By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive Patreon
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Feb 9 – 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.
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 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 is immediately published in full, in this "blog post by an independent journalist." 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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