Say He Ignored Medical Needs
A former Corrections Department captain from Howard Beach was convicted in federal court of deliberately ignoring the urgent medical needs of a Rikers Island inmate who ingested poisonous material, prosecutors announced.
According to U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Preet Bharara, Terrence Pendergrass allegedly denied medical care to Jason Echevarria and ignored his constitutional rights to care.
Echevarria was an inmate on Rikers Island in the Mental Health Assesment Unit for Infracted Inmates, which is the unit for inmates who had committed infractions while incarcerated and who were identified as needing mental health treatment, according to the complaint, indictment and evidence presented at trial.
On Aug. 18, 2012, Echevarria swallowed a powdered form of a powerful detergent/disinfectant, known as a “soap ball.” Echevarria was given the soap ball to clean his cell after a sewage backup, but ingested it instead. The soap ball contained a corrosive chemical, ammonium chloride, among other things.
Once Echevarria swallowed the ball of cleaning agents he banged on his cell door and screamed for help. A correction officer told the captain on duty at the time, Pendergrass, of the incident. As the captain on duty it was Pendergrass’ responsibility to call for medical attention for any inmate in his unit that needed it.
Instead of calling for medical attention, the Howard Beach native told the correction officer to only call on him if there was a need to remove an inmate from their cell or if there was a dead body.
After being told that Echevarria had vomited in his cell Pendergrass still ignored the inmates need to be seen by a medical technician.
Pendergrass was then informed that Echevarria had swallowed a soap ball and was told by a pharmacy technician that he needed a doctor. Even after going to Echevarria’s cell and seeing the vomit, Pendergrass still refused to get him medical attention and ordered an officer who was trying to call for help to hang up the phone.
“Echevarria should not have died, and the convictions of individual wrongdoers at Rikers Island … should help prevent tragedies like Echevarria’s death from occurring again,” Bharara said.
Pendergrass faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Sentencing has been scheduled for Apr. 17, 2015 before U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams.
This case is being prosecuted jointly by th Office’s Civil Rights Unit and Public Corruption Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lara K. Eshkenazi and Daniel C. Richenthal are in charge of prosecution.
