NY state must pay $25,000 for prison attack

New York state has been ordered to pay a prison inmate $25,000 for failing to protect the inmate from an assault by other inmates.

On June 26, 2022, pro se claimant Patricio Nunez was cut multiple times,  from behind, on his face, neck, and back in the attack at Sing Sing Correctional Facility.

The injuries required 34 stitches and 14 staples, according to a recent decision by New York State Court of Claims Judge Seth M. Marnin.

Prison officials ignored several oral and written communications from Nunez asking for protection because he was in imminent danger.

Nunez filed a claim in March 2023, contending that guards laughed about his concerns, told him to grow up, fight, and “be a man.” Two letters to the prison superintendent got no response.

At the trial on April 15 Nunez testified but called no other witnesses. He submitted two letters sent to the superintendent, and medical records.

Nunez first arrived at Sing Sing in December 2021. Within two weeks of arrival, other inmates started asking Nunez if he was a Latin King and telling him to come out of his cell.

While Nunez was lifting weights, three men held the barbell down on his chest, threatened him, and again accused him of being a Latin King, according to the decision.

The first letter to the superintendent seeking help was sent on Feb. 21, 2022. On May 14, 2022, after his mother also sent a letter to the superintendent, Nunez sent a second letter to the superintendent.

“He wrote that he was ‘starting to get crazy threats’ because members of the Bloods think he is a Latin King, which he denied,” according to the decision.

He also complained to guards who laughed and walked away.

On June 26, 2022, Nunez was grabbed, his head was pulled back, and his face was cut, causing excessive bleeding.

“He did not know who attacked him or why; he believed the assailants thought that he was affiliated with a gang. He had previously been threatened on his floor but could not identify who made the threats and, therefore, could not report specific names,” Marnin wrote.

“The Court finds that Mr. Nunez has established by a preponderance of the credible evidence, including his credible testimony concerning his reports to gallery officers about tensions and threats he received prior to the assault and his letters to the superintendent prior to the incident about the escalating tensions on the gallery and ‘crazy threats’ that were made against him, that the assault was foreseeable,” Marnin wrote.

“The credible evidence established that defendant knew or should have known that Mr. Nunez was at risk of assault and failed to take any steps to protect him,” Marnin wrote.

“The state offered no testimony or evidence that contradicted Mr. Nunez’s account … There was no evidence submitted at trial to discredit claimant’s testimony,” Marnin wrote.

“The credible and uncontradicted evidence presented at trial reflects that the defendant knew or should have known that Mr. Nunez was at risk of assault and failed to take any steps to protect him. Claimant himself pleaded to be moved, but rather than evaluating the specific concerns for his safety that he raised, his requests were ignored. The Court therefore finds defendant 100% liable to claimant for his injuries,” Marnin wrote.

Marnin awarded Nunez $25,000 plus statutory interest.

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