A New York judge says a former Rikers Island prisoner can seek damages because he allegedly contracted cancer from second-hand smoke at the jail.
Raymond "Spanish Raymond" Marquez, 75, is seeking $15 million in a lawsuit in which he claims smoking by others at the New York jail caused him to get bladder cancer, the New York Daily News reported Friday. Marquez was in the jail from 1998-2001 while awaiting trial on gambling charges. He was eventually acquitted.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman Thursday ruled the suit could continue. A city attorney expressed disappointment at the ruling, the Daily News said.
Marquez was diagnosed with bladder cancer in September 2000, about 2 1/2 years before officials banned smoking at the Rikers Island jail.
David Marquez, Raymond Marquez' son who is acting as his attorney, told the Daily News, "How does the city even have the audacity to argue against this case when after I filed suit they banned smoking at Rikers?"
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