In a $10 million lawsuit filed against the city, lawyer Bonita Zelman is claiming cops killed an innocent man in 2006 by ignoring a diabetes warning bracelet on his wrist, and leaving him to die in custody when he should have been taken to a hospital. Peter Fort was allegedly wrongly arrested for trespassing in a housing project in Queens, and police delayed his hospital transfer by waiting for a patrol car instead of calling an ambulance.
The city's lawyers claim that cocaine intoxication could have contributed to Fort's death, but his family denies the charge. Zelman says, "The city deprived him of life-saving insulin and wrongfully killed an innocent man." A similar case was filed in 2007 when diabetic Andrew Valero died after 40 hours in custody in Manhattan. Valero was arrested in 2002 for setting off a sprinkler system at New York Downtown Hospital, and was denied insulin while he was in custody. Valero's lawyer said officials try to keep inmates from self medicating, but insulin is a different case. "If this is going to be the policy, then you have to send people who are insulin-dependent to the hospital immediately, end of story. You're talking about life and death for these people."
Fort worked as a Rikers Island drug counselor, and had been taking insulin since he was 9 years old. His sister said, "I miss my brother more than words can say. My brother Petey was always there for everyone in the family."
