February 15–21, 2019 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 AWP 3
Cold case
Feds investigating S’Park
prison after power outage
draws national attention
By Julianne McShane
Brooklyn Paper
The Feds will investigate
how officials at a federal Sunset
Park prison handled a
week-long power outage, during
which more than 1,600 inmates
endured freezing temperatures
and allegedly could
not speak with their lawyers,
leaders of the Department of
Justice announced.
The federal agency’s Office
of the Inspector General, an
internal watchdog arm, will
find out whether officials with
the federal Bureau of Prisons
“responded appropriately to
the heat and electricity failures”
caused by a Jan. 27 electrical
fire at the Metropolitan
Detention Center, reps for the
Justice Department said on
Feb. 6. The probe will also
determine if prison officials
have “adequate contingency
plans for such an incident,”
according to the reps.
And a separate investigation
conducted by leaders
of the Prisons Bureau — an
agency within the Justice Department
that operates the 29th
Street prison between Second
and Third avenues — will
evaluate the facility’s infrastructure
and emergency-response
protocol.
The announcement of the
investigations came hours after
nearly 30 pols — including
Rep. Nydia Velazquez
(D–Sunset Park), Rep. Jerrold
Nadler (D–Red Hook), Rep.
Max Rose (D–Bay Ridge),
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D–
Coney Island), Rep. Yvette
Clarke (D–Flatbush), and Sen.
Kirsten Gillibrand (D–New
York) — sent letters to the Justice
Department’s Inspector
General, Michael Horowitz,
and the Prisons Bureau’s acting
director, Hugh Hurwitz,
demanding they investigate
how the prison is managed,
among other requests.
“The Bureau of Prisons
is responsible for providing
the humane detention of these
detainees — not subjecting
them to third-world conditions,”
read the pols’ missive to
Hurwitz, which also claimed
prison employees’ “arguably
abusive practices” resulted in
the recent “unacceptable” conditions
there.
And Justice Department
officials only took action to
improve those conditions after
the press reported on the
outage, sparking several days
of protests outside the prison,
the electeds alleged in their
letter to Horowitz.
“Instead of offering proactive
solutions and executing
its emergency plan, MDC
Brooklyn failed in its duties
The week-long power outage sparked a series of
protests outside the Metropolitan Detention Center,
where locals and pols demanded transparency
from its operators.
Photo by Trey Pentecost
until public pressure and demands
for answers reached a
tipping point,” they wrote.
The Feds’ investigations
must also provide more details
about inmates’ treatment
during the outage —
when prison staff allegedly
barred them from receiving
medical care, clean clothes,
and hot meals on some of the
coldest days of the year — and
uncover whether contractors
worked as quickly as possible
to restore power sooner
than it came back on Feb. 3,
the pols wrote.
The letter to the Prisons Bureau
additionally demanded
responses to seven multi-part
questions about the prison’s
infrastructure, allegations
against its staffers, why management
barred the incarcerated
men from meeting with
their lawyers, and how the
agency would “re-establish
the community’s trust” and
prevent similar incidents in
the future.
The Justice Department announced
its investigations of
the Metropolitan Detention
Center two days after a group
of lawyers sued the Feds and
the prison’s warden on Feb. 4
for violating the inmates’ constitutional
rights during the
power loss , and a day after a
Prisons Bureau rep said that
heat “was operational despite
the electrical outage.”
Prison for W’burg drunk driver
By Julianne Cuba
Brooklyn Paper
A judge sentenced a Greenpoint
man and former cop to as
many as 15 years behind bars
for killing one person and injuring
three others while driving
drunk in Williamsburg
three years ago, Brooklyn’s
top prosecutor announced.
The sentence is a small step
toward delivering justice to
the victims of the avoidable
tragedy and their families, according
to District Attorney
Eric Gonzalez.
“This tragic case is another
reminder of how dangerous
drunk driving is, and the terrible
toll it can exact. This defendant
accepted responsibility
for his reckless and criminal
actions, which took a promising
young man’s life and irreparably
harmed three additional
victims,” Gonzalez said following
the Feb. 4 sentencing.
“I hope this will bring a small
measure of solace to the victims
and their families.”
Thirty-year-old Nicholas
Batka, who worked as a
probationary officer with the
Manhattan Transit Task Force
when the incident occurred,
spent the night drinking with
friends at Berry Street bar The
Whiskey before hopping behind
the wheel of his Dodge
Durango around 3 am on July
16, 2016 , said prosecutors.
Batka then jumped the
curb near Bedford Avenue
and N. Eighth Street, where
he plowed into four pedestrians
on the sidewalk, killing
Andrew Esquivel, then
21, and injuring Sophia Tabchhouri
and Divya Menezes,
both then 20, as well as James
Balchunas, then 24, Gonzalez
said.
$20a month for a whole
year with All Access
Rewards Checking
1. Open an All Access Rewards Checking Account
online or at a branch
2. Link it to a qualifying direct deposit
3. Get $20 deposited monthly into your account for
an entire year
So, what are you going to do with your $20 a month?
Open your account today at our Bay Ridge branch
7726 3rd Avenue • 718.833.0469
Valley.com/RewardsBP 800.522.4100
For new consumer checking customers only. Minimum to open is $100 with no monthly balance requirement. To receive the $20 monthly
!
"
# #
%
" !%&
%
"
'
"()#
"!
"
*+,!
Access Checking account. -/34*+
,5&"67(89:
!)
)*8#;<'3
EXPANDED CARE FOR WOMEN
IN BROOKLYN Ob/Gyn services
in Brooklyn
At NYU Langone Health we are dedicated to providing women high-quality, personalized care in all phases
of their lives. Our obstetrics and gynecology team has vast experience in the management of a variety of
gynecological conditions including before, during, and after pregnancy.
NYU Langone Ambulatory Care Bay Ridge
6740 Fourth Avenue, Third Floor,
Brooklyn, NY 11209
929-455-2700
NYU Langone Ambulatory Care Cobble Hill
97 Amity Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
929-455-2500
NYU Langone
Brooklyn OB/GYN Associates–4th Avenue
10031 4th Avenue, Suite 1J
Brooklyn, NY 11209
718-921-0106
NYU Langone
OB/GYN Associates–7th Avenue
5423 7th Avenue, 1st Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11220
212-263-0220
NYU Langone OB/GYN Associates–Midwood
1220 Avenue P
Brooklyn, NY 11229
718-975-7802
NYU Langone
Women’s Health Associates–Midwood
1300 Avenue P,
Brooklyn, NY 11229
646-754-2588
Flatbush
Family Health Center at NYU Langone
3414 Church Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11203
718-630-2197
Park Ridge
Family Health Center at NYU Langone
6317 4th Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11220
718-907-8100
To make an appointment online or for more information, visit nyulangone.org
Park Slope
Family Health Center at NYU Langone
220 13th Street
Brooklyn, New York 11215
718-832-5980
Seventh Avenue
Family Health Center at NYU Langone
5008 7th Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11220
718-210-1030
Sunset Park Family Health
Center at NYU Langone
5610 2nd Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11220
718-630-7942
Get
/RewardsBP
/www.BrooklynPaper.com
/www.BrooklynPaper.com
/nyulangone.org