Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg criticized for softness in assault on New York nurse

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has come under fire yet again, this time for his apparently casual handling of a brutal attack on a nurse at a Harlem hospital, The Post has learned.

According to sources and police records, the brutal attack was among a series of attacks on medical workers at the same hospital in Mount Sinai that took place over the course of several days.

Valentino Tablang, 55, a registered nurse at Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital, was so severely beaten by a mentally ill patient on February 7 that he told The Post he feared being blinded.

However, Bragg’s office only filed a misdemeanor charge of slapping the wrist, despite state law that mandates workplace rape against medical professionals.

“The assault was serious enough, but then I was even more upset when I saw that the district attorney only charged her with third-degree assault, which is a misdemeanor,” Tablang told The Post this week.

“This is crazy,” he added. “I am extremely disappointed.”

Tablang, a nurse since 1988, was working 9-6 in the emergency room when a frustrated patient got out of bed naked at the last hour, he recalls.

“I went to the ward to see what kind of patient it was so I could call her doctor,” he said. “When I tried to look at her identification bracelet, she turned around and hit [me] in my head.

“I was in shock,” Tablang added. “It was so sudden – I started seeing lights.”

The medical worker was left covered in blood and said that he had been hit in the eye so badly: “I was afraid that I would go blind, I would have double vision.”

Police arrested Nyxia Martin, 28, and charged her with assault in connection with the violent incident, but when prosecutors sent Tablang a criminal complaint for his signature, the charges were reduced.

Under New York State criminal law, a suspect is considered guilty of a felony if he assaults a police officer, peace officer, registered nurse, licensed practical nurse, or “public health nurse.”

The law was expanded in 2016 to include other healthcare workers – the state Senate approved the amendment with a landslide majority of 60 to 3.

But the demented patient who allegedly assaulted Tablang was only charged with misdemeanor assault and attempted assault, as well as harassment, violations, according to the criminal complaint.

“When the DA sent me a copy of the complaint, I said I would not sign it because she was about to be charged with a felony,” Tablang said.

“What good is a law if it has no teeth?” added the veteran nurse. “We are trying to help people and the law was written to protect us. The District Attorney must protect healthcare workers.”

Tablang said he was told by prosecutors that they had too much support to file a felony case.

He said the district attorney’s office contacted him Thursday “just to follow up” on the case – hours after The Post asked prosecutors for comment on the case.

“I think we talked a couple of weeks ago [regarding] client documents that I sent you for review and signing in relation to the assault incident of which you were the victim, ”the message says. “I just sent me [sic] those documents.

“Please call us back if you have any issues or concerns.”

Peggy Desiderio, co-chair of negotiation at the New York State Nurses Association, called Bragg’s office, saying, “He’s been selected to do the job. [and] apply the law.

“Nurses are a powerful electoral bloc. He better start protecting us,” Desiderio said on Thursday. “During COVID everyone was hitting pots and pans for us, now healthcare workers have to worry about getting hit with pots and pans while DA Bragg does nothing.”

Police records show there were two more attacks on Mount Sinai Morningside medical workers this month, including a 61-year-old staff member who was punched in the face on February 4 by a patient he was escorting out of a medical facility.

In this case, the police only charged the suspect with petty assault.

On Feb. 9, a rookie nurse was injured when a patient slammed a door on her arm, but according to sources and the NYPD, the victim did not file criminal charges against her assailant.

In another incident in October, sources said the technician had been attacked, but said there was no crime because police officers who arrived at the hospital told him there were no visible bruises. It is not clear what the attack was or whether charges have been filed in the case.

A spokesman for Bragg’s office said in an email Thursday that the district attorney’s office “repeatedly used this criminal law” last year alone “in incidents where hospital workers were assaulted,” citing four specific cases.

“The safety of the nurses and healthcare workers who save the lives of New Yorkers every day is of the utmost importance to us,” the spokesperson said.

“Our initial charging decision and full protection order [in the case against Martin] take into account the person’s basic mental health needs that brought them to the hospital, while balancing the seriousness of her behavior with the safety of the hospital staff.”

At least one state legislator said the district attorney’s office should know better.

“Of all our government officials, the district attorney must first and foremost enforce the law,” Sen. Andrew Lanza, a former Manhattan prosecutor from Staten Island, said Thursday.

“We need to protect healthcare workers who provide direct care to those in need,” Lanza said. “Failure to comply with this law, when applicable, dangerously ignores this important principle.”

Desiderio of the State Nurses Association added: “These nurses are literally risking their lives…they don’t have to look over their shoulders while they work and fear for their lives.

“They need to be protected,” she said. “That’s why the law was changed and the district attorney was elected to enforce the law and protect the victims.”

Additional reportingbat Craig McCarthy, Zach Williams and Elizabeth Rosner