Seizure Caused Layleen Polanco's Death On Rikers Island: City

NEW YORK — An epileptic seizure caused Layleen Polanco's death in a Rikers Island jail cell last month, New York City's medical examiner said Tuesday. The 27-year-old transgender detainee died of "sudden unexplained death in epilepsy" caused by an underlying genetic condition, the Office of Chief Medical Examiner concluded nearly two months after her death.

Polanco was found dead in her cell at the Rose M. Singer Center, Rikers's women's jail, on the afternoon of June 7. She had been locked up for nearly three months while awaiting trial on assault and drug charges.

Her death came on the ninth day of what was supposed to be a 20-day stint in a solitary confinement unit in which she spent most of the day in her cell, THE CITY has reported. The autopsy showed "indifference and neglect" led to her death, a lawyer for Polanco's family told the news website.

"Clearly, she should never have been alone unmonitored in segregation and the fact that a doctor signed off on this is shocking," the lawyer, David Shanies, told THE CITY.

Polanco's death sparked mourning in the city's LGBTQ community at the height of Pride Month along with calls for the city to end the use of solitary confinement on Rikers Island.

Jail medical staff cleared Polanco for solitary confinement even though city officials knew she suffered from seizures and she had been to a hospital during her time behind bars, according to THE CITY.

"Layleen Polanco’s death is an absolute tragedy, and her passing further underscores the dangers of solitary confinement, which isolates already medically fragile people from observation and care," said Tina Luongo, the attorney-in-charge of the Criminal Defense Practice at the Legal Aid Society, which represented Polanco in court.

The Department of Correction said it is cooperating with a broader probe of Polanco's death conducted by the Bronx District Attorney's Office and the Department of Investigation.

The department says it no longer uses solitary confinement, which it defines as detainees being kept in their cells 23 hours a day. Polanco was in what the DOC calls a "restrictive housing unit" where inmates can spend as many as seven hours a day on therapy and recreation but are still locked up for most of the day.

"We hope that the OCME’s determination helps provide answers that Layleen’s family, friends, and the city deserves," Peter Thorne, the DOC's deputy commissioner for public information, said in a statement.

Polanco was a member of the House of Xtravaganza, a well known community in the city's LGBT ballroom scene. Its members have been featured in the ballroom documentary "Paris is Burning" and the television series "Pose." A GoFundMe page raised more than $13,000 to help cover her family's expenses.