A 22-year-old Rikers Island detainee says jail staff “effectively sterilized” him by prescribing him an antidepressant that gave him a painful, five-day erection — and ignoring his excruciating pain until it was too late, a blockbuster lawsuit alleges.
Ernest Oliver, 22, now suffers “permanent erectile dysfunction” as a result of the jail’s medical misconduct, and correction officers there joked afterwards “he would no longer be a problem because his ‘d–k’ did not work,” according to the lawsuit, filed in Brooklyn Federal Court Tuesday.
“While this is merely an example of a broad societal problem, Rikers has effectively sterilized a young man of only 22 years of age, one who no matter the reason for his incarceration did not deserve such treatment by the State,” the lawsuit reads.
Oliver has been locked up since November 2022 on $25,000 bond after his arrest in a Brooklyn robbery and sexual abuse case. He was prescribed 75 mg of Trazodone, an antidepressant often used for sleep disorders even though the FDA has not approved it for that use, and 4 mg of Risperidone, an antipsychotic, his lawsuit alleges.
Both medications can cause priapism, or prolonged painful erections, as a side effect and most mornings, he would suffer “stuttering priapism,” which would last for about three hours, his lawsuit alleges.
AP Photo/Seth Wenig
The Rikers Island jail complex in New York City. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
On Oct. 28, he suffered “ischemic priapism,” which is considered a medical emergency and must be treated within hours, according to the lawsuit. By 24 hours, chance of a full recovery drops to 50%, and keeps dropping as the hours tick off. Blood becomes trapped in the penis, and the trapped blood becomes de-oxygenated, leading to tissue damage and the possibility of permanent ED at the 36-hour mark.
But correction officers in the jail complex’s Robert N. Davoren Center ignored his condition for several days, he alleges.
“The evidence will show he was ignored for five full days. He wasn’t brought to medical care until the fifth day. Urologists tell us it is extremely rare to see priapism last that long because of the excruciating pain the patient is in,” his attorney, Scott Yakaitis of Bader & Yakaitis LLP, told the Daily News.
“Because the guards ignored him for five days — and during this period, he was unable to walk, doubled over in pain, and unable to sleep for a five-day period — one has to wonder what exactly is the training for the guards to allow that to exist for five days. This is beyond the regular failing of the guards at Rikers.”
On day one, he told a correction officer, who said she’d report his pain, but nothing happened, according to the lawsuit.
On day two, “he found it difficult to walk or stand and he was mostly huddled in a ball in pain often unable to get off the floor,” and informed the correction officers, but still didn’t receive medical attention, the suit alleges.
On day three, a corrections captain dismissed his complaints as lies, he alleges. Oliver used a jail phone to call 311, but still nothing happened.
Finally, after more complaints to more correction officers, the officer he first complained to saw him again on day five, according to the suit.
“There may have been the one good apple in the bushel,” Yakaitis said. “She saw him and was shocked and finally dealt with it.”
Oliver went to Bellevue Hospital, where doctors used a needle to drain the “stale” blood from his penis, but that didn’t work, so they needed to slice it open and create a “shunt” on each side to clear the bad blood, the lawsuit alleges.
Oliver, who was born and raised in East New York, remains in Rikers as his case proceeds. He’s accused of groping and mugging a 36-year-old woman.
Correction officers have repeatedly mocked him about his medical condition since he returned from the hospital, the lawsuit alleges.
“This is an emergency condition that has to be treated within 24 hours and it lingered for five days,” his lawyer told The News. “The odds of him ever being able to have an erection again are basically zero. He’s going to be in pain for the rest of his life because they didn’t treat this quickly enough. Can you imagine at age 22 not being able to get an erection again?”
The city Department of Correction referred all questions Tuesday to the city Law Department.
““We will review the case,” said Law Department spokesman Nicholas Paolucci.
