In Other Media-eg New Statesman, AJE, FP, Georgia, NYT,  Azerbaijan, CSM Click here to contact us     .

By Matthew Russell Lee, Previous Thread
The Source - XXL - The Root - Vibe, etc

SDNY COURTHOUSE, Oct 23 – Jose Joaquin Ramirez filed a handwritten civil rights complaint that a New York City Department of Corrections Captain and others had hog-tied him and injured his shoulders and hands in what the complaint referred to as the Riker's Island Slave Complex."

    In the U.S. District Court for the Souther District of New York the hand-written complaint was assigned to U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman and then to Magistrate Judge Stewart D. Aaron.

   On October 23 in Magistrate Judge Aaron's courtroom with Inner City Press the only one in the gallery, Ramirez argued his own cause effectively, about depositions and possible settlement.

    New York City Assistant Corporation Counsel Giancarlo Martinez asked Judge Aaron if he could go "off the record." Judge Aaron told him that the recording would be stopped, but did not ask Inner City Press to leave the courtroom.

    Martinez said that the City is willing to settle, but that Rodriguez is not.

    Rodriguez, wearing a plaid outdoor jacket, said that the City had given him a three page letter complete with case law asserting that whatever he got in settlement might immediately be taken to to reimburse Medicare.

    Judge Aaron asked Martinez to inquire and submitted a letter in a week, after which he would either schedule a telephone conference or in-person session, presumably on the record. The case is Jose Joaquin Ramirez v. City of New York, et al., 18-cv-4040 (Furman / Aaron).