By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive Patreon
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE, May 27 – A 27 year old man, Eugene Castelle, reportedly related to the Luchese family on Staten Island died while imprisoned on Riker's Island on November 8, 2016. There are photos which his lawyer calls bad, and there is as Inner City Press first and exclusively reported on February 2 a missing video.
There was a demand for $2 million, by the plaintiff, it emerged on February 2, but the demand may go higher if and when the missing video is found or produced. Discovery document on Patreon here.
On May 17, 2021, the City put in the docket an offer of $50,000. It said, "if plaintiff does not accept the offer within ten (10) business days after service of this offer upon them, this offer will be deemed rejected."
Now on May 27, Magistrate Judge Netburn has ruled, "ORDER granting [134] Letter Motion to Stay. The parties' request that all dates in this matter be adjourned is GRANTED. All deadlines are adjourned sine die pending the approval of the settlement by the Surrogate's Court. The parties are directed to file a status letter on July 30, 2021. (HEREBY ORDERED by Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn)(Text Only Order)." But what about the public issues? Watch this site.
Inner City Press' reporting has gleaned stories of Eugene Castelle seeking detox but being provided with dubious methadone and convulsing. It is said that other prisoners dragged him down to the guards' Bubble for help, but were rebuffed. He died, and now the video is missing.
On February 2, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn held a discovery conference. Inner City Press alone covered it.
Jump-cut to March 17, when Judge Netburn held another proceeding. This time, the City's lawyer demanded to know who else was on the line. Judge Netburn correctly said she does not ask the press to identify itself.
On May 4, Judge Netburn held another conference in the case, and Inner City Press again covered it. The request was to extend discovery. Judge Netburn said Officer Cruz or DaCruz should be deposed on or before May 7, with a status letter by May 10.
Just afterward, she issued an "ORDER granting [122] Letter Motion for Extension of Time to Complete Discovery. Fact discovery is extended to June 1, 2021. Defendants are on notice that the failure to comply timely with their discovery obligations may result in an adverse inference at trial or other sanctions. As discussed at today's conference, Officer DaCruz will be deposed on May 7, 2021. The non-party correction officer's deposition must be scheduled by May 7, 2021, to be completed before June 1. The deposition(s) in response to Plaintiff's Rule 30(b)(6) Notice must be scheduled by May 14, 2021, to be completed before June 1. The parties are ordered immediately to meet and confer regarding custodians for ESI searches and the production of responsive notices of claims. Defense counsel will immediately contact the District Attorney's Office to obtain the investigative file related to the decedent's death. The parties shall file a joint status letter on May 10, 2021, confirming the status of discovery and identifying any ongoing disputes. (HEREBY ORDERED by Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn). Watch this site.
On April 29, this: "ORDER: On April 27, 2021, the Court learned that the New York State Commission of Correction (the "Commission") had been served with a subpoena in connection with this matter and had produced a redacted report regarding the death of A.W. at AMKC on Rikers Island. See ECF No. 122. Plaintiff asserts that the Commission only produced the redacted report, but the Commission would have "no objections to providing the unredacted report" were the Court to make a finding of good cause pursuant to Mental Hygiene Law § 33.13(c)(1). Id. The Court finds that there is a substantial need for the parties to have access to the Commission's records regarding A.W.'s death, which allegedly occurred under similar circumstances to Eugene Castelle's death. Accordingly, the Court finds that the interest of justice significantly outweighs the need for confidentiality and ORDERS the Commission to produce the relevant records in unredacted form to the parties in this case. N.Y. Mental Hyg. Law §33.13(c)(1) (McKinney 2020). (Signed by Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn on 4/29/2021)."
On April 27, a request to extend the time to complete discovery, along with a request in the alternative to sanction the defendants. The requests includes an email stating that "the Bronx DA will not accept a subpoena. They locked their doors and cannot be served. They are part of the CitySo that are within your custody and control.... request for documents related to their investigation."
The video has still not been produced, but both sides said that settlement is possible. It was said that there may be a non-public settlement conference in May.
And now there is, filed on April 7: "SETTLEMENT CONFERENCE ORDER: A settlement conference is scheduled for Wednesday, May 19, 2021, at 10:00 a.m. and will be held telephonically. The Court will provide dial-in information by email before the conference. The parties and any non-parties participating in the conference are directed to review and comply with the Procedures for Cases Referred for Settlement."
And the underlying issues? There is still no response to Inner City Press' Freedom of Information Law request.
Back on February 2 Judge Netburn expressed skepticism that the City does not have deposition transcripts computerized, and urged an inquiry into the video.
