"Julia Tedesco, an attorney with the New York County Defender Services, said she was told her client refused to meet with her at a scheduled Nov. 12 televisit and was provided with a refusal slip apparently bearing the client's signature. When she went to visit her client in person on Rikers Island on Nov. 20, officers told her he refused again. She found it suspicious, questioned officers further on the matter and was told about half an hour later that her client was no longer refusing to meet."
"When we spoke, he told me unequivocally that he never refused a visit that morning, so there was no refusal, Tedesco said of her client. He also said that he never signed a refusal slip on Nov. 12. I compared that signature to the documents he signed in front of me on Nov. 20. They did not match. A correction officer forged my client's signature."
Attorneys from the Legal Aid Society, New York County Defender Services, Neighborhood Defender Services, and The Bronx Defenders described persistent obstacles to timely client access at Rikers Island, including hours-long waits and alleged fabricated detainee refusals. An incarcerated person was allegedly prevented from meeting defense counsel when a Department of Correction officer forged his signature on a refusal slip. One attorney compared documents signed on Nov. 12 and Nov. 20 and found the signatures did not match. Attorneys called the practice a violation of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel and described pretrial detention as dehumanizing.
Read at www.amny.com
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