NYC NOW - April 24, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: April 24, 2024

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is proposing a $112 billion spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year. Plus, New Jersey Rep. Donald Payne Jr. has died. And finally, we share the latest finding in a WNYC investigation into more than 700 Rikers-related claims as a result of New York’s Adult Survivors Act.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City. From WMYC, I'm Jenae Pierre. Mayor Eric Adams released a proposed budget for the city Wednesday that reversed some of the biggest bending cuts he's been threatening for months. The $112 billion budget will restore funding to the city's police, fire, and sanitation departments. Our fiscal year 2025 is, Executive budget speaks volumes about our core priorities, public safety, stronger economy,

and a more livable city for working class people. But the proposed spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year still delivers some painful cuts. The mayor won't budge on cuts to the city's public libraries, meaning most branches will have to reduce hours. The city also cut the length of shelter stays and reduce its migrant spending by 30% according to the mayor. In New Jersey, Democratic Representative Donald Payne Jr. has died. Payne has represented parts of Hudson, Union, and Essex counties in Congress for over a decade. His district includes Newark. Payne succeeded his father, who also died in office. Two weeks ago, Payne's office issued a statement saying he was hospitalized for a cardiac episode related to diabetes. He was running unopposed in the June primary. In a statement, Governor Phil Murphy says, pain represented the very best of public service. He was 65 years old. A WMYC investigation finds that over 30 women held at Rikers

were sexually assaulted during routine medical examinations. More on that after the break. One warning about this next story. It contains detailed descriptions of sexual violence that may not be suitable for all listeners. More than 30 women held at Rikers say they were sexually assaulted during routine medical exams. That's the latest finding in a WMYC investigation into more than 700 Rikers-related claims.

They were filed under a state law that created a one-year window for sexual assault survivors to bring lawsuits beyond the statute of limitations. WMYC's Samantha Max reports. Jennifer Levine remembers her body stiffening in shock when she says a doctor examining her at Rikers Island more than two decades ago removed his blue medical glove and shoved. his bare hand deep inside her pelvis. He was being so rough. And, like, I kind of went to sit up, and he kind of, like, blocked me with his forearm. Like, he just pushed me back down on the table.

And I could feel that his whole arm was inside of me, like, up into his elbow almost. Like, it didn't become painful until I got nervous. Everyone detained on Rikers goes through a health screening when they, they arrive. Levine says she'd landed at Riker several times before, and she knew the intake routine. But she says this was the first time of vaginal exam was part of that process. I just remember just watching like other girls go in to be examined by him and I just wondered to myself, like, is he doing the same thing to them? Or was it just me? You know, almost like blaming myself. Like, is that why he did it because he knew nobody would believe me?

is one of the hundreds of Rikers detainees who filed lawsuits under New York's Adult Survivors Act that together describe an entrenched decades-long culture of sexual abuse. Most of the lawsuits accused guards, but over 30 claim medical staff were the perpetrators. We want to believe that medical providers and health care providers are there to help us and heal us, not to abuse us. Attorney Michelle Simpson-Tegel has extensive experience bringing medical sexual abuse cases, including against former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nasser. She says it can be hard for patients to differentiate between a normal medical procedure and sexual assault. When you hear it as an outsider, you're like, that doesn't sound medical. That sounded like a type of touching that was intimate

and not for a procedural purpose. And it's hard when you're the person on the table and you're uncomfortable already to identify that. Many of the women say they don't know the names of the medical staff who they say sexually abused them. And most of the allegations in their lawsuits date from 2001 to 2015 when a for-profit company called Corizon provided health care in city jails.

The company has since filed for bankruptcy and its lawyer declined to comment. Correctional health services, the city agency that now oversees medical care at Rikers, says it has zero tolerance for sexual abuse. The city's Department of Correction declined to comment about the allegations and what measures it has in place to protect patients during medical exams. Aletia Robinson says when she was detained at Rikers in 2013, she came to trust a medical provider in the jail's clinic.

She doesn't know his name. But she says he seemed to care about her health at a time when she felt weak and alone. I don't want to be here. I'm trying to find somebody out there that's going to help me to get out of here. That was my focus. Leaving.

In a lawsuit she filed last year, Robinson says the medical staffer told her she had herpes and then regularly summoned her to the clinic for checkups. Even though she says she had no symptoms, and the provider didn't give her any medication. Instead, she says he would fondle her breasts and pelvis and ask her how it felt. I was violated, but I didn't feel like I had a voice there

to say anything to anybody. A chaperone is supposed to be present during intimate exams, including of breasts and genitals. And correctional health services says that policy is now in place. But some former detainees have accused the city of breaking that policy. Robinson says in her case a nurse stood outside a curtain. Jennifer Levine doesn't remember a nurse being present for her exam either. Medical treatment areas are also one of the few places on Rikers Island that don't have surveillance cameras.

At least one lawsuit accuses Dr. Frank LaVelle, who was arrested in 2010 on sex crimes charges based on another unrelated allegation. Thank you so much for finding this. Last month, I went to the second floor of the Bronx Hall of Justice to read through the criminal case against Lavelle, which is still open. Okay, here's the indictment. Criminal sexual act in the third degree. Prosecutors say that in 2010, Lavelle groped a detainee's breasts and forced her to perform oral sex. Records from Lavelle's criminal case file say that the woman spit his semen into a tissue, which she turned over to investigators. So here's the section where prosecutor shares statement that Frank Lavelte gave.

I treated her. I do not remember what for. I didn't have any sexual contact with her. I will not give you my DNA. I want to speak with my family first. Lavelle pleaded not guilty. He stopped showing up to his court dates in 2011 after he posted bail. A warrant is still out for his arrest.

The woman who named Lavelle in her Adult Survivors Act lawsuit says he groped her breasts and digitally penetrated her vagina. Then there's the case of Sidney Wilson. He was a former physician assistant who worked at the women's jail. In 2017, the Bronx District Attorney's Office, which has jurisdiction overwriters, charged Wilson with rape and other crimes. It's unclear if he's connected to any of the Adult Survivors Act lawsuits, because Again, most of them don't include a medical provider's name. Prosecutors accused him of giving four female detainees fast food, gum, and other contraband in exchange for sexual favors.

We take all allegations of sex abuse seriously and are acutely aware of the sensitive nature of these allegations, especially in a jail setting. Bronx DA Darcel Clark said at a Board of Correction hearing in 2019 that her office was getting ready to bring the case to trial that summer. But that never happened. Clark dropped the charges and blamed her decision on a new state law that requires prosecutors to turn over evidence more quickly. Wilson has denied the allegations. Clark acknowledged that prosecuting sexual abuse cases against people who work in city jails is particularly tough. But difficulty doesn't mean impossible. And just because it's hard doesn't mean that we don't do it. Earlier this month,

Clark's office said it's reaching out to attorneys who have brought lawsuits alleging sexual assaulted Rikers and assessing whether their clients want to pursue criminal charges. That's WMYC's Samantha Max. For more on this story, visit our news website, Gothamist. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day. I'm Jenae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.