Inner City Press now asks, Inquiry by whom? This is more than a private lawsuit. So Inner City Press filed a Freedom of Information Law request and now, on February 9, publishes the following the moment it hit the docket: "We represent Lucille Tirado, as the administratrix of the estate of Eugene Castelle, in this civil rights case under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, regarding Castelle’s death at Riker’s Island. We write to clarify the record. Following one of the numerous meet and confers with defense counsel, I realized that I may have given the wrong impression as to what security footage was and was not produced in the prior litigation. Defense counsel was concerned about a blog post by an independent journalist regarding the missing footage, which made me realize that I may have misspoken. I called to explain it to him, and in that call he requested a clarification for the record.
"I agreed: People housed in the dorm discovered Mr. Castelle was non-responsive at 8:20 a.m. For three of the available camera angles, the footage stops at or about 8:20 a.m. One camera angle has the footage removed starting at around 8:20 a.m., but then it skips to about an hour later. Two angles, which are nearly identical, do show the medical staff coming to attempt to resuscitate Mr. Castelle, but several people obscuring Mr. Castelle, and we cannot see his face in several places or account for the reason that later photographs show a substantial amount of blood, which is not visible on this footage. We also cannot see what the officers are doing near the “bubble” area where Defendant Dacruz is stationed. This footage is still missing, and defense counsel is working to produce it."
The clarification is appreciated, and was immediately published in full, in this "blog post by an independent journalist."
On February 19 the City's law firm, with its concerned, filed another letter, acknowledging that "while most of the interview files are viable and play fine, two of them, unfortunately, cannot be played... Video #3, we have been told, starts and stops at times, but plays appropriately by the end." By the end.
On February 22, more delay was requested: "Plaintiff discovered that there was an investigation by the Bronx District Attorney's Office." We aim to have more on this.
On February 10, this order from Judge Netburn (while SDNY Pacer was down) - "ORDER: The parties shall file a joint letter by Friday, February 19, 2021, detailing the status of discovery. A discovery conference will be held on Monday, March 1, 2021 (Signed by Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn on 2/10/2021) (ras)." We'll have more on this.
The defense lawyer blurted out that there had been a $2 million demand.
The plaintiff's lawyer replied that was the demand BEFORE he learned how bad things were. He said he could not advise settlement until seeing the video.
Judge Netburn offered a settlement conference in March, or if not taken soon, in May.
Now on February 5 Judge Netburn has issued an order that "The Court finds that the interest of justice significantly outweighs the need for confidentiality and ORDERS the Commission to produce the relevant records to the parties in this case. N.Y. Mental Hyg. Law § 33.13(c)(1) (McKinney 2020). (Signed by Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn on 2/5/2021)."
As Inner City Press also first reported, Judge Netburn issued a separate February 5 order directing the City to file a status letter by February 9 "describing the progress made on numerous discovery issues, which include locating the missing video footage of Mr. Castelle's death and identifying custodians for electronically stored information."
Now Inner City Press has filed a Freedom of Information Law request: "Department of Correction Legal Division Laura Mello Records Access Officer New York City 75-20 Astoria Blvd East Elmhurst, New York 11370 Re: FOIL Request regarding death in DOC custody of Eugene Castelle and for related records, please confirm receipt and provide records on an expedited basis Dear Ms. Mello / DOC FOIL Officer: On behalf of Inner City Press and in my personal capacity, as a journalist and New Yorker, this is a FOIL request for records concerning the death in DOC custody of Eugene Castelle while imprisoned on Riker's Island on or about November 8, 2016. For Inner City Press I have been reporting on a Federal lawsuit in which the City has been required to collect and produce information concerning and related to this death; the judge has explicitly said that the public interest outweigh the various claims for withholding (see below). While not required, but in order to be specific about what information is hereby requested (on an expedited basis), Inner City Press' reporting has gleaned stories of Eugene Castelle seeking detox but being provided with dubious methadone and convulsing. It is said that other prisoners dragged him down to the guards' Bubble for help, but were rebuffed. He died, and now the video is missing. On February 2, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn held a discovery conference. Inner City Press alone covered it. Judge Netburn expressed skepticism that the City does not have deposition transcripts computerized, and urged that an inquiry into how the video of the time of death was altered. This is a request for the video(s) of that night and incident, and all record concerning the video and any alleged alteration(s) of it. This is also a request for the information already compiled regarding other deaths in custody, produced in the case Tirado v. City of New York et al., 19-cv-10377 (SDNY). On February 5 Judge Netburn has issued an order that "The Court finds that the interest of justice significantly outweighs the need for confidentiality and ORDERS the Commission to produce the relevant records to the parties in this case. N.Y. Mental Hyg. Law § 33.13(c)(1) (McKinney 2020). (Signed by Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn on 2/5/2021)." That applies to your FOIL response to this request, which should be on an expedited basis."
The case, which Inner City Press will be covering going forward and pursuing its FOIL requests about, is Tirado v. City of New York et al., 19-cv-10377 (Netburn)
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