Woman's Eye Clawed Bloody in Elevator Dispute, NYPD Denies Her Medical Care: Lawsuit

A New York State Insurance Fund (NYSIF) employee clawed a diabetic woman's eyes and repeatedly bit her, infecting the then-61-year-old with hepatitis B, but New York Police Department (NYPD) officers arrested the victim rather than the attacker and denied her medical care for nine hours, a new federal lawsuit alleges.

The melee took place in an elevator at the NYSIF's lower Manhattan office on May 16, 2014. Nancy Wong and Ying Hong Wang exchanged words outside the elevator, Tamara Harris, who represents Wong, tells Newsweek. Harris declined to specify details about the verbal dispute, which is not discussed in the lawsuit. (Wong was in the building that day to visit her husband, then an NYSIF employee.)

According to the lawsuit, filed May 15 in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, "Inside of the elevator at 199 Church Street, Ying Hong Wang viciously attacked Nancy Wong by clawing at plaintiff's eyes with her fingernails and ripping plaintiff's cornea; biting plaintiffs finger—ultimately, causing plaintiff's nail to separate from her finger; biting plaintiff about her body-causing plaintiff to become infected with Hepatitis B; scratching plaintiff's eyes, face, neck, arms, and ear-causing plaintiff's face, ear, eyes and body to bleed; shoved, pushed, and pulled plaintiff and yanked at plaintiff's hair."

Wong is suing Wang; NYPD officers Alexander Delgiorno and Mele; the city of New York; Alyce Siegel, NYSIF human resources director; Eric Madoff, NYSIF executive director and CEO; and Joseph Mullen, NYSIF director of administration.

An NYSIF staffer saw the alleged attack when the elevator doors opened—but didn't intervene, the lawsuit claims. The two police officers from the NYPD's First Precinct arrived at the scene. They spoke to Wang, who "lied," the suit argues, and told them Wong instigated the attack by scratching her face and "dragging her around by her hair—allegedly ripping Ying Hong Wang's hair out. Wang claimed Wong was the sole attacker."

Because Wong "showed all signs of being scratched about her face, eyes, ear, arms, and body" and because her "cornea was visibly scratched and torn, and her eyeball was filling with blood," Wang's story did not add up, the lawsuit further alleges. The lawsuit also claims it was Wong "who had bite wound [sic] on her body and finger—which ultimately caused her nail to fall off. Additionally, it was plaintiff who was infected with Hepatitis B as a result of all the bite wounds Ying Hong Wang caused plaintiff to sustain."

"She was just covered in blood," Harris says of Wong. "There was no question she was the one who had been attacked—any cop with half a brain would know she was the victim."

Yet police refused to listen to Wong's story, Harris says. Wong told them to look at video footage from the elevator. They refused to do so. The officers arrested her. At the precinct, Wong told the officers that she had Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure and needed to take her medication. They refused to give the medication to Wong, nor did they give her food or water, "crucial" to preventing her from becoming symptomatic, the lawsuit claims.

After Wong's husband came to the station, showing one of the defendant officers "proof that plaintiff was a diabetic with high blood pressure—who needed her pills," she still didn't get her medication. Instead, the officer told Wong's husband she "was not permitted to take her medication," per the suit's allegations.

When Wong finally arrived at Central Booking, New York City Department of Correction (DOC) officers "immediately noticed the severity of plaintiff's physical condition" such as "her blood filled eye, bloody clothes, bite wounds, scratch marks, and the blood pouring from her inner ear"—and they "immediately" took her to Bellevue Hospital.

When the DOC brought back Wong to Central Booking, she had waited some 24 hours from her arrest to arraignment. Wong rushed to an ophthalmologist on May 19 and underwent surgery to fix the torn cornea. Nonetheless, Wong suffered deteriorating vision because of the eye injury and delayed treatment, the suit alleges.

Wong faced two counts of assault in the third degree, attempted assault in the third degree and harassment in the second degree. The charges were adjourned in contemplation of dismissal and eventually dismissed. The case is sealed. The lawsuit also claims that the NYSIF wrongfully forced Wong's husband to resign, or be fired, "on the grounds that he had allowed plaintiff to commit a crime on the property of the New York State Insurance Fund."

Wong seeks $120,300,000 in damages. The NYSIF says it cannot comment on pending litigation. Newsweek did leave two phone messages on Wang's office voice mail, at the extension provided by a NYSIF operator. (Newsweek also contacted other NYSIF defendants named in the suit, who referred all inquiries to this spokeswoman.) Contact information for Wang's attorney was not listed online. (Wang also could not be reached at her office.) The NYSIF spokeswoman says Wang did receive the request for comment, but declined to do so. The New York City Law Department says, "All the allegations in the suit are being reviewed. We cannot comment further on pending litigation." The NYPD did not comment at press time.