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Medications Suit Settled |
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Compiled by GayToday
 New York, New York-- A settlement reached between the City of New York, the New York
Police Department, other city agencies, and plaintiffs in a suit filed in
U.S. District Court, will require the NYPD to finally abandon its policy of
withholding critical medication from arrestees in pre-arraignment custody.
The suit was filed in October 1999 by the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project (AVP), Gay Men's Health Crisis, and lawyers from Sullivan & Cromwell, on behalf of four men who were denied access to medication when they were arrested during a vigil in memory of Matthew Shepard in 1998. Three of the men, Charles Stimson, Kenneth Almos and Jon Jordan, II are HIV-positive and a fourth man David Bedella, has asthma. The NYPD policy had long been under fire from advocates on behalf of people whose illnesses require time-sensitive medications such as HIV/AIDS, asthma, diabetes and certain mental illnesses. The policy has also been the subject of several other recent lawsuits. Additionally, the City Council's Health Committee held hearings on the policy in February of 2000. In May of 2000, the NYPD issued an interim order permitting pre-arraignment detainees access to critical prescription medication via a police escort to the nearest city hospital. The settlement agreement requires the NYPD to allow detainees access to medication that is time-sensitive and life sustaining. Additionally, signs must be posted at precincts advising detainees to alert police personnel of their need to take such medications. All detainees requiring time-sensitive, life-sustaining medication will be transported to a hospital for verification and self-administration of medication. If medication is taken intravenously, hospital staff will administer the needed dosage.
"We still are unaware of the reason why the NYPD remained so intractable on this issue," continued Haymes. "Clearly, the policy ran counter to all that we strive for in public health policy, all that we've learned from modern medicine, and all that we have been taught about common decency," concluded Haymes. |
