NYC NOW - September 18, 2023: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: September 18, 2023

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander still has serious concerns about DocGo, a medical services provider tasked with helping migrants. Plus, Mount Sinai announced it's shutting down Beth Israel Hospital, citing years of financial turmoil. And finally, WNYC’s Jon Campbell looks into a few troubling incidents at the Brooklyn Mirage.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jene Pierre. We've articulated and others have articulated real concerns about this contract, about this vendor, and whether they are able to and are providing services at the best possible price with integrity. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander says he may revoke the Adams administration's authority to quickly enter into emergency contracts to handle the micro-examination. crisis. Lander says he still has serious concerns about Doc Go, a medical services provider tasked with helping migrants. He says last year, the administration gained the authority to

bypass normal contracting procedures. But it cannot be a blank check to enter into a no-bit $432 million contract with a medical services firm that doesn't have experience providing shelter and services to asylum seekers without the adequate due to. diligence and integrity that is required. Doc Go has come under scrutiny in recent months, following accusations its staff has mistreated migrants. The network of hospitals on the east side is getting smaller. Mount Sinai announced its shutting down Beth Israel Hospital on 16th Street and First Avenue,

citing years of financial turmoil. A coalition of Manhattan lawmakers, including Congressman Jerry Nadler, say the move leaves nearby communities with uncertain assets, access to medical care. The hospital system last tried to shutter Beth Israel back in 2016, but reversed the decision during the pandemic. Mount Sinai has not provided a timeline for the closure. Stick around. There's more after the break. You may have heard the name Brooklyn Mirage in the news lately. This summer, two concert goers at the music venue were found dead after leaving separate shows there. The venue's owners

were also behind the Electric Zoo Festival that devolved into chaos on Randall's Island earlier this month. But two years ago, a troubling incident at the Mirage didn't make any headlines at all. WMYC's John Campbell has more. When I meet Cynthia and Jennifer Angel, the two sisters are carrying with them

a large, colorful portrait of their late niece, Genesis. Raynosa. She loved to take photos, and she was very beautiful, so it was a selfie that she took. Genesis grew up in some of the same. onyside queens, the daughter of Colombian immigrants. And at 23 years old, she had dreams of starting her own clothing line.

Cynthia says the three of them were close. We're her young aunties. So when she was born, we were like teenagers and she was our first niece. So we got to connect almost like she was a little sister. Genesis overdosed at the Brooklyn Mirage in October of 2021. It was a time when the venue was under intense scrutiny from the state liquor authority after two previous overdose deaths. Another death could have threatened its liquor license. But the state liquor authority wasn't notified of Genesis's death.

A 911 call could have alerted regulators, but she had been transported to the hospital by a private ambulance service. The Mirage's owner, Avant Gardner, had hired it to be on standby during events. Liquor regulators didn't learn of her death. until earlier this year when WNYC asked about it. Now, Genesis' family members say they're frustrated by what they see as a lack of accountability for what happened. I feel like I'm screaming into a void and no one's listening. I kind of got really disillusioned with the process.

Cynthia says that process started for her at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Bushwick when Genesis died. The nurses there handed her Genesis' belongings, including her phone. Her sister knew the password. So my husband and I, we just started going through the phone and taking screenshots and saving as much as we can to try to piece together a timeline from that night. Cynthia says that at around 8 p.m., Genesis and her friends bought pills and took them at her apartment. But they didn't seem to have any effect on them. Genesis says we're going to have to look for something else.

Genesis's texts and Instagram messages, which have been viewed by WNYC, told a clear story of what happened next. Once she and her friends were at the Brooklyn Mirage, Genesis exchanged messages with an acquaintance, a food truck operator parked outside the venue looking to buy more drugs for her and her friends. He starts telling her what he has. He has a powder and that it's really strong and that he did it a few weeks ago and that she's going to love it. They arranged to meet inside the venue around 10.40 p.m. Phone records show she sent him $80 using Apple Pay seven minutes later. After that, there's images that are time-stamped after that conversation of a white powder going into a water bottle.

A medical examiner report later determined she overdosed from MDA and methamphetamine. Cynthia took the evidence they found on Genesis' phone to the NYP. and filed a report. There was just like such a clear digital trail of everything that I thought it would be in no time that this guy would get arrested. But two years later, no arrest has been made and Genesis's family believes police are not taking the case seriously. The NYPD declined to answer our specific questions. But WNYC has found conflicting information about the extent of the NYPD's investigation. Hello, Cindy. How you doing?

Hey, good. How are you? Cynthia recorded some of her calls with the officer assigned to the case, a narcotics detective named Pedro Abreu. Those reviewed by WNYC show Abruh says he'd worked with the Brooklyn Mirage to obtain footage of the food truck operator entering the venue that night. These guys did a good job putting together, you know, this guy coming in, talking to that girl. Now they've just got to try to see where they hooked up.

But in a statement to WNYC, Avent Gardner said the NYPD never asked about the food truck operator or suggested the drug sale took place inside the club. The venue did say it fully cooperated and provided surveillance footage of Genesis from that night. Avant Gardner also said it made no effort to hide Genesis's death from the state liquor authority. I wanted the police to do their job, but I felt like so much time had passed and things. weren't happening quickly enough. The food truck operator did not respond to a call at the phone number listed in the exchanges. Detective Abreu also did not respond to a request for comment. City records show he left the NYPD in April of last year.

Genesis's family says the NYPD never let them know. And they say they don't even know who the current lead detective is. I see negligence in everything, in everything. Jamie Raynoso is Genesis's father. He also finds fault with the NYPD and Avant Gardner's use of ambulance, the private ambulance company it hired to be present during events. You know why they don't have a city ambulance or fire department around those places because they know what's going to happen over there. There has long been concern among city officials, going back to the Giuliani administration in the 1990s, that the use of private ambulance services at nightclubs and other venues allows them to avoid. the attention that frequent 911 calls might otherwise bring. Ambulance's parent company,

Doc Go, did not respond to WNYC's questions. Records obtained by WNYC show that more than 1,600 people were treated at Avant Gardner for intoxication or, quote, an altered mental state, a condition often tied to drug use. That was during a roughly three and a half year period that started in 2018 through the time that Genesis died. 88 people were trained. transported to the hospital. Why do you have a private ambulance? I think it's obvious for if it's reported by the NYPD or by the EMT, and there's too many of these cases going on, then their liquor license will be in jeopardy.

In an open letter to concert goers posted on Avant Gardner's website last month, the venue said having on-site paramedics and an ambulance on standby is a safety precaution, a way to get people the care they need quicker. But Cynthia says she's concerned that changes aren't being made that could prevent what happened to Genesis from happening to others. It just felt so sad to me that

I felt like this young Latina who's not rich. No one cares. Like no one is doing anything about it. The NYPD says the case is still open and active. That's W. WMYC's John Campbell.

Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day. We'll be back tomorrow.