Richard Gonzalez’s condition is
so serious that the 14-year-old wears an electronic pump programmed to
administer doses of insulin every hour, the suit asserts. His family claims
that during questioning, cops removed the pump and "with balled
fists" they ‘tried to manipulate him into confessing’ to shooting his
friend at a Bushwick Foot Locker.
BY BARBARA ROSS , KERRY BURKE ,
CORKY SIEMASZKO
The NYPD has been hit with a
federal lawsuit by a Brooklyn family that claims cops bullied a diabetic teen
who was denied insulin while falsely locked up on attempted murder charges.
Richard Gonzalez’s family said
the only evidence cops had to tie the 14-year-old special-ed student to an
April shooting at Foot Locker in Bushwick were eyewitnesses who told them the
gunman was named “Richie.”
When police got the frightened
boy alone in a men’s room at the 83rd Precinct, “with balled fists” they “tried
to manipulate him into confessing,” the family’s lawyer Carmen Giordano wrote
in court papers filed in Brooklyn federal court.
“You going down,” one of them
said, according to the lawsuit.
“I was scared,” Gonzalez told
The Daily News on Friday.
His condition is so serious
that he wears an electronic pump programmed to administer doses of insulin
every hour, the lawsuit says.
But Giordano said police
removed the pump and threatened to throw the boy’s mom, Divian Ramos, out of
the stationhouse when she objected to them questioning her son without Ramos
present.
While Ramos was later allowed
to bring the boy food and test his blood sugar levels, Giordano said once the
teenager was charged with attempted murder she was not allowed anywhere near
him.
By the time Gonzalez appeared
before a judge, his sugar levels were so high he was gagging, dizzy, weak and
nauseous, the suit asserts.
The accused teenager, who
repeatedly denied shooting anyone, was transferred to two hospitals over the
next few days and at one point spent three nights sleeping handcuffed to a bed,
according to the lawsuit.
When Gonzalez could not come up
with $75,000 bail, he was shipped off to a juvenile facility from which he was
transported to two more hospitals — without his parent's knowledge — after his
blood sugar soared.
Ultimately, the court papers
say, the Brooklyn District Attorney dropped the charge against Gonzalez after
learning that he was arrested solely on the grounds that his name was Richie —
and that he was a Facebook friend of the victim, 15-year-old Isaiah Martinez.
It later turned out that the
real “Richie” had been treated on the night of the shooting after he was stabbed.
Now Gonzalez has been branded a
snitch in the neighborhood and, fearing for his safety, his mom wants the city
to move them to another subsidizing housing site, according to court papers.
The family is also seeking
unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for false arrest, malicious
prosecution, endangering the teenager's health and negligence.
There was no immediate response
to the lawsuit from the NYPD.
Gonzalez was arrested after
Martinez was shot in the foot for allegedly trying to cut in line at a
Knickerbocker Ave. store to buy a pair of $250 Kanye West-designed Nike Air
Foamposite Pro “Yeezy” sneakers.
“I was sleeping” at the time of
the shooting, Gonzalez told The News.
Giordano said the teenager
should not have been arrested in the first place.
“They focused on Richie
exclusively and disregarded very strong evidence that’s it wasn’t him,” the
lawyer said.
Even the victim told cops they
nabbed the wrong Richie.
“They put a lot of pressure on
the kid who was shot to change his story,” Giordano said. “They were trying to
make the sneaker fit when it was not made to fit.”
Gonzalez said he would never
hurt Martinez.
“We used to play together and
go to parties,” he said of victim. “He was a good friend.”
