NY jury awards $17.5M to diabetic jailed sans meds

The Associated Press

updated 10/19/2010

NEW YORK — A jury ordered New York City on Tuesday to pay $17.5 million to a diabetic man who suffered a seizure after police refused to give him his insulin while he was in jail, the man's lawyer said.

Jose Vargas, 43, now lives in a nursing home confined to a wheelchair with diminished mental faculties and motor and coordination skills, his lawyer Seth Harris said after Tuesday's verdict.

"If a doctor was present in central booking (when Vargas was in custody) the city could have saved themselves all of this money," Harris said.

In a statement Tuesday, the city's lawyer department said they were disappointed with the verdict and expect to file an appeal based on "a number of legal and factual issues." It didn't cite those issues.

Harris said $10 million of the settlement was for Vargas' future nursing home care.

Police took away Jose Vargas' bag containing his insulin and needles when he was arrested in September 2006 on a felony charge of criminal sale of a controlled substance, Harris said. Vargas later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal facilitation of a drug sale, Harris said.

As police transported him to a police precinct and then to central booking in Brooklyn, Vargas complained to them that he needed the insulin, Harris said,

"He's complaining each and every step of the way that he needs his insulin," said Harris, who added that no one responded as 58 hours passed.

At central booking, "he becomes shaky, dehydrated and anxious," Harris said. "He has a diabetic seizure on the floor of his cell."

Vargas suffered additional seizures at the hospital, Harris said.

"Now he's in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, and he's 43," Harris said.