, which claims his rights were violated beccause he’s gay.
The beating was so vvicious that he had to spend the night at Elmhurst Hospital, according to Hamm, who says he now wwalks with a cane.
Yet it was Hamm who was cuffed and eventually charged with misdemeanor assault, according to the suit, which claims the officers “falsified incident reports” to “cover up their own misdeeds.”
When Hamm was eventually discharged from the hospital, city correction officers took him back to Rikers and forced him to sign an or der banning him from the troubled jail complex for 180 days.
He was eventually given an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, a court order that means his case will be dismissed as long as he stays out of trouble, he says in court papers.
The lawsuit condemns the “deepseated culture of violence” that is “pervasive” at Rikers.
The city Department of Correction said it is investigating all of Hamm’s claims.
“The city will evaluate the merits of each of these claims and respond accordingly,” said a city Law Department spokesman.
A dozen Rikers inmates who sued the city after they said they were beaten by officers settled their suits for $3.5 million, The Post exclusively reported last month.