NYC NOW - Evening Roundup : Dyslexia Tests Covered for Some NY Kids, Medical Reform Hopes, and Mysterious Man Squats in Queens Family’s Home

Episode Date: December 12, 2024

Pricey tests used to determine if a child has dyslexia will be covered by private insurance companies in New York State. Plus, some New Yorkers hope the fatal shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson can lead to healthcare reform. And finally, WNYC's Brittany Kriegstein explains what happens when one family’s loss and grief collide with New York City’s vast bureaucracy.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Jene Pierre. Private insurance companies in New York State will now have to cover the cost of pricey tests many parents need to determine if their child has dyslexia. Governor Kathy Hochel signed the Dyslexia Diagnosis Access Act this week as part of a package of bills, she says, will reduce child care costs for families. Assembly member Robert Carroll introduced the legislation. So many of our students who are struggling, what they need is a neuropsychological evaluation to correctly identify their dyslexia so that they can get the interventions and supports that they so desperately need. Dyslexia is a learning disorder that affects how the brain process is written language.

The test that diagnosed dyslexia costs at least $5,000. Advocates say the law is a big step in the right direction, but would like to see coverage, for those with Medicaid and other disabilities as well. The fatal shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week prompted many consumers to vent their pent-up frustrations with the health system. WMYC's Caroline Lewis reports that even though the outcry started with violence, some New Yorkers hope it will lead to reform. Brooklynite Eli Scherer says his friends haven't been able to stop talking about the shooting,

for which 26-year-old Luigi Mangione is facing charges. There's a lot of, like, amongst my friends, a community, a lot of speculation about, like, who is this person, what were their motivations, and then also just kind of excitement about maybe this will actually change things. Other New Yorkers echo that sentiment, but it's still unclear what form any changes might take. A new Gallup poll finds that Republicans and Democrats are similarly dissatisfied with health coverage in the United States, but the country remains deeply divided on big proposals to overhaul the system, including a shift. toward universal public insurance. Still, some issues have come under scrutiny from politicians on both sides of the aisle, like how frequently private Medicare Advantage plans delay or deny coverage. That issue has motivated Marianne Pisatola, a former FDNY employee, to mobilize thousands of fellow municipal retirees to fight back against a city plan to switch them from

traditional Medicare to Medicare Advantage in recent years. Mayor Eric Adams has argued the city's custom Medicare Advantage plan would provide quality coverage while saving the city hundreds of millions of dollars a year. But many retirees don't buy it. And so far, their fight has been successful. I think it's the one thing that people are not recognizing that they have. It's the power of collective action. Pizzatola said she hopes others organized to demand changes in health care without resorting to violence. That's WNYC's Caroline Lewis. Coming up, a family in Hollis, Queens,

fights to get their family home back from a mysterious man. That story after the break. This next story takes us to a house in Queens where a family is trying to solve a mystery. It started a few years ago when two relatives died in their childhood home under suspicious circumstances. Now, a man who claims to be a member of the family

is living there, but no one knows who he is. WNYC's Brittany Crickstein explains what happens when one family's loss and grief collide with the city's vast bureaucracy. We're here at the family's two-story brick house on a quiet residential street in Hollis. It doesn't really stand out with its one-car garage, gray shutters, and small but tidy front yard. I walk up to the front door with Teresa Camara, who grew up here. She knocks, but we don't really expect to get an answer. That's what Cali's to do. We decide to wait it out.

Teresa sits down on the front stoop, and we talk about her childhood in the house. You know, I've sat on these steps countless times my whole life. About 15 minutes later, the door swings open. A man wearing sunglasses, a black medical mask, and a hat steps out. Who are you, sir? Are you Leon Clark? Thanks a lot. Are you Leon Clark? We're doing an investigation, and we're wondering this woman, she grew up.

in this home. Teresa spins around. She looks stunned. Who are you? Excuse me. I am actually... I've never seen this man before. That's not true. I'm actually her brother-in-law. You're her brother-in-law. I've never seen you before a day of my life. It's the first time Teresa has confronted the man who she says is illegally squatting in the home. And the same man who claims he was married to her now deceased sister, but his never shown any proof. This individual, whoever he is, has no right to be here. David Robinson is Teresa's brother.

The siblings are currently locked in a legal battle to get the mysterious man out. But there's more at stake than just reclaiming their parents' house and legacy. David and Teresa feel the house may hold some answers about how their mother and sister both died there, severely underweight, two years apart. And they say city agencies so far have been more of a hint. then help. I don't really need to have a Ouija board to bring Albert Einstein back or bring some of the great minds of, you know, Sherlock Holmes and all to say, yeah, something's really wrong here.

The question is, why aren't people doing it? That's Robert Alchler, a former Brooklyn prosecutor who's now working as the family's private attorney, gathering information for a possible criminal case. Justice looks like, at first glance, a thorough sifting for the family's. investigation. They want people to do their jobs. They want detectives to be detectives. The family's history in the community goes back decades. David and Teresa's parents, Elsie and Lehman Robinson, bought the family home back in 1964 and raised their five kids there. Elsie worked for the New York City Housing Authority, and Lehman was one of the first black

journalists hired by the New York Times. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the Robinson's. Lehman Robinson died in 2013, leaving his other daughter Deborah to care for her mom in the home. Things took a turn when Elsie died in the house in 2021, at the age of 92. That alone would have been enough, but then last year, around this time, my sister ended up dead in the house. David and Teresa were shocked. Their sister Deborah was only 67 and had no known health issues. They point to the eerie similarities. between the two deaths. Elsie and Deborah were both discovered face up in bed, and both were

emaciated when they died, according to law enforcement officials and autopsy photos. Frankly, it's real easy to see this is a double homicide. It's easy. But the NYPD didn't immediately consider the deaths suspicious. When I reached out to see if that had changed, a spokesperson for the department did not provide any new details. The Queen's DA's office says Deborah's death, quote, remains an action. of investigation, but David says they've largely been left in the dark. I have not heard from the NYPD or the district attorney, knowing that they were claiming they had to wait for the autopsy results, which were totally horrific. It appeared to be starvation.

She had a broken FEMA that was never taken care of. And now the only man who might know something is hold up inside the house, preventing the siblings from gaining access. So if this individual claims he was married to my sister, I don't understand why he never rendered aid or called us if he wasn't capable of doing so. Despite their local clout and perseverance on the case, the siblings have been at the mercy of the slow court system and city bureaucracy. As horrific as it is, we don't want to take the law into our own hands. That will just cause more problems for my family. And while the legal system has failed us, I know that justice is a long game. According to court papers, the man living in the house is named Leon Clark.

Phone numbers listed for him online are either wrong or disconnected. He has no social media accounts, no voting records, no property records. The Robinson's know so little about him, yet he's managed to throw the whole family into turmoil. In addition to the house, they're also fighting with Clark over Debra's body. When he claimed to be her husband, he tried to get custody of her remains, according to court documents. He eventually delayed, delayed, delayed, delayed that to a judge had to decide with the dispute that I filed. And we won the rights to our body, but at that point, because of all that this individual has put us through, the body has now been sent to potter's field and with a city burial. And now, all these years later and thousands of dollars spent, they have few answers.

It is heartbreaking to know what this home represented for us. for the neighborhood and for the black middle class. It's still very hard to come to terms with this kind of action. The siblings say they won't be at peace until the whole family can walk into the home freely and honor their parents' legacies. The story does not end where it is now. It ends with that celebration.

That house, it has seen celebration after celebration. That's where it ends. and it's coming, but it won't be close for me until it happens. That's WMYC's Brittany Cricstein. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday three times a day. I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.