NY EMT charged with official misconduct for ignoring dying woman
The EMT charged with ignoring a pregnant woman having a fatal asthma attack in a Brooklyn coffee shop had sneaked out of work to be with her boyfriend and was afraid she'd get caught off post, prosecutors told the court
|
Tweet
|
By William J. Gorta
The New York Post
NEW YORK — The EMT charged with ignoring a pregnant woman having a fatal asthma attack in a Brooklyn coffee shop had sneaked out of work to be with her boyfriend and was afraid she'd get caught off post, prosecutors charged yesterday.
Melisa Jackson was charged with a single count of official misconduct for not treating Eutisha Rennix at the Au Bon Pain in the MetroTech office complex that houses FDNY and EMT headquarters when Rennix developed abdominal pain and difficulty breathing last December.
Jackson, who was there with her EMT boyfriend, Jason Green, called the fire dispatcher for an ambulance, but left the shop before it arrived.
"The reason she couldn't stay is Ms. Jackson sneaked out of work where she was supposed to be manning a dispatch terminal," Assistant DA Kevin Richardson said at Jackson's arraignment.
Green was on an authorized break when Rennix took ill, but he left the eatery as well.
Green was shot to death in July during a SoHo brawl unrelated to Rennix's death.
Brooklyn criminal-court Judge Kevin McGrath released Jackson without bail.
Outside court, Jackson's lawyer, Benjamin Heinrich, said his client was the only person in the store who did anything to aid Rennix.
He claimed Rennix, who worked in the Au Bon Pain, earlier refused an ambulance because she needed the hours at work.
"Ask yourselves: Who's responsible for her not going to the hospital?" Heinrich said.
He added that the restaurant manager told Rennix she was needed on the job. He said Rennix's boyfriend, the father of her unborn child, was also there and did nothing to help her.
Lawyer Sanford Rubenstein, who represents the Rennix family in a civil suit against the city, railed at the comments.
"To try to blame the victim for the failure of a trained emergency medical technician to do their duty is an outrage," Rubenstein said.
Copyright 2010 N.Y.P. Holdings, Inc.
|
All Rights Reserved
