New York woman was shackled to bed during childbirth, lawsuit says

A 22-year-old African American woman has filed a civil rights lawsuit in New York, claiming she was shackled to a hospital gurney during labor, after being arrested on a minor assault charge that was later dismissed.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of “Jane Doe” against the City of New York and several New York police department (NYPD) officers who arrested the woman in December 2018, when she was more than 40 weeks pregnant, claims the woman was also handcuffed and shackled after she gave birth to her son.

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The woman claims she was asleep in her mother’s home when officers knocked on the door to arrest her on a minor charge. She was then two days past her due date.

After the woman was held in cells for almost an entire day and allegedly subjected to an invasive examination, the complaint says, officers finally handcuffed her to an ambulance gurney and took her to Kings county hospital in Brooklyn.

The suit claims officers kept the woman in physical restraints for the next 36 hours, “often with one arm and one leg” shackled to a hospital bed.

The woman, the suit claims, struggled to feed her newborn son while one arm was cuffed to the bed. After the baby was transferred to a neonatal intensive care unit, the complaint says, officers would not let the woman visit him without first shackling her legs together.

“The NYPD made me feel less than human,” the woman said. “I was sad and depressed for months after giving birth to my son. I just want these officers to be held accountable so something like this never happens to anyone else.”

Andrew Jondahl, a lawyer at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady, said in a statement: “The NYPD not only acted unconstitutionally, they acted without common sense, since our client posed no risk of harm to herself or anyone else.

“It is shocking that years after the medical and correctional communities have taken a united stand against the inhumane practice of shackling pregnant women, NYPD officers continue to unnecessarily put pregnant people like our client and their newborn children in harm’s way.”

According to the lawsuit, medical experts and correctional experts unanimously agree that pregnant women should not be shackled except in the most extraordinary circumstances.

Anthony Posada of the Legal Aid Society told the Guardian NYPD patrol guide policies limit the circumstances when restraints should be applied to pregnant women prior to arraignment.

“The NYPD revised patrol guide says this kind of scenario should not play out the way that it did, and [police] have done nothing to stall or minimize this kind of inhuman practice,” Posada said.

“This was not a situation where our client was a threat to herself or others that would warrant this kind of treatment.”

At the police precinct, Posada said, the woman was subjected to “nothing less than a sexual assault” by a female officer who directed her to remove her underwear so she could determine if she was indeed going to labour.

“When you are in custody you don’t feel you have any rights or a level of empowerment to stop something from happening,” Posada said. “Nobody should have to endure this kind of treatment in that kind of vulnerable state.”

Neither the NYPD nor the City of New York immediately responded to the suit.

The claim follows similar complaints. In 2018 the NYPD was sued for an incident in which officers shackled a pregnant women in the Bronx, during labor and after she gave birth.

“Shackling pregnant people is a dehumanizing and pointless practice that has no place in New York City,” said Corey Stoughton, head of the Legal Aid Society’s Special Litigation Unit.

The new complaint will almost certainly renew claims that the NYPD subjects minorities to unduly harsh treatment.

Staughton said she was “appalled the NYPD continues to fail people giving birth at one of the most important and vulnerable moments in our lives”.

She also said she was “outraged at how this practice consistently singles out black and brown women for treatment no one deserves, especially when black and brown families already face startling high maternal mortality rates”.

On Friday, lawyers for the woman delivered a letter of complaint to New York City Health and Hospitals and Kings county hospital, claiming medical staff failed to intervene to protect her health and safety as well as that of her newborn son.

The letter said staff “were improperly trained on how to treat pregnant people who are in law enforcement custody in city hospitals, particularly before, during and after labor”. It also called on the hospital to reform its practices so that “this practice cannot continue and must not happen to another patient again”.