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Diabetic Man Almost Dies During Subway Etiquette Arrest
By
John Del Signore
Published Aug 3, 2010
Modified Aug 3, 2010
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on vacation
By
John Del Signore
Published Aug 3, 2010
Modified Aug 3, 2010
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Of all the stupid arrests of people caught putting their feet up on subway seats, this one has got to be the stupidest—and scariest—so far. The Post reports that Juan Castillo, a 25-year-old diabetic, almost died after spending 30 hours in police custody after he was arrested for disorderly conduct by cops. His crime: After injecting insulin through his trouser leg on the F train on September 17th last year, Castillo "lifted his right knee up and wedged his right heel on his seat, underneath his right buttock, so that he could more easily rub his thigh at the injection site."
Officer John Rocha spotted the infraction, and summoned Castillo off the train. Ordinarily, this sort of thing results in a summons, and the perpetrator is not taken into custody. But for reasons left unexplained by the tabloid, Castillo was arrested. He claims he was assured by other cops that he would be released "shortly" and that they brushed off his pleas for insulin. And when he called his sister, police allegedly told her not to deliver insulin because he'd be out soon.
Instead, they took him to Queens Central Booking and threw him in a holding cell, where he "began to throw up and... started drifting in and out of consciousness," according to the lawsuit Castillo's filing against the city. 30 hours after cops found him, Castillo was brought before a judge, who dismissed the charge. But he had to be taken to Metropolitan Hospital, where he remained for two days. He's suing the city for an undisclosed sum, and the NYPD's gonna to need to write a lot more summonses to help cover the cost.
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John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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