The City of New York has agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Billie Ann Miller, the mother of Patrick Miller, a 31-year old man who was beaten to death while being held as a pre-trial detainee in the prison ward of Bellevue Hospital Center. Mr. Miller, who battled mental illness, was killed during an altercation with the facility’s corrections officers on May 17, 2007. Autopsy records revealed that prior to his death, Mr. Miller suffered massive trauma to his body, including blunt trauma. Dr. Charles V. Wetli, plaintiff’s expert and the former Chief Medical Examiner for Suffolk County, ruled Mr. Miller’s death a homicide. Mrs. Miller is represented by ECBAWM’s Jonathan S. Abady and Katherine Rosenfeld, along with co-counsel the Legal Aid Society’s Prisoners Rights Project.

“City Settles Lawsuit Over Death of Inmate,” The New York Times