NYPD Accused of Hospitalizing, Handcuffing Brooklyn Woman

Posted on Mar 12, 2013

jonny2love (CC BY 2.0)

A Brooklyn landlord says New York City cops broke her leg and shackled her to a hospital bed for 17 days amid a wrongful arrest in her apartment building, the New York Post reports.

Karen Brim, 42, claims in a lawsuit that an officer threw her to the ground after she identified herself as the owner of a building in the Flatbush neighborhood. After she was arrested, the cops brought her to Kings County Hospital where her lawyer says she was hand- and ankle-cuffed to her bed in between multiple surgeries.

The officers involved said Brim grew violent after they questioned her in a hallway she was cleaning. They had chased four youths into the building on what they claimed was a suspicion of trespassing. Brim said the officers lied.

Timothy Reilly, the officer who allegedly tussled with Brim, was accused of “forcibly” dragging a man from a restaurant last year, leading to minor injuries. The man won a $10,000 settlement with the city in January.

—Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.

New York Post:

“She was hand- and ankle-cuffed to her hospital bed,” lawyer Marshall Bluth told The Post. “They would not allow family or friends to enter. She wasn’t presented before a judicial hearing officer for 17 days. It was pretty egregious.”

A state court spokesman said the 24-hour standard for arraignment in criminal cases doesn’t apply when defendants are hospitalized.

But Brim was conscious and incapable of fleeing because of her injuries and could have been arraigned at any point, Bluth said.

“She’s not a flight risk. She cannot run out of the hospital. There’s no need to handcuff and ankle-cuff her. Being handcuffed to a bed — it’s like being a caged animal. It’s outrageous,” he said. “It’s beyond belief. Not for one day, not for one week, but for 17 days?”

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