It sounds like it may be time for attorney Richard Bernstein to summon the cavalry from 1-800-Call-Sam.
Bernstein, who is blind and remains hospitalized in Manhattan since a speeding bicyclist ran into him on Aug. 13 while walking in Central Park, tells the Oakland Press that a New York City lawyer called to harass and bully him over his lawsuit. The suit demands that the city make the park safer for people with disabilities. Bernstein suffered a broken femur and other injuries in the collision.
Bernstein did not sue the cyclist who was going 35 mph when he collided with Bernstein.
But he did file a suit last month in federal court against the city, demanding that it take steps to make it safe for blind and disabled people to move about the park. He is handling the case himself. He identified the New York City lawyer as Mary O'Sullivan.
The Oakland Press wrote:
O’Sullivan told Bernstein in a call to his room at Mt. Sinai Medical Center Hospital that “there will be no meeting, no discussion or facilitation” to make the park safe for those with disabilities, he said.
“Mr. Bernstein, I just wanted to tell you there will be no meetings, no discussion, no chance of facilitation or any type of negotiation as it pertains to this case,” Bernstein said, quoting O’Sullivan from a 20-minute telephone conversation.
However, Gabriel Taussig, chief of the New York Law Department, disagreed with Bernstein’s comments inferring bullying or an unwillingness to discuss the case.
On his Facebook page he wrote late last month:
This past Monday marked my 6th week at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York. Although I am eternally grateful to everyone here, I would love to have the simple pleasure of being outside so I too can enjoy the first few days of autumn. However, I am extremely grateful that Congressman Hansen Clarke has decided he too can no longer sit on the sidelines and has therefore written his own letter to Mayor Bloomberg asking for a response and change. And yet despite this letter, a federal lawsuit, multiple news stories, and numerous calls and letters sent by you, there has been no response from Mayor Bloomberg. This is deeply upsetting and concerning as all we are requesting is to make Central Park, and consequently all parks, safer so that something good can come out of something so horrific.
