Former Harlem Assemblyman Keith Wright was wronged, according to his $10 million lawsuit against the city.
He claims he was “mentally devastated” after being “falsely” arrested last year for leaving the scene of an accident, and threatened while spending a day in jail.
“My arrest and incarcerations embarrassed and humiliated me to such a degree, that I was grossly ashamed and depressed,” he says in the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.
Wright, 66, was arrested Sept. 16 for allegedly leaving the scene after hitting an e-bike rider with his car door at 138th Street and 5th Avenue in Harlem. Charges were dropped in November.
The Manhattan Democratic Party boss denied wrongdoing, saying he spent more than 40 minutes at the scene with the injured rider after the Aug. 26 accident, which unfolded just before 9 p.m.
The e-bike rider was speeding, had no headlamp or flashing lights, didn’t call 911 himself and refused help at the scene, Wright said in court papers filed against the city and NYPD Detective Lamont Deadrick, who arrested him.
Wright claims he feared for his life while locked up for more than 24 hours in a cell at Manhattan Criminal Court, where he endured “threats of physical violence by other incarcerated individuals” and “high levels of humiliation.”
Other inmates “started calling him ‘Pops,’ ‘old man,’ ‘grandpa,’ and were trying to intimidate him. That’s frightening,” Wright’s lawyer, Kenneth Ramseur, told The Post. “And of course, not to mention how filthy it was.” He was “so mentally devastated and embarrassed by his arrest that he was somewhat dysfunctional,” court papers claim.
The attorney questioned why Wright wasn’t simply given a desk appearance ticket. “He could have come to court on another date” instead of being held in the lockup, Ramseur said.
Wright faced criticism in 2019 for serving as a party leader while also working as a lobbyist. Wright is the government relations group director of high-powered firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron. Wright left the Assembly in 2016 after an unsuccessful bid to succeed Rep. Charlie Rangel.
In 2014, Wright tried to intervene when his then-chief of staff, Jeanine R. Johnson, was charged with reckless driving and driving while intoxicated, sending a letter to the judge overseeing her case. Johnson later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and in 2018 ran unopposed for a Manhattan judgeship — a move Wright, as party leader, greenlit.
Wright wants a court to let him file a late notice of claim in his lawsuit, saying he didn’t immediately sue because of emotional problems sparked by his brush with the criminal justice system.
“I felt I had failed my community, my family, my constituents and my neighbors. … Whenever I discussed my arrest and inca099rceration, I had difficulty sleeping, eating and concentrating on matters of importance. This shame and depression took over my life and still affects me,” he said in legal papers.
Deadrick, the detective, declined comment.