NEW YORK – The legal guardians for a 77-year-old woman in Rikers have sued New York City and a corrections officer, saying the inmate's arms were broken when she was shoved to the ground after throwing a paper medicine cup.
The civil rights lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, seeks $1 million in damages.
It says the 106-pound mentally disabled prisoner — M.J. Norwick — was injured March 18, 2014. It says eight days earlier, she'd been released from a hospital after treatment for a heart attack.
At the time, Norwick was awaiting trial on an attempted murder charge. The case is still pending.
The city law office says Monday that it hasn't yet received the lawsuit. A Correction Department spokeswoman says the agency will respond after reviewing the lawsuit.
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This story has been corrected to show the lawsuit seeks $1 million in damages, not $3 million.
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