New York City reaches $5.9 million settlement in death of transgender woman who couldn’t pay $500 bail
The City of New York has reached a settlement with the family of Layleen Cubilette-Polanco for $5.9 million following her June 2019 death while in custody on Rikers Island.
The transgender woman was arrested in April 2019 and sent to the jail complex because she could not afford $500 bail, her family previously told CNN. She was found unresponsive in her cell on June 7, 2019, and later pronounced dead.
Civil rights groups say Polanco’s death represents a web of factors that can trap people of color in the justice system — especially transgender women of color — with devastating outcomes.
Her death also renewed conversation about the perils of cash bail and pretrial detention, raising questions about whether New York’s recent bail reform laws could have saved her.
The settlement was first reported by The City. The family lawyer, David Shanies, confirmed it to CNN on Monday.
“The family feels that this is a fair and appropriate settlement under the circumstances,” Shanies said. “Obviously, they want nothing more than to have their daughter and sister back.”
City calls her death ‘an absolute tragedy’
Polanco was arrested on misdemeanor charges of assault and harassment, court records show. She was taken into custody because she missed court dates as part of an alternative to incarceration program stemming from prostitution charges, court records indicate.
“The death of Ms. Polanco was an absolute tragedy and our thoughts remain with her family and loved ones,” the City Law Department said in a statement Monday. “The city will continue to do everything it can to make reforms towards a correction system that is fundamentally safer, fairer, and more humane.”
An autopsy found that Polanco died of complications from epilepsy.
Her family says the decision to place her in solitary confinement, despite knowing she had epilepsy, contributed to her death, Shanies said last year.
New York now has a bail reform law
New York state passed bail reform legislation in April 2019 that ends cash bail for most misdemeanor and nonviolent felonies.
Had Polanco been arrested after January 2020, when the new measures took effect, she would not have been held on bail.
“Polanco was caught at the intersections of terrible criminal legal policies, and this systemic violence led to her death,” Audacia Ray with the New York City Anti-Violence Project said last year.
