The Legal Aid Society is demanding an immediate investigation into a series of deaths of New Yorkers held in police custody, including the recent death of client Christopher Nieves inside a courthouse holding cell.

On August 29, 2025, Mr. Nieves, 46, was arrested for allegedly shoplifting food. While awaiting arraignment at Kings County Criminal Court, he was visibly in medical distress. His Legal Aid attorney observed him repeatedly collapse on the floor and noted his yellowed skin and bandaged foot. Both Mr. Nieves and his attorney urgently requested that New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers take him to a hospital. Despite these pleas, he was never transported for medical care. He died in custody hours later. 

This tragedy follows the deaths of Soso Ramishvili, a 43-year-old man, Saniyah Cheatham, and Musa Cetin, all of whom also died while detained by NYPD this year. In total, at least five New Yorkers have died in NYPD custody in 2025, three of them inside local courthouses waiting to be arraigned on low-level charges. 

“The fact that New Yorkers are dying while in the NYPD’s custody, and detained at state courthouses on low-level charges, is unconscionable,” said Meghna Philip, Director of the Special Litigation Unit in Legal Aid’s Criminal Defense Practice.

The Legal Aid Society is demanding:

• Collaboration with the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) to independently investigate every death in NYPD custody;

• Adoption of a policy of automatic investigation into all NYPD custody deaths, and publicly release urgent preliminary findings as well as a full report, similar to the Board of Correction’s independent reviews of Department of Correction fatalities; and

• Examination of NYPD’s unlawful arrest practices, including widespread violations of CPL § 150.20, which requires appearance tickets for most low-level offenses rather than processing New Yorkers through the system. 

“The NYPD’s so-called ‘quality of life’ policing is targeting vulnerable New Yorkers for petty offenses and literally costing lives,” Philip continued. “NYPD’s systemic failures, lack of transparency, and ongoing unlawful detention practices are unacceptable. These deaths demand urgent, independent investigation and structural reform.”