Tarloff Not Getting Proper Care at Rikers, Lawyer Says
By Sarah Portlock, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.
Mar. 26–The man accused of killing an Upper East Side therapist with a meat cleaver is not receiving his medication properly or getting appropriate medical care at the Rikers Island jail, his lawyer said Tuesday.
Bryan Konoski, the court-appointed attorney for David Tarloff, 40, said his client was moved from Bellevue Hospital Center to protective custody on Rikers Island on March 14.
Tarloff was arrested Feb. 16 in the slaying of Dr. Kathryn Faughey, 56, in her office on East 79th Street. He initially was placed at Bellevue for psychiatric observation.
“We’re extremely unhappy with the way the hospital suddenly released David Tarloff into the custody of Rikers Island, and we’re currently investigating whether or not we have any recourse,” Konoski said Tuesday.
“It is my understanding that he hasn’t been given his proper medicine and, at times, has not been given medication at all,” Konoski said. “He was getting better medical care at Bellevue Hospital.”
A spokeswoman for Bellevue declined to comment, citing privacy laws of patients. Similarly, a spokeswoman for the city Department of Health, which oversees jail inmates’ health, would not comment.
A spokeswoman for prosecutors declined to comment on the case.
Konoski said that moving Tarloff from Bellevue to Rikers also has interfered with preparing his defense and hampered a psychiatric exam that Konoski needs to determine if his client is fit to stand trial.
In February, two psychiatrists at Bellevue found Tarloff fit in their evaluations.
When police arrested Tarloff, they said finger and palm prints matched those at the bloody scene where Faughey, 56, was slashed and another psychiatrist, Dr. Kent Shinbach, 70, was attacked and robbed.
Police have said Tarloff, a former patient of Shinbach, told investigators that he intended to rob Shinbach, not harm Faughey.
On Feb. 22, a grand jury indicted Tarloff, of Corona, on charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault and first-degree attempted robbery. The first-degree murder charge carries a sentence of life in prison without parole.
Konoski said he expects Tarloff to enter a not guilty plea at his arraignment in state Supreme Court in Manhattan. That arraignment, which was scheduled Tuesday, has been postponed until April 1.
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