Suspected coke dealer and thief released from Brooklyn’s federal jail
A man accused of multiple robberies and of dealing coke was released from a Brooklyn-based federal prison after his lawyer made claims that his client was in filthy conditions and had a high chance of catching COVID-19, or the novel coronavirus.
Ivan Eli is charged with robbery conspiracy, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence.
He is accused of taking part in or facilitating three violent robberies. Two happened in July 2018 against the same victim and the third occurred in March of 2019.
Eli’s lawyer, Benjamin Silverman, argued that conditions in the Metropolitan Detention Center are very poor, with a lack of access to cleaning supplies and not enough distance put between the inmates.
“The situation [in the city’s jails] is deteriorating fast and people like Mr. Eli are in jeopardy,” Silverman said. “With all due respect to the government, its portrayal of the conditions at the MDC and the likely effects of a COVID-19 crisis there are not consonant with reality. Counsel visits the MDC approximately 25 times each year. It is filthy. Soap is nowhere to be found despite any contrary claims from the MDC.”
Additionally, Silverman said that Eli apparently came in contact with another prisoner who has tested positive for the coronavirus.
In response to Silverman’s COVID-19 release application, Federal Magistrate Judge Ramon Reyes agreed to release Eli into house arrest, where he will be electronically monitored, and on a $150,000 bond.
Federal officers opposed Reyes’s decision.
Read more about this in this article: New York Daily News
NYPD breaks up Hasidic Jews waiting for food due to lack of social distancing
The New York Police Department broke up a large crowd of Hasidic Jewish people waiting outside of a Williamsburg yeshiva on Wednesday because they were not keeping socially distant amid COVID-19.
The crowd had been waiting for free food outside the Keap Street yeshiva, which was offering its members free meals between the hours of 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.
By the afternoon, the line had apparently become more of a crowd, with people well closer together than the six feet that everyone is being told to stay from people as part of social distancing. A witness said that the line seemed to be mainly women and children.
“Officers from the 90 Precinct along with the Shomrim Patrol responded to assist with social distancing for those individuals on line,” the NYPD said.
The concern is that if people do not stay socially distant, it could contribute to the spread of the virus, especially by people who are asymptomatic and thus do not know they have the coronavirus.
“More people showed up than initially anticipated,” a police spokesperson said.
This is not the first time that the NYPD has found religious Jewish people not following the federal, state and city guidelines for social distancing.
Read more about this in this article: The New York Post
Brooklyn teacher refused COVID-19 test until her third hospital admission
A Canarsie social studies teacher at Ascend Public Charter School was refused a COVID-19 test until she returned to the hospital for a third time, that time barely even breathing.
The start of Rana Zoe Mungin’s, 30, coronavirus ordeal happened on March 15, when she went to the hospital for a fever, headache and shortness of breath. Her sister, Mia Mungin, who is a nurse administrator, said that Rana was given albuterol for asthma and Toradol for her headache.
Rana’s breathing problems persisted through March 18 and on March 19 she returned to the hospital, where a paramedic gave her a nebulizer treatment and claimed that Rana’s symptoms came from a panic attack.
The doctor said her lungs were clear and that he wouldn’t give her a coronavirus text because he didn’t have enough of them. The family went home.
The next day, March 20, Rana couldn’t breathe at all, and she was admitted to Brookdale Hospital where she was intubated and put on a ventilator and her family wasn’t allowed in. They gave Rana antiviral Hydroxychloroquine and antibiotic Erythromycin — an experimental treatment for the virus.
Then she was approved for a transfer to Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan so she could be put on ECMO, but the transfer never happened for some reason, and Rana is still at Brookdale. She was turned down for the Remdesivir clinical trial, as well.
Her sister Mia apparently had a fever earlier in the month and the sisters share an apartment in East New York.
Read more about this in this article: Pix11 News
