Elderly Mom Beaten, Robbed of $30,000 While Bailing Out Her Son as Officers Watched—Lawsuit

Free Thought Project – by Jack Burns

New York, NY — Rarely do we report allegations without some corroborating evidence, but we found Linda Shapiro’s case against NYC’s Department of Corrections deeply disturbing and were compelled to tell her story.

According to a recent lawsuit filed by Linda Shapiro, he son needed $30,000 to bail out of the Lower Manhattan jail where he was being held. Presumably acting on maternal instinct alone, Shapiro took out the $30,000 in cash and proceeded to the jail to bond out her son. 

When she arrived, according to the lawsuit she and her lawyer recently filed in court, people were having no trouble bonding out their relatives. The line was moving, money was exchanging hands, and people were being let out of jail. But Shapiro says she was forced to remain for hours, waiting for her son’s release papers to arrive.

Shapiro had repeatedly told DOC staffers she was carrying a large sum of money in cash on her person and asked for the process to speed up. As she became more uncomfortable with the wait time, DOC employees suggested she leave the building, and come back at a later time. But Shapiro insisted on staying right there inside the jail’s DOC bond center.

According to the lawsuit, that’s when she said two criminals burst into the room and went straight for her purse, knocking her against a wall. She said one man started tasering her, actually breaking a rib in the process. Yes, you read that correctly. She was robbed of her $30,000 cash, inside the jail, as she waited to post her son’s bail.

After being robbed, according to the lawsuit, she was then thrown out on the street like a dog.

A passerby found Shapiro on the sidewalk outside the jail and called 911. After spending a day in the hospital to treat her injuries, she left, went to a friend, borrowed 30,000 and posted bond for her son.

She described the incident which left her in the hospital and suffering from PTSD.

They came in screaming…The first guy was big. And the guy behind him, I see that guy coming at me. I thought he had a gun. I thought he was going to shoot me. But it was a taser…I’m thinking ‘Oh my God,’…It seemed liked everything was in slow motion. It felt like so long before they actually came toward me . . . He slams me against the back wall, my head really cracks against this wall. I see the red flash from the taser and he jams it into the ribs on my right side. Actually breaks my rib.

DOC employees witnessed the attack but waited 80 minutes to call police. As a result, the attackers were not pursued or apprehended. But it’s what happened after the attack which led Shapiro and her attorney to file a lawsuit. DOC officials, although they were requested to participate in an interview with detectives, refused to do so. The DOC would not allow them to be interviewed.

Gerard Bilotto, Shapiro’s lawyer, alleges the attackers had help from the jail’s workers.

“There’a major cover-up going on here…I think they were setting her up. Nobody’s been arrested at all. And trying to get any information from these people is just impossible. They won’t give you any. Nothing,” he said.

He said he had to fight “tooth and nail” to get any video footage from the incident and said he only received 15 minutes of inconsequential footage, even though he and detectives had already watched the attack on the DOC’s surveillance system at police headquarters.

For their part, the DOC claims Shapiro’s accusations are baseless and without any real merit. But taken as a whole, something does appear amiss.

How does a good citizen get robbed inside a jail, in front of other jail workers, and when it came time to act as witnesses, not one jail worker had anything to contribute to solving her crime? Going further, why would the DOC not be in full cooperation of the subsequent investigation? It all seems strange. Something smells fishy, and it isn’t the sewer running under the streets. It’s the filth coming from the DOC.

Free Thought Project