NYC NOW - April 9, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: April 9, 2024

There's an urgent need for high-quality, affordable childcare programs in New York City. Plus, a few things you can do to avoid the most popular tax scams. And finally, WNYC’s Michael Hill talked with reporter Jan Ransom about a more than $28 million settlement to the family of Nicholas Feliciano. He suffered severe brain damage after attempting to hang himself in his cell on Rikers Island in 2019.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jenae P. Childcare on average costs between $18,000 and $20,000 a year. That is simply unaffordable for the vast majority of New Yorkers. And at the same time, we also know that many child care facilities have closed. That's Councilmember Julie Minnan. She was among the powerful women who are weighing in on New York City's child care crisis. There's an urgent need for high-quality, affordable programs across all five boroughs.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also spoke during a panel on Tuesday held by the Institute of Global Politics and Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. She says while the city has made strides to make child care more affordable, there's still a long way to go. New York City now has 17 child care deserts. The kind of guilt that you feel, as you go back to work, go off to work, pursue your education, whatever it might be, and not feeling that you've got the best care or the most secure care or can't afford the care. Members of the city council say they plan to continue making child care affordability a top priority.

The NYPD says thieves are trying to steal people's money this tax season. WNYC's Bahar Oestadon talked to police about what you can do to avoid the most. popular tax scams. If someone calls you claiming to be from the IRS, hang up the phone. The IRS will never call you directly. They'll always send you a detailed bill by mail. Another type of scam is called check washing. When you mail a personal check to the IRS, thieves can steal them from mailboxes and use chemicals to rinse ink off. Then they change the name and amount so that they can cash the check themselves. Police say drop your checks off inside the post office and use permanent in ink that can't be erased.

Scammers might also send you texts or emails promising to help you file your taxes. New York City will pay millions to the family of a man who hanged himself in Rikers as correction officers watched and did nothing. We'll discuss the settlement after the break. Stay close. New York City will pay more than $28 million to the family of Nicholas Feliciano. He suffered severe brain damage. after attempting to hang himself in his cell on Rikers Island in 2019.

As shown in surveillance video, several correction officers stood by watching Feliciano for nearly eight minutes and did nothing. He now gets round-the-clock care and struggles to walk, eat, and remember things. My colleague Michael Hill talked with reporter Jan Ransom, who wrote about the settlement for the New York Times. And a warning. This conversation will include mentions of self-harm. Nicholas arrived as a teenager at Rikers, and here we are a few years later talking about a $28 million settlement to his family.

Walk us through here, the timeline of events that led to this settlement, please. In November 2019, you know, Nicholas was on Rikers Island. He was there on a parole violation. And after getting into an altercation with other detainees, he was put into what is called an intake cell. And after hours of sitting there, he began to act out. Over time, he begins to create a noose in his cell using t-shirts, sweatshirts. And over the course of seven minutes and 51 seconds, he hangs himself while various officers are passing by, looking over, seeing him hanging, or even opening the cell door and doing nothing. And so, you know, fast forward to about 2022, the Bronx DA announces criminal charges against four of the nine officers. You know, fast forward to this year, the case is moving forward towards being settled at the tone of $28.75 million. Jan, you've seen the video. To be clear, do the officers see him making what likely is a news?

Absolutely. And so, you know, before he ever begins hanging, you know, we see in the footage that there is a sweater already hanging from a U-shaped hook in the ceiling. And, you know, it is the officer's responsibility to stop a person from harming themselves. And so there was definitely time to intervene even before he ever hung himself. And then he attaches a second sweatshirt. And even we see in the video, he tests the sweatshirts to see, I guess, if it works. And we can see in the video footage, officers standing at a. desk and looking over at Nicholas, who's motionless at this point, we can see an officer,

you know, literally open the cell door, stare at his body for a second, and then close it and walks off. What does this say about the way the correction department treats mentally ill detainees? It says a lot. Unfortunately, you know, after Nicholas, this happened again. And unfortunately, that person actually killed themselves. In that situation, a captain was charged with criminally negligent homicide. The captain in that case stopped her subordinate from intervening. And so we see this time and time again over the past three years, at least 18 detainees with a mental illness have either killed themselves, overdose on drugs, or died in other ways. And, you know, the Board of Correction, which is in Oversight Body, has released reports showing that in

any of these instances, the correction officers were slow to intervene and that there were other breakdowns in care and custody of these people. Now, you're right. If the judge approves the settlement, it will be among the largest pretrial settlements ever to go to a single plaintiff in a civil rights case in New York City. Jan, what about the officers involved? What happens to them? That's a great question. And so, as I mentioned earlier, you know, four of the nine officers were charged with misconduct and other felony offenses. Two of them pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges last year,

including the one officer who actually opened the cell door. And so they are avoiding jail time. A captain and another officer are still awaiting trial in the charges. Another officer resigned in May, a couple of others, you know, never got so much as a suspension. And the captain who was involved in this, he had been sued before for not helping a detainee who was in distress. But that captain is still working there today.

And in the years after what happened to Feliciano, he has received additional complaints about his lack of supervision and other issues on the job. The correction officer's union has said that the case against the guards was, quote, being driven more by politics than by facts. What do you think the union means by that? Yeah, so the union said this in response to the criminal charges that the Bronx DA filed back in 2022. You know, I think the union was standing up for their members, you know,

but I think the videos speak for themselves and, you know, definitely give the public an insight look into what actually happens in these cases. you know, unlike many police killings that are, you know, have been as of late recorded on cell phones. You know, it's rare that the public gets a look at what is happening on Rikers. Nicholas Feliciano was left in a coma and now has severe brain damage, as you report. What is life like for him now? You know, I spoke to his grandmother, Madeline Feliciano, and she said he'll never be the same. He needs a walker to get around.

He needs assistance while eating. He suffers from short-term memory loss. So he needs round-the-clock care. And the family is hopeful that, you know, the settlement will help them to provide that to him, but at home instead of in the facilities that he has been in. That's reporter Jan Ransom, talking with my colleague Michael Hill. 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.