Robert Stolarik / JJIE
Sanford Rubenstein at his law offices in Brooklyn.
NEW YORK — A high profile civil rights attorney has confirmed that he will take on the case of a 14-year-old boy who was allegedly pushed through a plate glass window in the Bronx by police.
Sanford Rubenstein has taken on high profile police abuse cases in the past such as the sexual assault of Abner Louima in a Brooklyn police precinct in 1997, and the 2006 death of Shawn Bell, who was shot multiple times by police in Queens on his wedding day.
BACKGROUND: 'Cops Smash Boy Through Window in Bronx'
Rubenstein agreed to take on the case of Javier Payne. According to witnesses, Payne was critically injured by police on May 17 after he and a friend allegedly assaulted a man.
Payne remains hospitalized in an intensive care unit at Jacobi Medical Center, according to his mother Cherita Payne.
Rubenstein had not seen the boy, he told JJIE, but he said his mother had confirmed the boy was handcuffed and said, “I know from past experiences that the NYPD routinely does this.”
Cherita Payne broke down in tears as she described how her son remains in his hospital bed, his hands and feet manacled.
“You just don’t know what this is doing to me,” she said. “Seeing him like this is tearing me apart. I can’t see him like that anymore.”
Rubenstein declined to comment further on the case now, but is planning to hold a press conference on Thursday [Editor's note: Rubenstein rescheduled the press conference for Saturday].
A police department spokesman declined to comment on the case, saying it was being investigated by the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB).
The day after the incident, Payne reviewed photos of police officers given to him by an IAB detective, Payne's mother, Cherita Payne, told JJIE.
The police spokesman said that charges against Javier Payne of assault, resisting arrest and obstruction of government administration had not been dropped.
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His hands AND feet are manacled? What harm would it do to allow his hands to be free? Are his feet magically going to become unlocked? He is in intensive care after surgery. Do the police (read gestapo) actually think that this kid is going to try to escape by picking at his manacled feet with what…. A tooth pick if they allow his hands to be free while the nurses look on? I’m assuming that there is an armed guard at the door as well. You would think that this kid tried to assassinate the President. First, police brutality puts nearly kills him and now they are throwing their weight around with overkill on the restraint issue. Just more ammo for his high profile attorney to go for the throat with. I hope the cops keep up their abuse and the family ends up with a nice, fat settlement, whereas if they had just done their job, the kid and his family would be the ones on the hook.