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Federal judge demands answers after Rikers detainee dies with a fractured skull
By
Matt Katz
Published May 31, 2023
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Courtesy, New York County Defender Services
By
Matt Katz
Published May 31, 2023
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A federal monitor overseeing the Rikers Island jails is demanding answers from the city Department of Correction, saying that new information about a detainee’s death on Monday conflicts with the account offered by department officials.
Correction Commissioner Louis Molina initially told the federal monitor that medical personnel saw detainee Joshua Valles, 31, after he complained of headaches, and that he was then hospitalized with what appeared to be a heart attack. Molina had said that no foul play occurred and that there was “no official wrongdoing,” according to court papers.
But monitor Steve Martin said in a federal court filing last week that he doubted “the veracity of the department’s claims.” And on Wednesday, Martin wrote a follow-up letter to the court saying that an autopsy indicated that Valles actually died as a result of a fractured skull, “in stark contrast to the headache or ‘non-incident related condition or injury’ that was reported in the unit logbook.”
Martin also revealed on Wednesday that he learned from the correction department’s general counsel that Valles was involved in a fight at the jail in mid-April, though no injuries were reported.
According to Martin, the Department of Investigation is now probing Valles’ death and four other “disturbing” incidents involving violence and a lack of transparency that Martin reported to the judge last week. The incidents, which the monitor said indicate that people at Rikers are at “imminent risk of harm,” also include the suicide of a detainee, the hospitalization of a detainee in his 80s after correction officers used force on him, and the paralysis of a man attacked by other detainees.
The correction department has not provided more information about those incidents, and did not respond to a question about the circumstances behind Valles’ death. Spokesperson Patrick Rocchio said the incident is under internal investigation.
Martin also said that given the latest information, it is unclear how Molina initially concluded that there was no wrongdoing by correction officers and that there was no “cover-up” in Valles’ death. Martin wrote to the court: “There is no question that investigation of this incident is necessary and that the commissioner’s conclusions about this incident reported to the monitoring team are premature, at best.”
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered that the department provide more information on Valles’ death and the other incidents by June 8, with a follow-up hearing on June 13.
Valles, who had a drug addiction, was being held at Rikers Island because he was charged with burglary in Manhattan, according to his attorney, Stan Germán of New York County Defender Services. He had no criminal record, his attorney said.
That nonviolent charge alone would have allowed him to be free pending trial, but Valles also had a pending petit larceny charge, and due to rollbacks in the state bail reform law that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed last year, Judge Diane Keisel was allowed to hold him on $10,000 bond, which Valles couldn’t pay.
“The reality is there are consequences for setting bail and sending people to Rikers Island,” Germán said. “The fact of the matter is that the bail rollback law is what afforded this judge the opportunity to set bail, and his presence on Rikers is what led to his death.”
But the specifics of what led to Valles’ death are still far from clear, according to Germán. He said Valles went into cardiac arrest on the way from Rikers to the hospital. When he arrived, he had significant brain swelling and signs of a brain injury.
“So the question becomes not necessarily what transpired in the ambulance en route to the hospital but what initially caused Joshua to have the symptoms he was experiencing to first have to go to the infirmary,” he said. “To suggest this was simply a heart attack en route to the hospital and there’s nothing to see or anything to investigate is, I think, a tale that the DOC is trying to spin.”
When he died, Valles was scheduled to be screened for a drug court program, which would have allowed him to be released from Rikers and put into treatment, according to Germán.
“The lack of transparency is pretty horrifying,” Germán said. Valles’ family “just want to know what happened to their 31-year-old brother and son.”
After Valles was hospitalized and put on life support, Germán said he successfully petitioned to have him released from city custody.
Valles was an organ donor, and on Saturday his organs were harvested. A spokesperson for the Department of Correction said he died at Elmhurst Hospital. He is the third person this year to die after being held in city custody; 19 died last year.
The Office of the Medical Examiner did not yet have an official cause of death for Valles.
Public defenders from the Legal Aid Society, who are the plaintiffs in the long-standing federal court case that led to the appointment of the federal monitor, said that the lack of information on Valles’ death is part of a larger pattern of secrecy by the correction department under Mayor Eric Adams. They cited the monitor’s allegations that the department failed to report violent incidents through proper jail channels, and the department’s recent move to limit the Board of Correction oversight agency from accessing surveillance video from Rikers Island.
“The city cannot be permitted to isolate the jails from outside oversight, especially at a time when so many people are suffering severe harm and death,” the Legal Aid Society said in a statement. It renewed its calls for a federal receiver to be appointed to intervene and take over operation of the city jails.
Tagged
rikers death
department of correction
detainee death
Matt Katz
Matt Katz is a former WNYC & Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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