Legal Aid calls on DOI to investigate NYPD in-custody deaths

The Legal Aid Society called on the Department of Investigation to probe the deaths of five people who died in NYPD custody this year. AP file photo by Mark Lennihan

By Jacob Kaye

The city’s largest public defender organization called on the Department of Investigation last week to probe the spike in deaths of those held in NYPD custody.

In a letter to the office of the inspector general for the NYPD, which falls under the DOI, the Legal Aid Society demanded an investigation into the in-custody deaths of five people this year.

The deaths have come as the NYPD has increased its arrest for lower-level offenses, the Legal Aid Society said.

Of the five people who died in NYPD custody in 2025, three died while being held in a courthouse holding cell.

“That at least five people have died this year in NYPD custody, and that three of those deaths occurred in city courthouses, is unacceptable and unconscionable,” the letter to the DOI read. “The NYPD’s lack of transparency around how and why these deaths occurred enables these harms to reoccur.”

The Legal Aid Society called on the DOI to “determine why the NYPD’s current operations, policies, or practices are failing to protect the people in its custody.”

Among those to die in NYPD custody this year was Christopher Nieves, who was represented by the Legal Aid Society.

Nieves died in August in a Brooklyn courthouse awaiting arraignment despite asking police officers to go to a hospital to be treated for a visible illness, his attorneys said.

Nieves, who was arrested for stealing food from a grocery store in Williamsburg, appeared to be in medical distress when he was being interviewed by his attorney, the Legal Aid Society said. He had a bandaged foot, his skin appeared yellow and he was falling in and out of consciousness, the attorney said.

Nonetheless, he was never taken to a hospital. He died a few hours later in the holding cell.

Nieves’ death came after the deaths of Soso Ramishvili, a 43-year-old man, Saniyah Cheatham, and Musa Cetin, all of whom also died while detained by the NYPD.

A dozen people died in NYPD custody last year, according to the New York State attorney general’s office.

Deaths in the NYPD’s custody are not immediately investigated by the DOI, though the agency can choose to probe a death at their own will.

The practice differs from deaths that occur in the Department of Correction’s custody – multiple oversight bodies investigate each death in DOC custody. A dozen people have died in the DOC’s custody or just after having been released from it this year.

In their letter, the Legal Aid Society called on the DOI to collaborate with the Civilian Complaint Review Board to independently investigate every death in NYPD custody. It also called on the agency to adopt a policy that would allow them to automatically investigate each death.

Twelve people died in NYPD custody in 2024, according to data tracked by the AG's Office of Special Investigation. Six of those deaths were deemed not to have been caused by an officer and not investigated by the attorney general. Six remain open, according to the same data.